Friday, January 30 2004
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Friday, January 30 2004 |
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Forty-four wooden crosses By DAVID EPPS Country singer Randy Travis released a hit song that included the words, “There are three wooden crosses on the right side of the highway.” The lyrics go on to tell the story of a bus wreck in which three people were killed and one was spared. Nearly everyone in the South, of course, understands what wooden crosses on the side of the highway means — it means that someone was killed on that very spot in a terrible accident. On a stretch of highway between Columbus and Dothan, Ala., one can count over 100 crosses on the side of the highway. Reader's Digest called this one of “America’s ten most dangerous highways” in an article a few years back. These crosses remind those passing by that a terrible tragedy occurred in that place. It reminds people that violent and brutal death may come suddenly and unexpectedly. It also reminds people to slow down and buckle up so that a similar fate may be avoided by those who see the crosses. Such crosses are rarely erected by governments or agencies but are, in moments of grief and sadness, placed by family members or close friends as memorials to the lives that were lost. On the side of the highway — Ga. Highway 34 to be exact — in Coweta County, on the property of Christ the King Church, there are 44 white wooden crosses. These crosses do not represent 44 people that have been killed in some massive catastrophe that occurred on that busy road between Peachtree City and Newnan. As sad as that would be, the answer is much more terrible. Every day, day after day, in America, 4,400 children are aborted in “clinics.” According to a Web site devoted to the Sept. 11 victims, some 2,996 people perished in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon, and on Flight 93. Easily considered one of the worst tragedies in American history, the fact remains that the loss of life on Sept. 11 was only on one day while 4,400 unborn children have systematically destroyed every single day since January 1973. While some would argue that these children are not human beings at all, the hard facts are that: • A newly conceived child’s heart is beating at 18 days. • The baby’s brain is producing enough brain waves to be read by an EEG at 40 days. • By the eighth week, still in the first trimester, all major organs of the child are complete and begin functioning - only to be refined as the baby grows. • Many babies delivered in the second trimester, even as early as 20 weeks, have survived. As horrible as it is to compare “body counts,” it is interesting to note that: • 58, 655 died in the Vietnam War. • 116,708 died in World War I. • 407,316 died in World War II. • 498,332 died in the Civil War • 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust • But, in the United States alone, over 40 million children have died by abortion since 1973 without having an opportunity to even draw a first breath. Since Jan. 1, 2001 — the beginning of the Third Millennium — in just three years, over 175 million unborn children have been killed worldwide. Each of the 44 crosses on the side of the highway each represent 100 children per day who are denied life. They have been erected to serve as a reminder of a terrible tragedy that occurs 4,400 times every single day in a nation that pretends to value children. They are there to remind people that a violent and brutal death awaits thousands of America’s most innocent and the most helpless, while laws, with severe penalties, protect endangered insects and reptiles. They are there to serve as a reminder that 1.5 million children die every year simply because they are inconvenient. It is unlikely that someone will write a song about these nameless victims. It is even less likely that such a song, if written, would ever be recorded. And so the crosses stand as silent reminders that American is awash in an ocean of innocent blood. They also stand as a statement of truth: There is no such thing as “pro-choice.” There is only “pro-life” and “pro-death.” [David Epps is rector of Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church, which meets at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Sundays on Highway 34 between Peachtree City and Newnan. He may be contacted at FatherDavidEpps@aol.com or at www.CTKCEC.org.] |