The Most Important Issue

The Most Important Issue
by Rose Dominick

Election day is here again; the time to decide if we keep the president we have or elect in someone new. If you are a good citizen, you head to the nearest polling place to cast in your vote, and then wait for the polls to close and the votes to be counted.

You've probably given some thought as to who it is you will be voting for and chances are your decision was made based on a list of issues that you consider important to yourself and to the well being of the country. Economics, national security, debt reduction, health care, religious freedom, the protection and care of the environment. They have all crossed your mind. You have categorized the issues in order of importance. You pay close attention to see which of the candidates for president match up the closest to your list of important issues. Based on who holds the majority of the same ideas as you do, you make your choice and cast your vote.

This process of selecting a candidate is a perfectly valid method and one that certainly helps if there is not a candidate who you know immediately you will vote for. When making your choice in a candidate, however, do not forgot the most important issue – the issue of life.

Respect for life, in all its stages, is the single most important issue to consider in an election. It outranks every other issue that will arise in the election year. It is the issue that must be considered the most seriously. In fact, I will go so far as to say that the issue of life is the only issue to be considered in an election.

You may ask yourself why this is. Of course respect for life is important, but what about our failing economy? What about the freedom to worship and profess our religion? What about providing good health care? Those are all important too, and necessary for the health of society.

Yes, those issues are important. I do not disagree with that. But respect for life must always come first for one simple reason: without life there are no other issues. Without life, there is nothing. A nation that does not respect the sanctity of the life of every single one of its citizens, born and unborn, is a nation doomed for destruction.

Take a look at the current state of American society. Physician assisted suicide is legal in many states. Couples expecting children with disabilities are encouraged to abort them. A ban on sex-selective abortions was defeated by our congress. Euthanasia is acceptable and all too frequently the elderly, the 'brain-dead' and others whom society deems have no quality of life are killed. The parameters of those our society has decided do not deserve life are growing increasingly broader. Who will we decide it is okay to kill next?

Without a right to life, there are no rights to anything else. Respect for life must be the foremost issue in every voter’s mind, and must be the deciding factor in choosing a candidate to vote for. This country desperately needs a president who cares for his citizens, all of his citizens, no matter what their state and 'quality' of life is. Once life in all its stages is respected and its sanctity and dignity upheld, once it is guaranteed that all Americans will be granted the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” then the other issues may be considered. Life is God's most precious gift to us, and it is our duty to protect it.

This November, vote for life.