Opportunity and Choice

A little over a year ago, I wrote a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In it, I reminded us of the values he espoused, and encouraged us to remember; values that are uniquely American.

The most prominent of those values was the notion that the only thing we truly owed each other as American brothers and sisters were the belief in and support of Liberty, and Justice. And that if we concerned ourselves with those values, both for ourselves, and all of our American brothers and sisters, this would be the more perfect union the founding fathers envisioned.

I wrote that part of Dr. King's legacy was to help ensure that every American had an equal opportunity through the impartial application of Justice, and the inalienable right to Liberty to partake in the American Dream. But the key was equal opportunity, not equal outcome.

It is a lesson that is re-enforced to me in my faith as a Christian. The notion that God loves all of us, and He sent His son so that we might all have an equal opportunity to make it to heaven. We now have that opportunity through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.

People (generally on the left) are all too quick to point out that outcome-based forced religion ala the Crusades or the Iquisition was a bad idea, and I would agree with them for the most part.

My question is then, how could those same people hold the position that outcome-based forced education and employment (quotas) and wealth re-disribution (great society and entitlement programs) are a good idea? You cannot force people to be successful any more than you can force them to go to heaven!

Sadly, a great many will not make it to heaven, and the only reason they will not is that they have made the choice through the exercise of free will, not to accept the opportunity Christ has provided for them. That is the bottom line- if one does not make it to heaven, it will have been by one's own exercise of free choice. The opportunity is there for everyone!

That is the message that Dr. King was trying to get across to all Americans. Our job should be to break down barriers to success and achievement, to ensure that all Americans have equal opportunity to succeed in life. It is not nor should it be our goal to ensure each other's success.

The left in this country is famous for its advocacy of the so-called 'pro-choice' position when it comes to the issue of abortion. (I must state here that I believe that 'pro-choice' is anything but pro-choice, but I will save that for another blog) I find it ironic (hypocritical) that these same folk would through social engineering force one group to 'succeed' and force another group to underwrite it, and not understand that what they are doing is removing choices from both groups!

For the first group, they decide (arbitrarily) what 'success' should be for them, and then they engineer it for them and force them to accept it. For the latter group, they determine that their 'success' mandates they must underwrite the success plans for the former, and to what degree (arbitrarily) they must underwrite it, and then force them to underwrite it by means of a confiscatory tax scheme.

I would find it laughable, if it were not for the seriousness of the matter, that anyone who would dare to call themselves 'pro-choice' would deny so many of their fellow Americans so many choices in their lives.

For the poor, they are denied the choice to succeed in life through their own merit or drive. For the rich, they are denied the choice to give of their time and/or treasure as they see fit. Having that choice is real charity.

I believe Dr. King understood as a minister and as a citizen, that life and afterlife have consequences, and those consequences are based on the choices we make with the opportunities we have.

There is one more group that the left is denying opportunities to, and that is the unborn children. If the left were really pro-choice, shouldn't the unborn child have an opportunity too?