Every Life is Sacred
By Caroline Emma Beverage
I wrote this poem because someone wrote to our website and asked for our opinion on abortion. I asked to be the one to answer this question because I have a very “flip” answer that I usually give to that question.
I tried to respond to the individual only to find that the e-mail address was not valid. That made me realize that I should make an effort, to put this question in perspective to all the other issues that plague our world. I am a firm believer that it is important to look at the whole picture, at least as much as that is possible. When an issue is isolated, it is easy to convince people that things may be one way when in fact if the entire picture were considered it would be harder to fool people.
Since this boils down to religion and the oppression of women I would like to share an interesting observation that I have made in my life. My grandfather was a trucker who owned a fleet of trucks at one time. He was also one of those rare truck drivers who did not mind teaching his wife and daughters to drive. Therefore, I grew up with some knowledge about trucking. I married a trucker in 1968. I managed to learn just enough about driving while I was married to land a driving job after my divorce. I have been in, or had connections to, the trucking industry my entire life. When I first started driving there were almost no women in this field. After I started using a CB in my truck I would, on a very rare occasion, hear another woman out there; but I never saw them. I might hear a woman a couple of times a year. During that time I never saw a cross on a truck or a mobile chapel in a truck stop.
It took many years but suddenly women began to appear in trucking everywhere! It must have been like starting a train. It started gradually and then spread like wildfire! The interesting thing about it was that this private male club that had many members living one lifestyle on the road while enjoying the benefits of a real he-man persona at home suddenly changed. Suddenly the men found morals! The next thing you know the trucks are carrying crosses and the truck stops are sporting mobile chapels! Maybe I’m missing something here or reading something into this that isn’t there but…
The crosses and chapels didn’t appear until the women appeared. The private boys club behavior changed drastically or became more hidden. If you had been in the business as long as I had been it wasn’t hard to tell that the majority of fights between truck drivers was really a “come on.” A technique that the drivers used to locate another driver to take care of their sexual needs by emphasizing the sexual curse words in their fighting. After the women arrived in this career the straight men or the men who wanted to appear straight started harassing the men’s men; because they knew that what was happening was not going to be that hard for the women to figure out. Not that I am condemning the men. Far from it, I understand to what lengths people are forced to go to hide who they are because our society allows free reign to oppress people that they are “brain washed” to not approve of.
The point I’m making is the co-relation to religion taking over the trucking industry shortly after women made a big breakthrough in the industry. The Bible was written fifty years after Jesus died. Those people who love power and money more than spirit were already corrupting Jesus’ teachings. It is an old, old story that is still happening today. The oppression of women was written into the Bible simply because it was written at a time that women were so oppressed that people did not even consider the idea of women’s oppression. That is not to say that I do not believe that many spiritual truths are contained in the Bible. But that, that book has been used to justify every conceivable bad behavior that mankind can dream up including war, genocide, the oppression of women, and men and women of every race and culture, who are unfortunate enough to fall in love with someone of their own gender.
We fight to save an unborn babe
while people starve, but that’s okay.
Quality of life, here on earth
not as sacred, as giving birth!
--but every life is sacred.
Orphanages in all nations,
children languish, lost and wasted
yet, we insist that every girl
bring every child into this world.
--cause every life is sacred.
The rich exploit the worthless poor
they want more profit, create more,
slaves to do all the hard labor,
while the rich relax and savor
all that life has to offer.
Uneducated poor are here
to serve and do as they are told,
don’t think, don’t speak, just do your job,
until your old, then you can’t work.
--but every life is sacred.
Sex education in our schools,
would only teach our kids to sin.
God’s rules forbid this knowledge then.
That’s church and state separation!
--and every life is sacred.
We punish those who dare question
others must be shown this lesson.
Send our youth to fight rich men’s wars.
Death approved by authority.
--but every life is sacred.
There are those who cannot fit in
fill our mental institutions.
or lock them away in our jails.
Some lives are spent in living hell.
--but every life is sacred.
Government owned by the wealthy.
Obey our God, obey our laws
be free, in this land of freedom.
Where is freedom without money?
--and every life is sacred.
Forget it all, with alcohol.
The hopeless lose their dreams and pain
with drugs, or sex, or other things
and this might be a jail, as well.
--but every life is sacred.
Prejudice does not exist here.
All belong to the human race.
Religions preach love, but practice
hate - if your gay, but that’s Okay.
--and every life is sacred.
There’s still a place to fit you in.
Life is fair and this is heaven.
Women are not being oppressed,
At least no more than all the rest.
--and every life is sacred.
A young man wins his manhood here,
girls are shamed with a child to rear.
Since punishment and oppression
not the message, not the lesson.
--and every life is sacred.
Equal rights, we do believe in
if punishment must be given
punish both the girl and the boy
take away their hope and their joy.
--cause every life is sacred.
Castrate the man responsible,
that will stop unwanted babies!
They both will have a memento
for a lifetime to remind them,
they failed God and committed sin.
--and every life is sacred.
I wrote this poem because someone wrote to our website and asked for our opinion on abortion. I asked to be the one to answer this question because I have a very “flip” answer that I usually give to that question.
I tried to respond to the individual only to find that the e-mail address was not valid. That made me realize that I should make an effort, to put this question in perspective to all the other issues that plague our world. I am a firm believer that it is important to look at the whole picture, at least as much as that is possible. When an issue is isolated, it is easy to convince people that things may be one way when in fact if the entire picture were considered it would be harder to fool people.
Since this boils down to religion and the oppression of women I would like to share an interesting observation that I have made in my life. My grandfather was a trucker who owned a fleet of trucks at one time. He was also one of those rare truck drivers who did not mind teaching his wife and daughters to drive. Therefore, I grew up with some knowledge about trucking. I married a trucker in 1968. I managed to learn just enough about driving while I was married to land a driving job after my divorce. I have been in, or had connections to, the trucking industry my entire life. When I first started driving there were almost no women in this field. After I started using a CB in my truck I would, on a very rare occasion, hear another woman out there; but I never saw them. I might hear a woman a couple of times a year. During that time I never saw a cross on a truck or a mobile chapel in a truck stop.
It took many years but suddenly women began to appear in trucking everywhere! It must have been like starting a train. It started gradually and then spread like wildfire! The interesting thing about it was that this private male club that had many members living one lifestyle on the road while enjoying the benefits of a real he-man persona at home suddenly changed. Suddenly the men found morals! The next thing you know the trucks are carrying crosses and the truck stops are sporting mobile chapels! Maybe I’m missing something here or reading something into this that isn’t there but…
The crosses and chapels didn’t appear until the women appeared. The private boys club behavior changed drastically or became more hidden. If you had been in the business as long as I had been it wasn’t hard to tell that the majority of fights between truck drivers was really a “come on.” A technique that the drivers used to locate another driver to take care of their sexual needs by emphasizing the sexual curse words in their fighting. After the women arrived in this career the straight men or the men who wanted to appear straight started harassing the men’s men; because they knew that what was happening was not going to be that hard for the women to figure out. Not that I am condemning the men. Far from it, I understand to what lengths people are forced to go to hide who they are because our society allows free reign to oppress people that they are “brain washed” to not approve of.
The point I’m making is the co-relation to religion taking over the trucking industry shortly after women made a big breakthrough in the industry. The Bible was written fifty years after Jesus died. Those people who love power and money more than spirit were already corrupting Jesus’ teachings. It is an old, old story that is still happening today. The oppression of women was written into the Bible simply because it was written at a time that women were so oppressed that people did not even consider the idea of women’s oppression. That is not to say that I do not believe that many spiritual truths are contained in the Bible. But that, that book has been used to justify every conceivable bad behavior that mankind can dream up including war, genocide, the oppression of women, and men and women of every race and culture, who are unfortunate enough to fall in love with someone of their own gender.
We fight to save an unborn babe
while people starve, but that’s okay.
Quality of life, here on earth
not as sacred, as giving birth!
--but every life is sacred.
Orphanages in all nations,
children languish, lost and wasted
yet, we insist that every girl
bring every child into this world.
--cause every life is sacred.
The rich exploit the worthless poor
they want more profit, create more,
slaves to do all the hard labor,
while the rich relax and savor
all that life has to offer.
Uneducated poor are here
to serve and do as they are told,
don’t think, don’t speak, just do your job,
until your old, then you can’t work.
--but every life is sacred.
Sex education in our schools,
would only teach our kids to sin.
God’s rules forbid this knowledge then.
That’s church and state separation!
--and every life is sacred.
We punish those who dare question
others must be shown this lesson.
Send our youth to fight rich men’s wars.
Death approved by authority.
--but every life is sacred.
There are those who cannot fit in
fill our mental institutions.
or lock them away in our jails.
Some lives are spent in living hell.
--but every life is sacred.
Government owned by the wealthy.
Obey our God, obey our laws
be free, in this land of freedom.
Where is freedom without money?
--and every life is sacred.
Forget it all, with alcohol.
The hopeless lose their dreams and pain
with drugs, or sex, or other things
and this might be a jail, as well.
--but every life is sacred.
Prejudice does not exist here.
All belong to the human race.
Religions preach love, but practice
hate - if your gay, but that’s Okay.
--and every life is sacred.
There’s still a place to fit you in.
Life is fair and this is heaven.
Women are not being oppressed,
At least no more than all the rest.
--and every life is sacred.
A young man wins his manhood here,
girls are shamed with a child to rear.
Since punishment and oppression
not the message, not the lesson.
--and every life is sacred.
Equal rights, we do believe in
if punishment must be given
punish both the girl and the boy
take away their hope and their joy.
--cause every life is sacred.
Castrate the man responsible,
that will stop unwanted babies!
They both will have a memento
for a lifetime to remind them,
they failed God and committed sin.
--and every life is sacred.
posted by Emma Beverage @ 11:24 AM
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