----- Original Message -----

From: Cindy

To: illinoisrighttolife@ameritech.net

Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 6:12 PM

Subject: About Abortion and Alcohol

Hi,

We received a flier from the “pro-life leaders” who endorse Jim Oberweis today. I usually don’t think too much about abortion, but since this seems to be a big political issue, let me tell you that all this talk makes me even more “pro-choice.” This whole “pro-life” word really bothers me. It makes it sound like everybody else is “pro-death.” That is so not true! I am a middle-aged woman, the mother of two grown sons, and I have never had an abortion. I don’t know if I ever could have one. All I know is that if I were raped and found myself pregnant, I would not want the government telling me I absolutely could not terminate that pregnancy under any conditions. It was traumatic enough having my babies in my 20’s, when I was young and wanted them. But to go through that again at my age, and where I obviously would not be crazy about being pregnant by a rapist, might possibly put me over the edge. I don’t know if I could handle it, carrying a baby to term and actually giving birth, and then figuring out what to do. I know that there are some who may get abortions willy-nilly as a form of birth control. That is terrible. But it is up to THEM, not the government. And there are others who may get an abortion under very extreme circumstances, where it is a huge, heartbreaking decision. Again, that choice is up to THEM.

Reading some of these pro-life sites just amazes me. All the talk about Planned Parenthood “luring young people into unhealthy sexual behavior”, etc. There may be SOME element of truth to this, but it all boils down to people’s morals and how they were raised. I never even had a date in high school, so I sure never had to worry about pregnancy. Yet others sleep around and think nothing of it. Everybody is different and it all depends on their morals. Again, I know there will be some who use abortion as a form of birth control so they can sleep all over the place. That is not good. But that is how some people are, and hopefully they will change and develop better morals. But it is not up to the government to decide what they do with their body. And let me reiterate. I don’t know if I could ever get an abortion. I am against people having abortions in most cases, although I don’t think the government should absolutely FORBID anyone from making that choice. It is a PERSONAL decision. If I were ever raped, I don’t know if I could get an abortion or not. But I want to have the CHOICE! Either way, it would be HEARTBREAKING! It would not be just a casual decision. But I just want to make that decision myself and not be FORCED to carry an unwanted baby and give birth at my age. It would be horrible! I hate to think about it!

Rather than speaking up against abortion, how about you join me in speaking up against how so many people promote and glorify drug use? I’m talking about PBS stations, newspapers, magazines, television shows galore, websites galore, all making alcohol look so wonderful. And alcohol IS a drug. Ask any doctor or go to any drug abuse website. Alcohol is the most widely used and abused drug in the world. And all kinds of people—nice, respected members of the community who say they stand for “family values”, promote and glorify this chemical. It sets a terrible example. We can hardly chastise our youth for underage drinking, when grown adults make alcohol look so fun, glamorous, romantic, sophisticated and acceptable. If any of you “pro-life” people drink alcohol, you are using a mind-altering drug. You are no better than the pot-smokers, except you aren’t breaking the law. Just because alcohol is legal doesn’t make it right.

I spend hours writing to wineries, breweries, PBS stations, newspapers, magazines, websites, restaurants, churches (yes churches) and all these other places that promote and glorify alcohol. Do you realize how unhealthy and unwholesome alcohol is? It is a toxic chemical that affects every hormone in your body and poisons cells. It has been linked to cancer, birth defects, heart, brain and liver damage. It SIGNIFICANTLY raises the risk of breast cancer in women. But even if alcohol were healthy, just the fact that it is a mind-altering drug makes it wrong! A highly-addictive one at that! Nobody should drink this stuff, not even in moderation! That’s like saying poison is okay in moderation, or that smoking a joint is okay in moderation. You wouldn’t smoke pot, would you? Heavens no. That’s because “drugs are bad” and good parents teach their kids to grow up to always find NATURAL ways to relax and unwind and enjoy life, not by using a DRUG! This is good morals and just plain common sense. Yet these same adults think nothing of using a mind-altering drug in the form of alcohol. They don’t even consider alcohol a drug! But it is! Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right. When I used to chastise pot-smokers online (and there are tons of them, grown adults with good jobs and families and education, who think nothing of lighting up a joint on a Friday night), they would say accusingly to me, “Yeah, but I bet you drink your WINE.” They were eager to prove me a hypocrite. I would be offended because of course I did not drink wine! But then I had to remember that they thought I was like “everybody else” where I would “savor fine wine” or celebrate with champagne or order a martini in a restaurant or have a beer with the guys. I had to stress that I did not drink wine or any alcohol, that we should not smoke pot OR drink booze.

But those pot-smokers have a point! Booze drinkers who chastise pot-smokers are hypocrites. They are after the same psychoactive effect, to get that “buzz”. Booze drinkers are no better than pot smokers, except they aren’t breaking the law. And how are we going to teach people that using a mind-altering drug is wrong, when so many people promote and glorify and drink alcohol? This only gives the pot-smokers justification to continue using THEIR drug. And I don’t blame them! I’m sorry, but a grown adult should be WELL PAST the age where they want to use a psychoactive drug. Grown adults need to set an example and NOT DRINK!!! But they use excuses to justify their behavior, saying things like, “Everything in moderation” and “Jesus drank wine.” I have had people tell me Jesus drank wine and cuss me out in the same sentence! Nobody is drinking wine or other booze to be more like Jesus. They are drinking it for the “buzz”, and that is NOT a good thing to do! Adults need to set an example! We can hardly chastise our youth for underage drinking, when grown adults make alcohol look so fun, glamorous, romantic, sophisticated and acceptable.

I am working on a paper about how to stop underage drinking, which is a real problem in our society. Well the reason we have underage drinkers is because we have OVERAGE drinkers! Alcohol is promoted and glorified everywhere you turn! PBS is among the worst, with their travel shows, cooking shows and restaurant review shows, which tell you to sample the beer in Germany, the wine in Italy, what wine to pair with what foods, and rave about the wide selection of booze at restaurants. What makes this especially bad is that these are REAL PEOPLE, not characters on a TV show like Darrin and Samantha. These are REAL PEOPLE making alcohol look so fun and glamorous and acceptable. There are even websites devoted to alcohol, all kinds of wine and beer sites and sites with mixed-drinks recipes. Yahoo and other sites and publications have “wine writers” whose job it is to drink, promote and glorify this toxic chemical. And if you speak up against alcohol on Yahoo, stating your opinion that this is wrong and unhealthy, they will revoke your ID without warning. I had it happen last year. I lost everything, all my saved emails, my website, my groups that I have had for years, all gone forever. I cry every time I think of it. There is even a website devoted to wine and women, called winewomen.com. That is terrible!!!

Even Christians drink booze! That drives me up the wall. I can’t believe there are so many Christian churches out there who do not teach that using a mind-altering drug is wrong. I have friends who are Christians, active in their church, with good jobs and families, happy and well-adjusted, who are totally against drugs and have never tried marijuana and who raise their kids to stay away from drugs always, yet these same adults think nothing of using a mind-altering drug in the form of alcohol. And if you try to tell them why this is wrong, they get MAD!!! It just astounds me! I keep thinking that if CHRISTIANS can’t understand this basic belief that using a mind-altering drug is wrong, what hope is there for the REST of the world? I came across a Catholic church website where they advertised an activity called “Theology on Tap”. I kid you not. They invited people to come to a local bar and “enjoy your favorite beer, good friends, and listen to a great Catholic speaker.” I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had to read it several times to make sure it wasn’t a joke! But it was real! I am all for respecting different religions, but this goes BEYOND religion. This is about common sense and just plain overall good morals. A church is supposed to teach people to stay AWAY from places like bars and to stay AWAY from substances like alcohol, not ENCOURAGE them to take part in these activities! What with this and the Lutheran church promoting their German Days where they encourage people to come enjoy good German food and WINE, I am just so disillusioned. I KNOW that I could never be a member of a church that encourages people to drink booze. This is just crazy.

But you shouldn’t have to be a Christian to know that alcohol is wrong and unhealthy. This is just common sense! My husband isn’t particularly religious, yet he doesn’t drink. He has no desire to alter his mind. Both of us drank a bit in our immature college days, but we outgrew all that by the time we were 20 or so! And that was before I had any religious beliefs! And now I am a member of a church which teaches that alcohol is wrong, but even if I weren’t religious I would not drink! I have no desire to alter my mind, and especially to spend a lot of money to consume a horrible-tasting drink to do so. I have plenty of hobbies to relax and unwind, I drink water and eat nutritious food throughout the day, and there is NO ROOM OR DESIRE FOR ALCOHOL. But people think they HAVE to drink booze to fit in and be social. It’s sad. I just wish more people could take a stand and do what is right and not follow the crowd. You know, my father passed away a couple of years ago, and when my husband and I were cleaning out his house, we found all this wine that he and my mother used to drink before their health deteriorated. We threw it all out! No way were WE going to consume this toxic, psychoactive drug, and we don’t hate anybody enough to give it away, so down the drain it went. Bottles and bottles of it. Oh it just makes me so mad that people drink booze.

And when people get mad at me for speaking up against alcohol, it just makes me furious. I feel like crying. If you are mad, remember that I did not make alcohol unhealthy. I had nothing to do with it. I only tried beer a few times in college, as a teenager. I did not like it at all. And I only did it to be cool and bad. And that was in the 70s! So don’t blame ME for making alcohol a toxin or making it linked to cancer, birth defects, heart, brain and liver damage and breast cancer in women and lots of other bad things. Believe me, I would make alcohol healthy if I could, if people really like this substance so much. But the thing is, you know darn well nobody would be drinking beer or any other booze if it weren’t a psychoactive drug! They aren’t drinking it for the taste, they just COULDN’T be! Beer tastes HORRIBLE! You might DEVELOP a taste for it, where you can tolerate it and you talk yourself into THINKING it tastes good. But be honest: would people be drinking, promoting and glorifying this chemical, would they be having all these “brewfests” and competitions if beer did not have ALCOHOL in it??? Would there be all these “wine-tastings” if wine didn’t have alcohol in it? People want that psychoactive effect! It feels good. But that’s what makes it so wrong! We are supposed to find NATURAL ways to relax and unwind and enjoy life and be social and fit in, NOT by using a drug, legal or not! I just wish people would not get mad at ME for making alcohol a drug! I had nothing to do with it! I remember when I first heard that alcohol was a drug. Somebody told me that in college. I was shocked! I thought, “I’m not a drug user!” And I thought about how my parents drank alcohol, always ordering a martini when we went out to eat, and my dad always stopped at the tavern after work “for a couple of beers” (ugh, it makes me sick to think about it) and he always drank beer after golfing or bowling. I thought, “My parents aren’t drug users!” But they WERE!!! And so was I! We drank alcohol and therefore we used a drug! A toxic, highly-addictive psychoactive one at that!!!

Again, a grown adult should be WELL PAST the age where they want to use a drug. But so many think they HAVE to, because they think it is all elegant and romantic and sophisticated, or they think they have to drink booze to fit in and be social. And the more I have spoken up against alcohol, the madder I get. That’s the trouble, when I first started trying to help people see why this is wrong, I was so nice and polite and heartfelt and sincere, and the responses I received reduced me to tears! I can’t believe how mean and nasty people are, even Christians! So this whole experience has just made me realize how horrible people are and that they need to WAKE UP. It has made me become much more blunt and firm. Unfortunately it hasn’t seemed to help anybody at all, and has only made ME miserable, to the point where I can’t even go out to eat with my husband anymore because it drives me crazy to see people drinking, and I go ballistic at the least little thing that mentions alcohol, like if I catch Martha Stewart talking about cocktail recipes. I lie awake at night fuming and fretting, thinking about all the people who drink and how they honestly don’t think anything is wrong with this. I feel so helpless. I started out trying to help people, thinking I would make a difference in the world, but it backfired. But really, this whole experience has made me realize just how much people need to wake up and realize how unhealthy and unwholesome alcohol is. 

Well anyway, I hope you will join me in speaking up against alcohol. Talk about family values—now THAT is something we should all do!

Thank you and take care,

Cindy