Horton

Yesterday, Cathy bought me a gift at Kohl's. No, not a shirt, not a pair of pants. No, not a watch, not a pair of shoes.

No, Cathy bought me a light blue stuffed elephant.

Scarier still, I loved it.

You see, the light blue stuffed elephant is a plush version of Horton the elephant, from the Dr. Seuss book "Horton Hears a Who". And I, I am a Dr. Seuss fan, and not ashamed to admit it.

Who wouldn't like Dr. Seuss' books? You remember them, with their quirky illustrations, bizarre characters, and sing-songy rhymes. You can probably recite some classic Seuss lines, like "I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them, ____ ___ ____. That's right, "Sam I am." You're a Dr. Seuss fan too, whether or not you want to admit it!

As a kid, I loved listening to Seuss' fanciful stories, whether they were in book form or as animated series made for television. Here are some of his stories I remember:

• The Lorax
• Horton Hears a Who
• How the Grinch Saved Christmas
• The Sneetches
• Green Eggs and Ham
• The Cat in the Hat
• One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
• Hop On Pop
• The Zax
  

As I got older, I realized that many of Dr. Seuss's stories were deeper than just cute children's stories. They were commentaries which spoke to some of the shortcomings of our society, or of our human nature.

Remember the Sneetches? Some had stars on their bellies, some did not. A man comes to town with a machine that can apply stars to non-star Sneetches, or remove stars from starry Sneetches. Jealousy leads to chaos, and we are left with an effective lesson on discrimination.

How about the Zax? In this story, a South-going Zax meets head-on with a North-going Zax, and neither is willing to budge. They remain unmoved for so long that a highway overpass is built over them. The lesson? Stubbornness, perhaps.

Another of my favorites was The Lorax. In this story, a creature called the Once-ler comes upon a beautiful forest of Truffala trees, and realizes he can use the trees to make "Thneeds", a garment he says "everyone needs." After cutting down the first tree to make a Thneed, out pops the Lorax, a creature who pleads with the Once-ler to stop before the forest is ruined, and all its creatures have nowhere to live. Of course, the Once-ler ignores his pleading, destroys the forest, and pollutes the region with his many factories. Written in 1971, it is an early commentary on saving the environment.

My favorite of all Dr. Seuss' stories, though, is Horton Hears a Who. More so than the story, I remember the animated TV version, which came out when I was 3 years old. Here's the Wikipedia description of the plot:

The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant who, on the fifteenth of May in the Jungle of Nool, hears a small speck of dust talking to him. It turns out the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a city called "Who-ville", inhabited by microscopic-sized inhabitants known as Whos.

The Whos ask Horton (who, though he cannot see them, is able to hear them quite well) to protect them from harm, to which Horton happily obliges, proclaiming throughout the book that "a person's a person, no matter how small". In doing so he is ridiculed and forced into a cage by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear. His chief tormentors are Vlad Vladikoff, the Wickersham Brothers and the Sour Kangaroo, and the small kangaroo in her pouch. Horton tells the Whos that they needed to make themselves heard to the other animals, lest they end up as part of "beezlenut stew", which they finally accomplish. The Whos finally make themselves heard by ensuring that all members of their society play their part. In the end it is the smallest Who of all, Jo-Jo, who provides the last volume lift to be heard, thus reinforcing the moral of "a person's a person no matter how small".

"A person's a person no matter how small."

What a great line! The moral of this Seuss story, the fundamental value of life, is the same message we find in Psalm 139:13-15: "You did form my inward parts, you knit me together in my mother's womb...you knew me right well; my frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret..." God creates life, and no matter how small it may be, whether it is in the womb or out, it is still a person created in the image of God.

Did Dr. Seuss realize he had created a wonderful pro-life message when he wrote this story? Probably not. And in fact, Dr. Seuss later attempted to sue some pro-life organizations who used this story's moral as their motto (sad...). Nevertheless, it is a wonderful story, with a wonderful tag line and a wonderful message.

On March 14th 2008, a full-length computer-animated movie version of "Horton Hears a Who" is set to hit the big screens. I'm going to see it for sure, and I hope it will win the hearts of its viewers with its simple, pro-life message.

I'll think of it every time I look at my light blue stuffed elephant.

Murderers

It's tough to turn on the news these days without hearing the horrible news that someone is missing, only to find a few days later that their body was found in the woods somewhere. I realize that it's not too uplifting of a topic, but today's blog post is about...mass murderers.

Berkowitz. Dahmer. Bundy.

We have grown to equate these names with pure evil. Some of our nation's most infamous killers, this trio was responsible for the slayings of dozens people. David Berkowitz, known as the Son of Sam, killed 7 people and wounded seven others in the course of eight shootings in NYC between 1976 and 1977. Jeffrey Dahmer tortured, killed, and cannibalized 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991. And Ted Bundy confessed to 29 murders of young women across the United States, between 1974 and 1978.

These men were truly monsters, the worst of the worst. But what if I told you that a man had been discovered, right here in Greenville, who had murdered more people than all of these serial killers combined? Would it not be the story of the decade, the #1 news item on CNN, NBC, and Fox News?

Further, what if it was found that this man killed 100 victims over the past year alone? And that all of his victims were children under the age of 10? Can you imagine the outrage, the sheer horror we would feel? People would demand justice, pushing the police forces of the nation to put the capture of this child-killer as a #1 priority.

More time passes, and the police release another bombshell. It is true that all the victims were under age 10, but it is announced that in fact they were all infants less than a year old. Utter shock - a serial killer who targeted babies. Could it get any worse?

Yes, it could.

What if it came out that there were four other men in Greenville who committed the same horrible acts last year also...for a total of 500 innocent deaths? What if I told you that every city and town in the US has men like this, who are creating new massacres every day? What if I told you that the police, and in fact the public, have known the identities and locations of these men all along, and have done nothing about it? No criminal charges, no efforts to stop the insanity.

Well, every word of it is true. But it's OK, because we've made a nice word for it, to hide the horror.

Abortion.

Oh, that's not a fair analogy, you say. Abortion is LEGAL. Well, let me ask you this. Did Dahmer's victims ask to be torn apart? Did Berkowitz's victims beg to be shot? No, they were innocent victims of murder. In the same way, the killing of unborn babies is murder. They are defenseless, innocent victims of slaughter. Just because the mother, out of distress or desperation or selfishness, allows it to happen, it does not lessen the horror of what has happened - the murder of an innocent victim.

I personally believe that abortion is not just another "political issue" like immigration or the flat tax. No, it is far greater. It is a blight upon our nation, a shame so great that it affects the very heart of who we are as a people. Think about the numbers - a million murdered babies in the USA every year since 1973 - more than 30 million dead.

Some will say, "Oh, you're one of those one-issue voters." To that I say this. If my 1911 house were to catch fire in the middle of the night, do you think I would be concerned with the loose front porch railing? The unpainted trim in Zach's room? The drywall repair needed in the master bath? No, I would be a "one-issue" homeowner, running away from the flames. The magnitude of the one issue outweighs all the others.

And so, this Saturday I will go to the polls to vote for a person who I think would be the best to lead our country into the future. A person who realizes the vast horror that is occurring every day, every hour, in every corner of our great land. A person who will do everything in their power to plug the moral leak in the soul of our nation.

Will your vote help stop the horror, or perpetuate it?