Songs In The Keyes Of Life

Alan Keyes discredited himself with his bizarre fill-in Senate candidacy in Illinois last year, but when it comes to framing pro-life issues there is still no one--and I mean no one--better.

From his column published after Terri Schiavo's death yesterday:

[In the Weimar Republic], as now, the corruption of conscience began under the specious pretext of saving disabled people from the supposedly oppressive burden of living out their lives. By undermining the people's sensitivity to atrocity against innocent, vulnerable individuals they prepared them callously to ignore and explain away massive atrocity against large groups and whole races and nations. If the death of one innocent helpless person counts for nothing because it is sanctioned by the formal appearance of legality, then the death of millions counts for nothing when it appears in the same disguise – a million times nothing is nothing.

This is the calculus of evil. The judicially mandated murder of Terri Schiavo shows that it is already deeply in our midst. Already we find the guards who will deny food and water to those shriveling with starvation; already we find the jurists and media hounds who will order or advocate their destruction; already we find the public officials who acknowledge the injustice but do nothing, when their sworn duty is to defend and protect constitutional right.

One of the strong memories I will take away from this episode will be Jeb Bush's effeminate, quivering plaintiveness as the supreme executive of the state of Florida was faced down by a county judge and some sheriff's deputies.

But he felt the Schindler family's pain, and in 21st century clintonized America that's even better than actually doing something about it.