However, I still believe that Bart Stupak is a champion for life. Sure, his last-minute decision to vote for the health care reform due to Mr. Obama’s last-minute executive order was misguided. Given that Mr. Obama told Planned Parenthood the “first thing I’ll do” in office is work for the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA), it’s hard to take the executive order as much more than a political ploy to get the votes needed to pass the bill – rather than an expression of his commitment to keep abortion funding out of health care. In that sense, Stupak erred tragically — if unwittingly — by providing his support for an essentially meaningless order (it seems most pro-life groups don’t think the executive order has any force — keep in mind: the executive branch doesn’t make laws; it enforces them). I believe Stupak had the right intentions; it’s just that he did not hold out for long enough. Given the way it turned out, I would a million times over rather have this bill to have failed than for one cent of my taxpayer dollars to fund the killing of an unborn child. The act itself is unconscionable; the fact that Congress wants pro-lifers to pay for other people to be able to have them? Well, I’m not sure if they’ve invented a word for that yet. How about: unbeliridicushameawful.

Two other points on health care and abortion funding:
1) I remember the night of the health care vote, I saw a couple of legislators who were part of Stupak’s hold-out group get up and talk about what a pro-life vote this was. One, I believe, even said this was the “most pro-life vote he’s ever cast.” Has anyone read Macbeth? Methinks he doth protesteth too much. In other words, exclaiming how pro-life your vote is by definitely casts considerable suspicion not only on the very claim itself, but on your own belief in that claim.

2) One major, major point that, in my following of the health care debate, remained largely unnoticed (I did hear at least one person point this out): if this legislation had no intention of funding abortions, why in the world did Democrats object so much to language that simply made this point clear? It’s kind of like if a man told his wife he wasn’t gambling but wouldn’t let her check the family bank account. What do you have to fear? I think it was abundantly, abundantly obvious that pro-choice members of the House and Senate were trying to sneak abortion funding into the bill. The common objection they had seemed to have been: the bill doesn’t even mention abortion. EXACTLY. If you don’t mention it, then it’s left to someone’s interpretation as to whether it will be a part of health care’s “essential services.” Take a wild guess on which side the Department of Health & Human Services, ultimately under President Obama’s supervision, will come down on that debate?

The fact that those in the pro-choice camp believe in a woman’s right to kill her unborn baby is bad enough. But it just adds insult to injury to believe pro-life people wouldn’t have caught on to these stealthy but ultimately transparent methods.

All this said, Bart, keep your head up; you fought hard. I believe you should not have voted for health care, even with the executive order, but I also believe your heart was in the right place. Keep fighting for LIFE, brother – in whatever you do in life after Congress.

Stupak is a congressman from Michigan, a Democrat, who is fighting tirelessly to restrict the positively abominable notion of federal funding of abortion. Without Stupak’s fight on behalf of this most vulnerable portion of our population, the health care bill currently being considered would probably have become law a long time ago. Stupak has been the fearless leader of a number of Democratic lawmakers who have, in the words of the Susan B. Anthony List, putting principle over party.

If you have heard Congressman Stupak during an interview, you will agree that he comes across as a humble man; yet Stupak is a man who is not swayed by polls nor deterred by threats. He is a man who represents the kind of leadership this country so desperately needs. In an interview with CNN’s Campbell Brown, she asked whether he’d be OK if the legislation “failed because of you.” His response: (essentially) I’m standing on principle. Wow. Praise God for politicians with a strong backbone. Watch this to see why Bart Stupak is my hero:http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2010/03/18/cb.stupak.vote.cnn?iref=allsearch.

Regardless of what happens with this health care bill, Congressman Stupak, I want you to know that all pro-life Americans are proud of you. You have fought bravely, and your fight has not been in vain.

For now, this blog is much more to get me back in the habit of writing than anything else. I love the practice of piecing sentences together; I love the art involved in describing things with similes and metaphors and personifications; I love reading a writer’s unique idea of how to describe an event. Example: I am reading George Orwell’s 1984 for the first time, and there’s a line about Winston (the main character) smelling something for a moment and then it instantly being gone — as if it had been a sound that immediately stopped, Orwell writes. Beautiful.

The main topic I will pursue will be preserving, protecting and defending life – yes, this is a play off of the oath of office for president of the United States, in reference to the Constitution. No political issue is more dear to my heart than protecting human life, all of which that has or ever will exist comes from the Author of all life, the God of the Bible – the one, true, living God.

But before I really dive into this blog, I want to acknowledge a Bible verse that has been specially convicting to me, as my wife knows I often love telling her about “the most ridiculous thing” I just heard on NPR (!!!). It’s Proverbs 18:2: “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding / but delights in airing his own opinions.”

So while I don’t believe this verse is saying one can’t express his opinions, I do believe it warns against seeking not to understand something while simultaneously vigorously pushing one’s own point-of-view. So to coin a word, let us seek to be “understanders” together — me and you and you, the 3 readers of this blog (who am I kidding – it’ll just be my wife!).

While I will undoubtedly be writing from the perspective of the man I am, this blog will also be an opportunity to learn why other people think the way they do. For clearly it won’t do much good for me to bring people to my side of the story unless they believe I have respect for them as a person. Therefore, let us proceed not in condemnation and bloviating, but in love and informing.

In my next post, I must address what is clearly the most important political issue of the moment on this topic: the federal funding of abortion that may result from the new health care reform proposal. Coming shortly. But first, a proud husband and Dad moment.

This is my beautiful wife, Katie.

Katie Wray Clark

And this is our 7-month-old son, Titus Patterson Clark.

Titus at his first meal

Am I one blessed guy or what?!?!?!? To find out in more detail how blessed I am, you can keep up with our family blog at www.grahamandkatieclark.blogspot.com.

To add this to your RSS feeds, just plug in this URL and you're good to go! 7 readers and growing!

We're so excited. Here's the little guy — isn't he cute? I think he's got his Mommy's brains and his Daddy's ears.

Baby Clark! (Feb 18, 2009)

Here's an email we sent out to family and friends the day we found out (which was my birthday — what a great birthday present!):

Hey everyone:

For those of you who haven't heard, we're
expecting a baby! And even if you have heard, we have some even newer
news: it's a boy!

We know what you're all thinking: we'll have
our hands full with a little Graham running around (we're thinking the
same thing .

Kate's due on July 22, so we're in the 2nd trimester and everything
looks healthy. Here's an ultrasound picture of the little guy.

Have a great day!

Graham and Katie

Our family management executive leadership team apologizes profusely for taking nearly five months to update the blog. As MorMor indicated tonight on the phone, you're probably all getting tired of Day 6 in Switzerland! Time for some new news…

As all of you who read this blog know, the most exciting news we have had in the last five months is: we're pregnant! More accurately (since I haven't started to show yet and don't believe I will) KATE'S pregnant and WE'RE expecting.
 :)

And it's beautiful because Kate is starting to show now, which is just another little cool sign that our lives are in the process of dramatically changing. And as her Dad, Bruce Wray, says, her showing pregnancy will be her glory.

We found out about our precious little gift from the LORD early in the morning on Monday, November 18, 2008, but haven't been at liberty to tell the world until today.

Below are some ultrasound pictures taken just a few days before Christmas 2008. The baby was about an inch-and-a-half long, and we could see the heartbeat! I would just have loved for anyone who doesn't believe that this is life to have seen this wonderful creation squirming in the video we saw. It IS life, and we are so proud to be parents!

Baby Clark! – 12-22-08

We'll get another huge piece of news tomorrow morning, when we go in for an ultrasound that will hopefully tell us whether this life is male or female. So 100 points to the person who can look at the photo above and say confidently that they already know (don't ask me what the 100 points is for). All submissions must be received by 12 noon on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

Another update coming tomorrow!!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy Clark

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After we had enjoyed the view for a while, we rode back down
and hiked back to Gimmelwald and down to Lauterbrunnen where we picked up
another train to go up to the mountains on the other side of the valley.  Little did we know, the views were even more
spectacular on that side!  You could see
other ranges of mountains and all the way down into the valley, which we couldn’t
do the first day.  So we rode the train
to Wengen and then took another cable car to Murren – which had the absolute
best views.  So we hiked from there to
Kleine Scheidegg on a mountain pass where you could see both of the valleys and
all of the mountains.  Here are some more
pictures along the way…

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And that was pretty much it. 
By the end of the day we were totally exhausted so we stopped for dinner
on our walk home from the train station and went to bed early.