Re: Life Duty Death

Julie Locascio (julie.cpc@mhs.unc.edu)
Thu, 7 Sep 1995 13:08:29

>If we keep producing offspring just because we *can*, we will truly have
>given up hope. You say to look through a child's eyes... Fine. EXPLAIN to
>the sixth, or eighth child WHY there is nothing for dinner tonight!

If you had read my posting carefully, you would remember that I had said to
the man who did not want to have children and was ready to give up on the
human race to ADOPT an orphan and THEN look at the world through the child's
eyes. If he had a child to care for, he would not be so ready to give up hope
for future generations.

Share
>the joy of the little girl picking through the rubbish to find things to
>eat JUST LIKE HER MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER DID!

I have lived in Mexico and Brazil and have come to learn something that
perhaps has escaped you--most people in the world do not expect joy in their
lives, they only know the struggle for survival. When they have joy, it is a
happy and appreciated surprise--they do not consider it a right. People in
the Third World do not think, hmm, I will only have kids if my kids will have
joyful lives. Why not? Because they themselves have not had lives full of
joy--BUT they still feel life is worthwhile. Why? Because they value life
and they know life is a precious gift that should be cherished and preserved,
not belittled as something only valuable when it comes attached to houses with
2-car garages and swimming pools. There is a song in Brazil about how
happiness lasts only a moment, but misery lasts your whole life. Do you think
that person got sterilized after writing the song? I don't think so.

And just like her
>grandchildren will do! Enjoy the childish laughter when a little boy
>finds that he can sell his body for food! IT HAPPENS!

It happens in the U.S., too--sometimes to children who have run away from fine
middle-class and upper-class homes where they were being sexually abused.
Children who were born with all the advantages--except the love, which you so
carelessly dismissed in terms of the Mexicans.

I have nOT given up
>hope. It is my hope that we can get ourselves OUT of this mess!
>Perhaps you should read the book :"The Population Bomb" or any of
>several United Nations reports to see what will happen if attitudes like
>thosue you mention prevail...hmm?

"Several?" Perhaps I have read HUNDREDS more United Nations reports than you
EVER have; perhaps I have also read reports from NGOs around the world, the
World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, academic
researchers, etc., etc.; perhaps I am, in fact, working full-time on
population issues; perhaps, in fact, for every person who believes in the
"Population Bomb" theory there is another who has found indications that
population issues are complex and related to educational levels, economic
opportunities, environmental constraints and other factors to which you are
apparently oblivious.

Look at the rainforests. dying because of clearcutting to make room for
>crops to feed burgeoning populations.

Look at the rainforests? Funny you should mention that since I happen to be
getting paid right now to do research on that very topic for a BOOK! I
will be unable to include your little comment in the book, however, unless I
have a section entitled "simplistic assumptions about the rainforests". The
threat to rainforests is real, and much more complex than you can possibly
imagine. If you really want to understand this issue, you had better broaden
your sources of information--I can give you some suggestions, if you like.

The seas are being overfished to
>feed more and more people.
The world is being buried in wastes. Water is
>becoming foul, air is dirtier. We are RUINING our Earth because there
>are TOO MANY POEPLE>

If you REALLY, TRULY believed that, you would kill yourself because the Earth
is more important to you than individual human life. Apparently you only
believe there are too many OTHER people--people who aren't you, aren't your
great grandfather from Europe, aren't your relative from Germany, aren't your
friends and lovers and employers--remote people in Mexico who have no right to
be born. I still do not understand why you believe YOU had the right to be
born.