BEING SIMPLE ISN’T THE SAME AS BEING STUPID

The little dustup in the House a couple of days ago between Republican congressman Randy Neugebauer and Democrat Bart Stupack served to remind us that some of the people who represent us in Congress are a little slow on the uptake when it comes to critical reasoning. Stupack had said he wasn’t going to jeopardize his place in heaven by supporting a bill that might make abortion possible for someone who can’t afford to pay for it herself. He later negotiated a change in the bill and voted with Democrats. Neugebauer, hearing that Catholic Stupack had decided to go with the President and other Democrats, shouted “baby killer” as Stupack was speaking. First, I wondered what kind of god must Stupack's god be if he/she/it would squish him like a bug and flick him off into hell for his vote one way or the other? Besides this program is not about abortion or gay marriage or gays in the military, it is about finally making reasonable, affordable health care available to Americans who have not until now been able to afford it. In what kind of intellectual vacuum do Stupack and Neugebauer live? Neugebauer’s sophomoric outburst shows him to have limited reasoning ability... or perhaps just limited self control. Anatomy doesn’t have to be a his strong suit for him to know the difference between a fertilized egg and a baby. It was clear to me what I should think about abortion several years ago when I met two young sisters in a county receiving home for girls, one thirteen and the other fifteen who had been impregnated by their father. I was not the appropriate person to try to persuade the girls to get appropriate medical help and to consider abortion, but I was relieved when I learned later that it had happened. If either Neugebauer or Stupack had been in charge of the program, the girls‘ lives would have advanced from grossly complicated to utterly tragic. Neugebauer’s statements about sanctity of life don’t ring true when he is willing, obviously eager, to go on denying health care to millions of our poorest citizens.
The ocean with surf and sea breeze and birds almost always brings me around right. As I walked along the edge of the surf I thought of the old Shaker Hymn and sang it quietly to myself. Being simple isn’t the same as being stupid.

‘Tis the gift to be simple,
‘tis the gift to be free,
‘tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
It will be in the valley of love and delight.

Refrain:

When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed.
To turn, turn will be our delight,
‘Til by turning, turning we come round right.