@Normal:Return to the understanding

I just came back from two weeks of visiting children and grandchildren. The timing of my visit (including Alaska in January) was determined by the Right to Life March in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 23. This was the fourth year I have been able to attend and it is such a moving experience.

The most remarkable aspect is seeing thousands upon thousands of young men and women. These teenagers and young adults are so enthusiastic, so full of joy and hope, despite the horror they are protesting. For they know what abortion means; theirs is the generation that has been decimated by it.

We live in a culture superficially dedicated to human rights. These young people know just how superficially. They know that each of their lives was meaningless in the eyes of the law until they were born. They could have been legally killed at any time before they were born, just as so many of their compatriots were. One of the most meaningful slogans I saw said, “I am a Death Roe Survivor.”

These young people understand that if a person has no right to life then he or she has no rights. If the government can declare one person legally not a person it can do the same to any person or group. Our Declaration of Independence had it right. The right to life is the fundamental right, an inalienable right that our government can not take away. We must return to that understanding.

Gesualdo C. Schneider

Middlesex