Dr. George R. Tiller and the Truth About America in Wichita, Kansas

David Bartsrow of the New York Times has written a stirring account of the life and guts of a leader in civil rights for women’s rights. No one is immune from the prosecution for the unjustified slaying of an advocate for women’s rights as individual citizens. The cold blooded, calculated destruction of a life is an indictment of our way of life.

For thirty years the militants, like any fanatics have waged a crusade against a person who fulfilled a promise to restorative justice for the rights and privileges of a persecuted minority of our people. Whether you agree with the tactics of the militants or the practices of Dr. Tiller is not the issue America faces.

What we face is a hard, brutal reality, that violence is condoned as it was in the Crusades against anyone who lived in the path of the destructive onslaught? All beings are in the way who opposes the violence and all those who perpetrated the violence are responsible. Dr. Tiller was brutally murdered in the same way that Harris and Klebold assaulted innocent victims of what has been described as terrorism. The question which arises here is when and if it is possible for this opportunistic violence to end? Does America want to find solutions to problems or simply disregard the sanctity of human life and live in hatred of anyone or anything that is different?

Witchita, like any place of terror has become a symbol of violence. No one has benefitted from the slaying and no one is without blood on their hands. We have each tortured and corrupted the values of the innocent. We have each created a place which is unsafe and immoral.

What we are called to accomplish here to change the climate of hatred is to have an eternal moratorium of violence both within our hearts and in our interactions with every being on earth. We must live in peace as citizens of the earth without prejudice and malice or perish. This reality is the only way in which we can restore the transcendent worth of life. We can never raise our voices, or act with ruthless carelessness again. Dr. Tiller is a symbol of courage and conviction and he must be valued and raised to a place of honor as a citizen of freedom and inalienable rights of those who protect the oppressed.

We must never forget that there are people in our world who are models to emulate in their choice to act for human worth, dignity and the preservation of the spirit.