11-20-07
Greetings!
A blessed Thanksgiving to you and your family!
My generation was raised on the fear of world over-population. Well apparently it worked---take a look at the sobering situation in Japan:
Japan's population peaked in 2005, and will plunge from its current 127 million to just 89 million in 2050 - a decline of thirty percent. Japan is currently the oldest nation on Earth (median age 43, twice the age of many African nations). Japan will continue to hold this dubious title through the year 2050, when the average Japanese will be 61 years old. Inevitably, more and more Japanese leaders are looking for the easy way out of the dilemma of "over-aging." On October 18 of this year, the Japanese Association of Acute Medicine became the first organization to recommend euthanasia for the terminally ill.
Melancholy signs of a declining population are everywhere in Japan. During Japan's 2007 Children's Day, the government soberly noted that the number of children in Japan has declined for the 26th consecutive year. Over the past decade, more than 2,000 junior and senior high schools have closed due to lack of children, but many are enjoying new life as elderly care centers. More than 60,000 teachers have lost their jobs because they have no children to teach. Elders of villages who traditionally call out the names of newborns at autumn festivals often have no names to call. More than 90 Japanese theme parks catering to children have closed. More and more pediatricians are switching specialties and becoming geriatricians.
Saddest of all is the sight of elderly Japanese women cuddling Takara-Tomy's talking Yumel robotic dolls. These women buy these expensive dolls because they have no children or grandchildren to lavish their attentions on. The dolls, which are selling very well, tell their owner how much they love her and welcome her when she walks back into the room. Yuko Hirakawa of Takara-Tomy says that "many elderly people think the dolls are actual grandsons and granddaughters."
Some prefectures and cities have tried just about everything to entice young couples to have children. They have offered substantial cash bonuses to couples who have more than one child, and have even sponsored dances and "speed dating" parties to get young singles together. In 2006, the Year of the Dog, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged women to "do as dogs do" and have large litters!
Unfortunately - and predictably - none of this has worked.
After all, if a government promotes "family planning" for decades, if it drills into the people's heads the idea that children are messy, noisy, expensive, and bad for the environment, once it has promoted and funded millions and millions of abortions, there is really no way back. As proof, an amazing 70 percent of young Japanese single women say they have no intention of getting married.
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Copyright 2007 - Human Life International Human Life International |
An excellent analogy:
This is very apt given recent news of birth control pills being given to grade schoolers, without parental permission at schools—and the various arguments made in support of it. (thanks to Angel Gebeau for creating/sharing it!)
Parody that I though up and wanted to share:
Young adults have always been drawn to the allure of climbing water towers in communities; however, the number of deaths associated with young adults falling during climbing towers is alarming to many individuals, but some folks are taking action. The group Save Children From Falling (SCFF) has procured grant money to provide climbing equipment free of charge to any student who requests said equipment. SCFF has had great success and has noted that they have distributed over 5,000 sets of climbing gear in 20 communities alone. Some opposition to SCFF have the objections that giving out climbing equipment encourages young adults to climb these towers; however, SCFF is trying to save the young adults that would already be climbing towers from falling. The climbing equipment is given confidentially so the students do not have to fear their parents awareness of their actions and the students have overwhelmingly shown their support for SCFF's endeavor. The success of SCFF has encourages the state to pass laws that requires that all schools in the state provide training during phy. ed. classes on the proper use of climbing equipment to further prevent accidents from the misuse of the equipment.
A spokeswoman for SCFF said that the outcome for the initial phase of the project has been so positive that they are looking to expand the project to include all potential ages of climbers. The concern is that the elementary students will follow the lead of the high schoolers and will also need such climbing equipment. SCFF hopes to get climbing equipment into the grade school as early as next year.
Via Steve Wood at the Family Life Center http://familylifecenter.net/ referring to the new movie "The Golden Compass":
Now the trilogy's first volume, The Golden Compass, is coming to the big screen in a $150 million production. Newsweek calls Pullman's series "absorbing … like Harry Potter." The tens of millions of children who are addicted to the Potter phenomena will rush to see this latest hit movie. Deceptively, the movie has removed Pullman's explicit attacks against the Catholic Church. Instead the wicked enemy of children and human freedom is only referred to as the "Magisterium." This veiling of Pullman's hatred of Catholicism will permit the movie to rake in millions by not arousing too much religious opposition. Of course, after seeing the movie, the children in the thirty countries in which it is released will rush out to buy and digest Pullman's God-hating and Catholic-bashing books.
You might be wondering what exactly it is that is so abhorrent and detestable about the Catholic Church in Pullman's novels. Well, it's that the Catholic Church is engaged in a conspiracy to separate children from their personal demons. You didn't misread that last sentence. There's already a website where children are asked 20 questions about themselves and then given the name of their personal demon.
Pullman's work is about to bring millions of children into contact with the demonic. By volume three of the trilogy children are invited to join in a diabolical revolt against God, bishops, and priests. His Dark Materials is a brilliant, alluring, and convincing inversion of good and evil.
-Speaking as both a father and one who teaches the Faith---why anyone would take their kids to see such things is beyond me. It reminds me of a popular analogy I've seen. A child really wants to watch a movie rated PG-13. He begs his parents to let him see it---and doesn't give up. The child argues, "it only has a few bad words in it….only a few really violent scenes, etc…" Finally, after the child asks for the umpteenth time, Dad offers the child an idea. Dad's going to bake some brownies---but is going to include some dog poop in them. You see, there's only a real little bit of dog poop in them…the rest of the brownie is fine. Would you eat it? See the connection. Even a little bit of garbage/poison/dog poop is enough to ruin something. Why would you want to put such trash in your mind? Recall the old expression, "garbage in, garbage out".
God bless you! Phil Lawson For the latest info on St. Peter's, check out the parish website: www.saintpetercatholic.com (You can also find old editions of the Areopagus here)
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