Shifting Views on Each Other's Free Will Expression
for September 13, 2024
The recent US election debate shows us some interesting facts. The event was watched, by estimates of the TV Carriers, by 60+ million viewers, four [4] times as many as watched Monday Night Football the night before. It was immediately commented on by viewers, many disagreeing with people paid to do such commenting by "major media". Viewers fact checked what the debate sponsors did not. This event was seen worldwide.
One of the issues raised by the sponsors was an evolving issue that's been under consideration for longer than this writer has been incarnated this time. The debaters expressed greatly diverging viewpoints on the issue. One looking back to the past, the other to the future.
Let's first look at the issue.
The controversy on abortion is complex. It is about respecting our rights to make our own choices. The main concern at the time of Roe v. Wade [Jan. 1973] was the illegality, the criminality, the criminalization of abortion and the criminalizing of people. Women were dying. Women were also being permanently injured by unsafe procedures. This writer has closely observed this as a result of her research work at the Dept. of Reproductive Biology at the University of Pennsylvania. Women became infertile and suffered hormonal imbalances much more commonly after complicated abortions that after a carefully executed procedure in a regulated facility. Those working in areas directly connected with reproduction were relieved by the Roe v. Wade decision.
However, there were concerns.
This was a top down decision. The central power was deciding for all. Individual rights could be trampled on. And they were. People who would not kill insects were now expected to kill developing humans. Free will was ignored for some in the name of protecting it for others. Societal emphasis was on providing abortions rather than on acting responsibly.
The recent Supreme Court decision in 2022 has removed the matter from the central authority and returned the decision making to the states. We need to go further and return it to the individuals and their families.
The decisions of individuals affect all. However, they must still be made by the individuals concerned. That is the way we operate. Collective policy grows out of individual choices. Decision making is bottom up, not top down. Childbearing is not just an individual decision. It is a group action. All the individuals involved must agree to do their part.
When a soul decides to incarnate, i.e., take on a body, it works with others to plan the incarnation. Family relationships and other associations are chosen. The body is designed to enable the objectives to be met. The possibilities of other conditions are determined. The chosen parents agree to their roles. They then come together to create the vehicle for the new human.
We each have our own unique wish for experience. Sometimes the experience desired by the soul is only as a fetus. Maybe the experience required is to learn what it feels like to lose a fetus or a newborn so this occurs. Perhaps the experience of ending a pregnancy is what is to be experienced.
People have responsibility for the decisions of others only if directly involved in the matter. We may be involved in other aspects, such as having our own experience. One may be to respect the rights of others, such as our right (and therefore that of others) to make our own decisions.
Our rights are related to our responsibilities. Rights enable us to be responsible. Our views on our rights may shift with the way we see our responsibilities.
The recent US election debate shows a growing collective consciousness among humans. The internet facilitates the exchange of observations, ideas, opinions and facts. It is improving our ability to expand our thinking and knowledge base. Furthermore, it is an aid in helping us to heal the traumatic experiences of our collective past.
It shows us that sharing on a regular basis exponentially increases our opportunities for cooperation, respect and goodwill. We can better see the folly of acting from selfish motives.
That we each and all affect each other becomes more and more obvious as we see that we have much in common. We are one in origin and nature.
Do we choose to embrace what we share in service to others or do we decide to go our separate way thinking only of self?
Our choice.