Aborted America
By
STAR PARKER
Founder & PRESIDENT
COALITION ON URBAN RENEWAL & EDUCATION
What's the difference
between art and politics?
The question occurred
to me as I left the theater after seeing the surprising new hit film
"Juno."
With presidential
politics taking an unfortunately predictable turn in the direction
of the gutter, I took a break from it all and went to the movies.
I don't spend much
time going to films, but "Juno" seduced me because of its accolades
and because of the subject matter. It's about teen pregnancy, the
abortion option considered and rejected, and adoption.
Most of what appears
in our theaters is anything but art, which is one reason why I spend
so little time going. But "Juno" is different. It's a powerful film,
despite being made on a low budget and having no big name stars. And
it conveys important truths about realities of the American society
we live in today.
But to digress to my
opening question, I think the difference between the artist and the
politician is that the former communicates and the latter
manipulates. The artist's communication aims to make a reality which
we share clearer and more evident. The politician's communication
aims to get me to do what he or she wants.
There is excitement
in the "pro-life" community about "Juno," because the 16-year-old
high school girl in the film, Juno, decides against abortion and
gives birth to her child -- the product of a sexual escapade with a
high school friend.
It's a pro-life film,
but by default, not by intent. I do not believe that the producers
or the young woman who wrote the screenplay had any political
agenda.
Yet, life triumphs.
And it triumphs under dismal circumstances which reflect,
tragically, all too common and unattractive truths which define our
society today.
Listening to the
film's dialogue, you can't help but feel that it doesn't fit a
16-year-old girl. It's too mature and too cynical.
It reflects a
teenager who has grown up too fast because life's complexities and
responsibilities have been prematurely dumped on her. She lives in a
society populated by adults who have turned their backs on
responsibilities that once defined what it means to be an adult.
The idea that wisdom
exists assumes that there is something true. If you believe such a
thing, so it's something that distinguishes adults from children.
Adults have it, having received it from their parents and teachers,
and children don't, but receive it through something called
education.
With the successful
politicization of America, wisdom is gone, truth is relative and
private, and children have been left to their own resources.
Sixteen-year-olds decide what sex is about, when and how to do it,
and how to handle the consequences -- the emotional entanglements,
the diseases, and, all too often, pregnancies.
Seventy-five percent
of American children today have had sex before their 20th birthday.
Forty years ago it was more like 25 percent.
Thirty-seven percent
of babies born in our country today are born to unwed mothers. Forty
years ago it was more like 5 percent.
And well over a
million babies will be aborted in this country this year, about 19
percent of which will be teen pregnancies.
The beauty of "Juno"
is that the film shows there are some things you can't kill. That
despite being alone in a world without wisdom, where love in an
adult sense is practically extinct, and where life has no point
beyond personal gratification, a 16-year-old girl can discover there
is something wrong and do something about it.
Senators Clinton and
Obama are having at it now about the question of race. Did Clinton
demean Dr. King? Does Obama not appreciate that it took the
political experience of Lyndon Johnson to get the Civil Rights Act
passed?
The irony of it all
is that whoever prevails as the candidate of the Democrats will get
90 percent of black votes.
Why, almost a half
century after the Civil Rights Act, does black poverty persist at
twice the national average? Why are black unwed births and
fatherless homes triple what they were in 1964? Why is AIDS
disproportionately today a black disease? Why do black women account
for one-third of all abortions?
The unfortunate
lesson that blacks walked away with in 1964 was that they should
start listening to politicians rather than preachers. They bought
into the new American world without wisdom.
Now blacks will vote
for a candidate, maybe a white woman, maybe a black man, both who
opposed the Supreme Court's decision against partial birth abortion
and both who think life's problems should and can be solved in
Washington.
To recall the refrain
of a popular song of the '60s, "When will they ever learn?"
---------------------------------
Star Parker is president of the
Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education and author of the new book
White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.
Prior to her involvement in social
activism, Star Parker was a single welfare mother in Los Angeles,
California. After receiving Christ, Star returned to college,
received a BS degree in marketing and launched an urban Christian
magazine. The 1992 Los Angeles riots destroyed her business, yet
served as a springboard for her focus on faith and market-based
alternatives to empower the lives of the poor.
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