Before you start the drainage pumps, ask “Who filled this swamp, and with what?”

What is the underlying principle of logic, of law, of morality, of Karma, of justice, or of human decency that stirs the hearts and the minds of those who demand that all fetuses must be protected up to the moment of birth, but who then abandon 90 percent of all newly born citizens to the right to health care, to an education, to clean air, and to clean water—until the day they die? Why are these “pro-lifers” so eager to help the unborn into a society where 90 percent of all wealth is held by the top 10 percent, where poverty abounds among the bottom 50 percent; where upward mobility is virtually gone for all but the wealthy; where suicide rates are among the highest in the world; where crime and drug use is rampant, with the highest incarceration rates in the world; where teen-pregnancies and illiteracy rates are soaring; where life expectancies are falling, and where the American Dream died long ago for more than one-half of our population?

Why do many of these same pro-lifers support wars of choice for others to fight, but not themselves; who deny that climate change is with us now; and who “stand by their man” in the White House as his fact-checked lie count has surpassed 10,000 lies? Why do they remain silent as he insults our allies, as he cozies up to our political enemies? Why do they not show a hint of outrage at the revelation that he has not paid one dime in income taxes in 26 of the next 28 years following 1984? Why do they not support gun laws, background checks, and active mental profiles when the deranged enter our schools, our theatres, and our out-of-doors arenas and gun down our innocent children and our law-abiding adults? Why do they go about encapsulated by their own indifferences as he gives huge tax-cuts to the top 90 percent while our bridges, highways, waterways, utility plants, and our airports crumble into degradation? Why is life outside the womb treated with such callous disregard? What is my life and yours life worth to them? How do they answer to their consciences, or expect to answer to their God, for all those who must fight for their lives in the swamp of death?

Today, our president mocked the words emblazoned at the base of our Statue of Liberty:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door.”

In its place he would put his new immigration policy: “We need to limit our immigrants to the young, the strong, the educated, with skills that fit into our society, who speak English, and have lots of money in their pockets so they can pay their way.”

How many of our present citizens can pass these tests? And why would his new pool of potential immigrants (mainly from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark) want to leave their native lands, where they would need to abandon their own heritages, their homes, their families, their health care plans, their education institutions, their friends and neighbors to get into line in a land that he wants so desperately to turn into a feudal system of dynastic plutocrats and beleaguered vassals? Has anyone told him and his flock that America now ranks 13th in the world as the most desirable place in which to live? (Time, 2017).

I find more wisdom, more compassion, more truth in the words of the late George Carlin when he asked this cogent question: “Have you noticed that many of these pro-lifers are people you wouldn’t want to f*ck in the first place?”