Saturday, May 16, 2015

Stunted Trees

Back in February, Tim and I went to Panola Mountain and took a guided tour up the mountain.  At the top we saw these amazing trees that had grown through the rocks.  Turns out that the mountain had actually stunted their growth, but the State Parks of Georgia do what they can to preserve them.

Today, with Tim out of the country, I went to the park and walked the trail with my brother Andrew.  Seeing a toddler in a 25-year-old man's body trail along with me was so relaxing.  Autistic people like Andrew are considered inferior in society and even a waste of resources.  These people are usually the same people who want to save the stunted trees on top of Panola.  Which is more valuable in the long run?  Definitely the Andrews.  You don't know joy unless you get lost on Panola's Watershed trail and help your brother down big steps and try to protect him from tripping on tree roots.

Desiring God made an excellent article linking Bullying with Abortion.  The main idea behind bullying is to prevent people from making other people feel inferior based on race, religion, disability, beliefs, etc.  What they always forget is that this applies to developmental stage, too.  Most abortions are aimed at people like Andrew, the stunted trees.  Planned Parenthood goes to the most impoverished neighborhoods, the neighborhoods with the most racial minorities.  Doctors can abort a baby simply for being the wrong gender.  Only 8% of Down Syndrome kids are born. 

How is this not bullying?  Why is it wrong to cut down a stunted tree on a monadnock but perfectly alright to pass laws that can euthanise amazing people like my brother?  Why can't people see the amazing uniqueness caused by their challenges?  Sometimes I even hypocritically think like these people when it comes to people who have terrible personalities and do nothing but sit and watch TV and eat and try to boss other people around.  We are all to blame for this.  How can we take the most annoying person we know and try to see his or her uniqueness and cherish that?

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