Thanksgiving Edition
 
Let Us Give Thanks! Because --

 
Historical Forms of Killing that Used to be Socially Approved and Rampant But Can Barely be Found Now:

• Duels
• Gladiator games
• Ceremonial human sacrifice
• Burning of “witches” and “heretics”

 
Historical Forms of Killing that Used to be Socially Approved and Widespread Yet are Now Relatively Uncommon in the World:

• Executions for crimes other than homicide
• Public killing or torture to “set an example”
• Law-enforced slavery
• Lynching, tar-and-feathering, and other vigilante mob violence

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 The Death Penalty is a Shadow of What it Used to Be:
 
        In centuries past, most societies used executions and often did so for fairly minor offenses. Now most industrialized countries have abolished it, and exceptions such as the United States and China execute a very small number compared to just a century ago. In the U.S., 15 states have abolished it, and the movement to abolish it in the remaining states is in good shape.

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Euthanasia and Infanticide are Shadows of What They Used to Be:
 
        The very word “euthanasia” is Greek for “good death,” showing how ancient the idea is. Infanticide has been common throughout historical times on all continents; exceptions have been prohibitions in ancient Egypt, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – yet even there, infanticide in the Middle Ages in “Christian” Europe was commonly noted by the writers of the time.
        While feticide is still rampant, the killing of an infant is now usually reported as shocking. Moves to allow a slippery slope from abortion to infanticide in the 1970s and 1980s have mainly quieted down under the gaze of the disabilities-rights movement. The recent “death panels” debate showed that an accusation of sneaking euthanasia into the system was regarded by the health reform’s proponents as ridiculous; whether it was actually ridiculous or not, it’s progress for it to be stated so.  

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War Death Rates Are in Decline:

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Nuclear Weapons are in Steep Decline:
 
        At their peak in 1967, the U.S. had a stockpile of 31,255. In 2010, the Obama administration released the figure of 5,113 – a decline of 84%. The START treaty is to lower them further.  Of course, this is still more than adequate to destroy the entire world several times over, but the trend is in the right direction. Our hard work on this is paying off and more hard work bids fair to do the same.   

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The Abortion Trend is Downward:
 
        In the U.S., the number of abortions shot up during the 1970s because of Roe v. Wade, and then leveled off in the 1980s. Through these next two decades, there’s been a steady downward trend in the numbers, the abortion rate per 100,000 women, the ratio of abortion to live birth, and an especially steep decline in the number of clinics, from over 2,000 at their height to around 700 now. Far fewer hospitals do them.
        Two countries that did have legal abortion have now banned them – Poland and Nicaragua – and these have both been followed by an actual decline in maternal mortality and, in Poland’s case, lower numbers of infanticides.  
 

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Quotation of the Week
Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963
Letter from a Birmingham Jail


  
         "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."