a horse died and i dont care

in case you missed it, barbaro, last year's kentucky derby winner was euthanized yesterday.

if you missed it, you're power must have gone out, and your paperboy must have called in sick.

i was literally amazed yesterday, when for over the course of several hours there was a continuous "ticker" running at the bottom of the t.v. screen giving the apparently earth shattering news that barbaro was dead.

granted, i live in louisville kentucky, home of the kentucky derby in the land of horse racing. but as i got online, it was on the front page of all of the major news sites. then as i turned on the television is was on *all* of the major networks. today, it was on the cover of national newspapers.

in the span of 12 hours i saw two separate "heart wrenching" stories of how the death of barbaro was profoundly impacting the country. fans in tears. endless flowers, and countless over sized cards expressing condolences.

i have nothing against animals. i would even call myself an animal lover (except for snakes).

my best friend from my childhood was my black lab, "buffy". i found her when i was seven years old, and we were thick as thieves until she died after my sophomore year in college. we had to have her "euthanized" after she was hit by a car. old age and a bad leg had made her too slow to run from the cars that she was usually scared of. there was no way for her to recover, her body had been crushed, so we had her put to sleep. and i cried. i was over 20 years old and i sobbed.
i say this to make clear that i understand loyalty and devotion to animals. i know what it is like to love an animal.

but yet i do not understand how our country can show so much grief and attention to a horse that was by and large unknown to anyone outside of its owners and caregivers a year ago.

here are some excerpts written on the death of this horse :

Barbaro's death is not for the sports pages. It goes on page one and also
Editorial. People who haven't been to a horse race in their lives feel
undone by the loss.
Animals get hurt being what they are.
Horses run on stilts for legs. If horses didn't run on ideal conditions
on a race track, they would try to split the wind on a lumpy field on
the other side of nowhere.
The loss of Barbaro's life is unsettling for two reasons. One, we
got to know the horse. We saw him blast through the starting gate,
then shake off that violent encounter, and start running as best he was
able, again.
We saw him fall. We saw him taken from the track by van. We followed
the surgeries and were gladdened by the rehabilitation. We saw him wobble
from a barn with casts on both right-side legs. We saw the limp. The
appetite. The bright eyes. We saw what was left of the one hoof, it looked like
a peg.
Another reason the loss felt so heavy was because we've had animals.
Few animals are cowards. Some are born sneaky. But not even chickens are chicken.
– jay cronley espn.com

So many people felt a stake in Barbaro's recovery. They imagined his
pain, grimaced each time he faltered, took heart as each day passed
and he was still alive, making painfully slow progress.
The 2006 Kentucky Derby winner's fight for survival was their fight,
a symbol of strength, courage and comfort -- and, more than anything else,
a source of inspiration.
He was, after all, winner of the world's most famous race, in a sport
desperate for a superstar...
"Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love," co-owner
Gretchen Jackson said.
We just reached a point where it was going
to be difficult for him to go on without pain," Roy Jackson said. "It was
the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there
was a situation where it would become more difficult for him, then it would
be time."

When Barbaro broke down... [w]ithin 24 hours fans across the country
seemed to be caught up in a "Barbaro watch."
Well-wishers young and old showed up at the New Bolton Center with
cards, flowers, gifts, goodies and even religious medals, and thousands
of e-mails poured into the hospital's Web site.
The biggest gift has been the $1.2 million raised since early June for the
Barbaro Fund, money to be put toward needed equipment such as an
operating room table and a raft and sling for the same pool recovery
Barbaro used after his surgeries.
- associated press

and now... the contrast:

As we soberly mark the 34th anniversary of the judicial atrocity known as Roe v.
Wade, the sheer number of innocent victims of that act of judicial tyranny
overwhelms our everyday experience. Even under the most conservative of
estimates (and we lack certainty because we do not have a national, uniform
mandatory abortion reporting requirement), somewhere between 40 and 50
million unborn children have died under this nation’s regime of
abortion.To put that number in some context, the best estimate
is that the total war dead, of all causes, for all of America’s major and minor
wars since 1775 is 1,329,991 or an amount equal to just one year of Roe’s
infernal tally.

- Nikolas T. Nikas ,president and general counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund, a public interest law firm that advocates for life-affirming policies regarding abortion, human cloning and embryo research, and end-of-life issues.

i understand loving an animal. i understand people reacting to it. i understand the public display of sadness.

what i do not understand, is with as much outcry against the war in iraq, the rising death toll of our troops, and the demands to get out to save lives...

i do not understand the relative silence where there should be outrage, grief, and action.

the following is not for the weak or faint of heart. i debated whether or not to even link to it. but i do so with hopes that these images will spread and help stop the killing of human beings... babies, whose worth is not determined by success on a race track, but by being an image bearer of god.

i cannot stress enough the sensitive nature of this video. it is graphic. it shows aborted children. the only reason i link to it is for the purpose of showing it to those you know who hear abortion and think "woman's choice" with no thought of the death of a human. i am repulsed by the images. but i am more repulsed that what is shown in these images is legal.

i strongly advise expectant parents not to watch.

a graphic video of the horror and violence of abortion. viewer discretion is advised.



HT: justin taylor