Editorial: Senator Obama's Acceptance Speech, Well Delivered but Short of the Mark

What was woefully absent from Senator Obama's rhetoric was the first right, the right to life. Without that right, the entire structure of human rights is placed at risk.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - Onto an impeccably designed backdrop set against the image of a beautiful dusk descending on Denver, with the crisp cool air invigorating a crowd of over 75,000 cheering supporters waving blue signs emblazoned with the theme of his campaign "Change", stepped an impeccably dressed Senator Barack Obama, ready to make history. And, he succeeded.

On the day on which we as a Nation commemorated the 45th anniversary of the extraordinary speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., affectionately referred to as the "I have a Dream Speech", which was given against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial, our first African American Candidate for President, Barack Obama, helped to bring that dream a little closer to fulfillment with these words: "...with profound gratitude and great humility, I accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States."

All week the pundits have insisted that the bar had been set very high and that this gifted orator would have to give the finest speech of his career to live up to the expectations. I must say, even as one who cannot and will not vote for him, he did just that. For 42 minutes Senator Barack Obama gave a speech displaying his characteristically inspiring rhetorical skill, but with something more, the most specific proposals he has offered to the American public throughout this campaign. He also showed a feisty side. He is ceding no ground to his opponent and is willing to tangle on every front with Senator John McCain.

The candidate of the Democratic Party touched the chords which can move men like me. He sounded a populist concern for the working people of this Nation whose decency frames the picture of a free people. He used the language of solidarity and warned of the dangers of an approach to the market economy which can devolve into putting profits over persons. He spoke of the promise of America "that says each of us has the freedom to make of our own lives what we will, but that we also have the obligation to treat each other with dignity and respect". He even set forth the beginnings of a philosophy of governance. He attempted to specify what kinds of changes he intends to bring in tax policy, economic policy, energy policy, and health care policy. No-one could say that this speech was short on specifics. Finally, he pointed out his opposition to the initial incursion into Iraq (which I shared with him at the time) and promised to end the war "responsibly".

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His speech echoed many of the themes which early on attracted me to the candidacy of Governor Mike Huckabee, who is himself a populist with a concern for the poor and the hurting. However, as much as I wish I could join in the celebrating, as much as I wanted to believe the promises, and give over my emotion to the soaring rhetoric, I could not do so. I am actually more determined than ever to keep this candidate out of the White House. If I and others like me are unsuccessful, I will do everything I can to help him, as President, to see the glaring contradiction in his lofty and inspiring rhetoric. What is that inconsistency? Perhaps it is best summed up in his continual references to being our "brother and sisters keepers". He said tonight: "That's the promise of America - the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper."

A truly great leader,the late Servant of God John Paul II also spoke in Mile High Stadium to a massive crowd of 90,000 young men and women in 1993 on the occasion of the 8th World Youth day. He too sounded the theme of solidarity with the poor. It is, after all, at the heart of Catholic Social teaching. However, in his comments throughout all the years of his public ministry on this subject he always began with the foundation which was woefully absent from Senator Obama's rhetoric. That is the first right, the right to life. Without that right, the entire structure of human rights is placed at risk. In one of his many wonderful writings, an encyclical letter entitled "The Gospel of Life" he wrote, "The process which once led to discovering the idea of "human rights"-rights inherent in every person and prior to any Constitution and State legislation- is today marked by a surprising contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable rights of the person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly affirmed, the very right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the moment of death."

Senator Barack Obama displays that "surprising contradiction". He leaves an entire class of persons out of his vision for America,our littlest neighbors, the girls and boys living in the first home of the whole human race. He supports an approach to those whom Mother Teresa lovingly called the "poorest of the poor" which betrays his claims of concern. His policy is to place the Police Power of the State behind protecting the right of people to reach into that first home, the sanctuary of life, and kill them, for any reason and without any consequence. Oh, I know, people like Doug Kmiec and those who have been persuaded by the masterful oratory of this candidate, will once again accuse me of being "single issue" oriented. They will say that, after all, he mentioned Abortion in this speech. He did, in this one line, "We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country." First of all, what does that even mean? And, more to the point, he has made his unequivocal support of keeping abortion unrestricted very clear. He has promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act as soon as he is in office. So much for solidarity.

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John Paul II also wrote these insightful words in that same encyclical letter: "Yes, every man is his "brother's keeper", because God entrusts us to one another. And it is also in view of this entrusting that God gives everyone freedom, a freedom which possesses an inherently relational dimension. This is a great gift of the Creator, placed as it is at the service of the person and of his fulfillment through the gift of self and openness to others; but when freedom is made absolute in an individualistic way, it is emptied of its original content, and its very meaning and dignity are contradicted. There is an even more profound aspect which needs to be emphasized: freedom negates and destroys itself, and becomes a factor leading to the destruction of others, when it no longer recognizes and respects its essential link with the truth. When freedom, out of a desire to emancipate itself from all forms of tradition and authority, shuts out even the most obvious evidence of an objective and universal truth, which is the foundation of personal and social life, then the person ends up by no longer taking as the sole and indisputable point of reference for his own choices the truth about good and evil, but only his subjective and changeable opinion or, indeed, his selfish interest and whim.

"This view of freedom leads to a serious distortion of life in society. If the promotion of the self is understood in terms of absolute autonomy, people inevitably reach the point of rejecting one another. Everyone else is considered an enemy from whom one has to defend oneself. Thus society becomes a mass of individuals placed side by side, but without any mutual bonds. Each one wishes to assert himself, independently of the other, and in fact intends to make his own interests prevail. Still, in the face of other people's analogous interests, some kind of compromise must be found, if one wants a society in which the maximum possible freedom is guaranteed to each individual. In this way, any reference to common values and to a truth absolutely binding on everyone is lost, and social life ventures on to the shifting sands of complete relativism. At that point, everything is negotiable, everything is open to bargaining: even the first of the fundamental rights, the right to life.

"This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people-even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the "right" ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. The State is no longer the "common home" where all can live together on the basis of principles of fundamental equality, but is transformed into a tyrant State, which arrogates to itself the right to dispose of the life of the weakest and most defenseless members, from the unborn child to the elderly, in the name of a public interest which is really nothing but the interest of one part.

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"The appearance of the strictest respect for legality is maintained, at least when the laws permitting abortion and euthanasia are the result of a ballot in accordance with what are generally seen as the rules of democracy. Really, what we have here is only the tragic caricature of legality; the democratic ideal, which is only truly such when it acknowledges and safeguards the dignity of every human person, is betrayed in its very foundations: "How is it still possible to speak of the dignity of every human person when the killing of the weakest and most innocent is permitted? In the name of what justice is the most unjust of discriminations practiced: some individuals are held to be deserving of defense and others are denied that dignity?" When this happens, the process leading to the breakdown of a genuinely human co-existence and the disintegration of the State itself has already begun. To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of an absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom"

This was a brilliantly delivered acceptance speech. This was an historic night. However, no matter how many times those who preceded the Senator tried to compare him to another Senator from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln. No matter how hard his handlers tried to make the set resemble the Lincoln Memorial, there is no way the comparisons worked. Lincoln, at least as he grew in office, began to see the full truth of the evil of slavery. He came to realize that it is always and everywhere wrong to treat any human person as property to be used rather than a gift to be received. Senator Obama has a built in, glaring inconsistency to his claims of compassion for the poor and his calls to solidarity with them. He has left out an entire class of persons in our own time. The ones whom science clearly demonstrates and the Natural Law confirms are members of our human family, the children living in the womb. There can be no true solidarity until their cry is heard, they are protected and defended against efforts to kill them and they, and their mothers are helped and welcomed.

I will not vote for anyone who fails to recognize who they really are, our first neighbors. I cannot support a candidate for President who refuses to make a place within our National family for them. Senator Obama may have hoped that by adding Joe Biden to the ticket, he could alleviate his growing 'Catholic problem'. He has exacerbated it. Senator Biden is a gifted public servant, an admirable husband, father and grandfather, but he is a man who dissents from the teaching of his Church on the truth concerning the inviolable dignity of every human life. Ironically, his choice as a running mate will actually drive many Catholics away.

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You see, no matter how hard our opponents try they cannot succeed in their argument that our position on the dignity of every life is a 'single issue".In fact, our insistence upon the right to life from conception throughout all of life and until natural death is the only basis for true solidarity and the only real foundation for an authentic and responsible freedom.Because every human person has dignity and should be respected, the market economy must be at the service of the person, the family and the common good. Because every single human person has dignity, we should not engage in pre-emptive wars. Because every single human person has dignity, we should be concerned for those who are the poor in our midst. This is the entire foundation for even understanding solidarity, it is social charity. That charity, that love, that care and concern, must also include children in the womb.They are also our brothers and sisters. And, Senator Obama, we must be their keepers.

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