All of us should be up about down

[Guest guest]

All of us should

be up about down

Posted By Rev.

Strachan

Posted 11 hours

ago

" None of

us, no not one, is perfect; and were we to love none who had imperfections, the

world would be a desert for our love "

- THOMAS

JEFFERSON

I saw them as I

headed home this past week, there they were on the Boulevard, two identical

billboards, side by side, the face of the same child in duplicate. I don't

recall that I've seen advertising like this before, a double visual message.

Intentional? I

think yes! The promoter obviously wanted to give passing motorists doing 90 km

optimum exposure to his ad.

There they were,

two beautiful faces of the same child with Down Syndrome. I say 'Down' and not

'Down's' for some years ago, here in North America, we decided to refer to this

unique birth characteristic as the former, thus 'Down Syndrome'.

At the same time

as I first saw the compelling billboards, I had picked up the morning newspaper

to read about two suicide bombings in Iraq.

In all the major

reporting agencies that I checked, from The New York Times to The Ottawa

Citizen, all of them told the identical story.

Two women with

Down Syndrome were sent into the marketplace with explosives strapped to their

bodies. The bombs were detonated by someone else with a remote control. The

dual image of the child on the billboards with the accompanying caption from

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society, " Celebrate Being, " was still on

my mind.

" How could

they? " I thought. " How in God's name could they? "

As despicable as

it is to send a women or a child out on a mission of self-destruction, it is

doubly despicable to send a Down Syndrome woman out on a suicide bombing

mission. How incredible that this fascist terrorist movement that purports to

having a superior ideology, devalues life to such a degree as this.

It is barbaric,

it is unconscionable, it is devilish.

I am sure that

many of you are like me. When I look at the face of a child with Down Syndrome,

something stirs within me. I'm not exactly quite sure what that something is,

I'm not sufficiently articulate to put these inner feelings into words.

But I see

innocence and vulnerability that evokes a deep compassion, and to think that

someone would use them as one news organization reported as 'mules' to further

their fiendish purposes, leaves me in stunned shock!

I cannot

possibly imagine what a parent with a child with Down Syndrome felt when they

read what I read in the news.

I've never

walked in these shoes, never worn that T-shirt! We are living in a world that

becomes more terrifying every day. Life is being devalued at an alarming rate.

Whether we talk

about ethnic cleansing and tribal warfare on the African continent, the torture

of detainees by the United States, the Chinese abortion policy, the 15-year-old

who murdered all his family, the infant left in a Toronto stairwell, Canada's

immigrant sex slaves or the caged combatants of the televised International

Fight League who pummel each other into bloodied submission, the value of human

life globally has depreciated to an all time low.

And when that

occurs society's innocent and vulnerable are most at risk.

There is thus a

great need in Canadian society to uphold the dignity of every human life, for

no life is of any less importance than any other life.

Every individual

from their pre-natal state to the moment they breathe their last breath on this

planet is worthy of love, and needs to be loved, regardless of their age,

gender, color, creed, ethnicity, sexual orientation - regardless of how disadvantaged

they are physically or mentally.

The CEO of a

major corporation has no more value than an autistic child, an NHL All-Star no

more value than a paraplegic, the high-society debutante, of no greater value

than a street prostitute, the spelling 'B' whiz kid - of no more value than the

dyslexic child.

The comparisons

are endless, the message the same, seen through the measuring stick of God's

eyes, men and women everywhere are equal, all of us worthy of being dignified,

loved and protected.

The Down

Syndrome child is born with a genetic abnormality in the 21st chromosome. The

triplication, (three times) of this chromosome, a genetic quirk, resulting in

the facial features we've come to see - and should I say, love.

That's why World

Down Syndrome Day is always on the 21st day of the third month. It is

unimaginable for you and I to think of these two women strapped with explosives

walking into an Iraqi market.

Unimaginable to

think that some would take advantage of another's innocence and vulnerability,

to further their own insidious purposes.

The child

duplicated on the billboard, a mile from home, right there on the boulevard is,

as much as you and I, a creation of God, born to be loved, cherished and

protected.

" Celebrate

Being " says The Canadian Down Syndrome Society. I for one " am up

about 'down'! " The world I live in is a much better place because of the

presence of the 1 in 800 with the syndrome.

Indeed there's

something compellingly beautiful about those billboards on the boulevard. It's

hard to pass them by.

" Love

Doesn't Count Chromosomes, " says a T-shirt for the society.

How true that

is. It's all about love! A word, should I say, that's strangely foreign to

terrorists.

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