Friday, October 25, 2019

WHOSE VALUES WERE THE MOST PROGRESSIVE?

ARE THE VALUES OF THE NAZI EUGENICS... 
WOVEN INTO THE FABRIC OF TODAY'S AMERICA?
AND ENSHRINED BY THE SMITHSONIAN?


photo source https://www.lifenews.com/2015/10/20/smithsonian-puts-racist-planned-planned-parenthood-founder-margaret-sanger-in-civil-rights-exhibit/
Most American's my age or younger do not know that America's eugenics efforts were an inspiration to Hitler during the early years of his rise to power. They do not know that America's progressive movement guided and financed many of Hitler's efforts and their actions were used in defense of Hitler's policies at the Nuremberg Trials. This direct connection has some how been forgotten.
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In harmony with these attitudes Margret Sanger an outspoken progressive promoted and sought support from racist organizations including the KKK as she strategically placed her population control centers in the locations most accessible to the target ethnic groups. Her stated goal was to reduce target populations. Read her writings below. (see featured article).
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Since Roe V Wade in 1973, Sanger's organization has legally added the option of pre-birth extermination centers for the unwanted. 
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Excluding natural demise due to old age, abortion is the leading cause of death in America. It exceeds death by disease, accident, homicide and suicide. Statistics show that death by abortion exceeds all unnatural causes of death COMBINED. Currently, over 58,000,000 of these exterminations have occurred in the U.S. since 1973. 
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As you can imagine, when directed at specific populations; this is a very effective means of exterminating large numbers in a targeted group, and this is why many in the black community are asking that her statue be removed. What do you think the Smithsonian should do?
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(note) Please excuse the insensitivity and bluntness in my use of the term "extermination." This is the term used to describe the camps created by Hitler to accomplish the same goals as described by Sanger in adult populations across Europe. They are labeled extermination camps. I apologize for any undue discomfort this may create. But extermination of the pre-born in targeted populations WAS THE INTENDED PURPOSE of these facilities and many in the black community are offended by this fact.
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Sources:

A very interesting and well detailed article on racism, eugenics, America and Hitler.

Featured article: 
A very interesting and well detailed article on racism, eugenics and Margret Sanger
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/black-pastors-ask-smithsonian-remove-bust-planned-parenthood-founder

Reader 1
Re: eugenics, Iceland has fewer Down's Syndrome people because they are opting to abort these specific pre born kids. Dr. Down characterized them as a regression of evolution. Personally, the Downs people that I have know have enriched my life.


Reader 2
Many of Sanger's writings indicate that this was the population she was trying to help. They didn't have medical care and had no alternative to pregnancy. Remember this was a time when a woman could not refuse her husband, but she had to provide full care for the children.

Reader 1
13 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger
http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/22/13-things-you-probably-dont-know-about-planned-parenthood-founder-margaret-sanger/

 See no. 12 if you like, but it is pretty hard to read. With her in charge, some of my family would not have been born.

Reader2
I think this is a very biased article. I would rather rely on complete articles from her. She didn't have a PR person for her sound bites, but her real concern was for the mothers she saw who were overwhelmed by the number of children they had to care for. Also there was not the tolerance for birth defects that we have now. Technology and medicine have helped correct or compensate for the defects she saw. There was little prenatal care, and nutrition was in its infancy. I'm glad your family survived and apparently flourished.

Reader 1
 I'm not sure what to say. Her quotes were her words. I'm not sure what context would be able to change the meaning. She was explicit. But if you know of a full article, you can share, please do.

Host
I appreciate the thoughtful responses and the graciousness I see extended as we try to see each other and Ms Sanger in the best light possible. I only wish we could do the same thing today. Perhaps today Ms Sanger would modify her statements, even as our President frequently does. Wouldn't it be pleasant if he were more eloquent. But he is not, and in a similar manner Ms Sanger was also very blunt about her intentions in racial profiling which has been effectively carried out in the organization she founded. What do you think of the map described in the feature article below, showing the correlation of family planning clinics in Afro American Neighborhoods? 

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/black-pastors-ask-smithsonian-remove-bust-planned-parenthood-founder

Reader 2
Hardly an unbiased source. She was not trying to eliminate the race but make life better for them. I am grateful, as a woman, that I did not have to conceive every time I had sex.

Reader 3
Guess I have to defend my homeland. Given the inbreeding that has occurred in Iceland, it has become a nation of serious study for gene pools. Pretty unique to the world, actually. My grandparents were first cousins. Alcoholism is prevalent in Iceland. Yet, we are as a group pretty smart and ahead of the times in the world. Proud to be an Icelander. We are, actually, pretty special.

Reader 1
 I am pretty certain that there are scads of admirable traits of Icedandic people. This one choice (among many good choices) is quite sad. I wonder if they are under some sort of duress. IDK. I hope that this changes for Iceland and it's people. It's sad to read. It's also hard for me to hear about.

"What kind of society do you want to live in?": Inside the country where Downs Syndrome is disappearing. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/down-syndrome-iceland/

Reader 2
Here is a more even discussion of Ms. Sanger.
What Margaret Sanger Really Said About Eugenics and Race
Was she the racist that some allege?
http://time.com/4081760/margaret-sanger-history-eugenics/
TIME.COM

Reader 3
Poverty and excessive reproduction do not work well together. I am an unpopular pro-choice individual. And it's far better to prevent unwanted pregnancies than to have to deal with the choices later.....

Host
IN RESPONSE TO THE "What she said," ARTICLE;
Although the article above is titled, "What she really said." It is not. 

It is the writer's interpretation of what she thought Sanger meant. Sanger's statements are alarmingly absent from the article. 

It wrongly separates the terms eugenics from racist. They were almost synonymous in Ms Sanger's time.

Today there is a separation because of the Civil Rights Movement and our greater scientific awareness. But Sanger didn't do her writing in our time. 

At the turn of the last century INFERIOR GENETIC STOCK WAS BLAMED FOR CREATING (what was seen as) "INFERIOR" ORGANISMS. 

Her's was the time when Darwin's Adaptation of the species and survival of the fittest was conjoined with Mendel's genetic model. Racial differences were viewed as steps of progression or regression on the evolutionary chain; One that separated perceived inferior people from other more superior people. 

Intentional selective breeding was the practice during that time period used to create desired breeds of cattle, horses, dogs, cats, etc. With knowledgeable application, progressives believed a from of selective breeding could and should be done with People as well.

Margret wrote extensively and enthusiastically about these goals that were both Eugenic and Racist, but her writings did not include expressions of hatred or intentions of punishment toward those that she clearly viewed as inferior. Her's was a presentation of hollow sympathy.... from a position of superiority as always seems the case with elitist views. 

The fact that she immersed herself into the Black Community and offered a sense of choice to the oppressed was definitely an act of controlled compassion and took courage. That it was seen as an effort to enrich lives and give a greater sense of freedom, or even remove oppression, appeared as a very praiseworthy effort.

But in reality it was also very racist. Those were the times she lived in, and that was the progressive elitist attitude of her day, and the attitude expressed in her writings. 

To more completely understand these attitudes the following article provides a great deal of detailed information.
 http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1796


Host
THE SAD TRUTH!
Vulnerable women and their offspring 
have suffered HORRENDOUSLY!
True since the beginning of history, 
(but God hears)..... Not the hope you were looking for?

Some examples include: In the history of the Bible, Sarai's abuse of her pregnant slave Hagar who fled to die of starvation rather than suffer oppression at the hands of her mistress. The mother's in Isreal at Moses time and in Bethlehem, at the time of Christ's birth that faced the extermination of their live born males (which was not an uncommon occurrence in ancient times for conquered peoples.) There was the taking of female concubines that occurred then and continues today, especially under Islam. There was the divine right of kings and nobility and similar legal measures of oppression across Europe and Asia. And then of course there were the everyday facts written about by Margret Sanger and Upton Sinclair at the turn of the century in America. 

In recognition of this theme, King Solomon wrote: 

                    Ecclesiastes 4 (NIV)

Again I looked and saw all the oppression
       that was taking place under the sun:
         I saw the tears of the oppressed—
           and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
            and they have no comforter.
            And I declared that the dead,
                 who had already died,
    are happier than the living, who are still alive.
But better than both is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

This section of scripture is not a directive, but a statement of fact. It is an acknowledgement of the hopelessness we experience in the futility of what we have created through our attitudes and behaviors. This futility and hopelessness is our sad inheritance.

I would liken obedience to this instruction to that of the staff of the Titanic gathering all of the weapons and ammunition on board and summarily executing all of the passengers that were not fortunate enough to fit onto the life boats. These executions would be done as acts of kindness in an effort to alleviate suffering by providing quick and easy deaths. This would not be unprecedented since similar acts were done in the conquest of Masada and Gamla in Israel, and more recently The People's Temple in Uganda, as they perished to avoid what they saw as a future of suffering. In each case death was imposed, (on their own people) by those in positions of power, even as we do in abortion. 

But back to Hagar who has fled to die in the wilderness.

Genesis 16 NIV
8 An angel appears and asks: “Hagar, Sarai’s maid, where have you come from, and where are you going?”
Hagar: “I am running away from my mistress.”
9-12 The Angel: “Return to your mistress and act as you should, for I will make you into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant and your baby will be a son, and you are to name him Ishmael (‘God hears’), because God has heard your woes. 

He instilled a hope. 

My reaction on the Titanic would have been to remove the pins from all of the thousands of doors on the ship and bring them to the deck to build rafts for these people in the (HOPE) that rescue would come soon.

In dealing with the the handicapped, the in firmed, the orphan or the pregnant, our current ideas of a community of inclusion is a good start and for this I am proud to be an American.

To more completely understand progressive attitudes of eugenic during Sanger's time the following article provides a great deal of detailed information.


http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1796