With this election, I believe I've discovered an instance in which the democratic ideal is truly being tested. Consider: democrats consider themselves the champions of the weak and oppressed. The motto at the base of the State of Liberty is our motto. "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Langston Hughes poem speaks to the core of democratic values

O, let my land be a land where Liberty

Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

But opportunity is real, and life is free,

Equality is in the air we breathe.

As liberals, as catholics (in my case and the case of many) we find ourselves unsure. We root for the underdog. We seek to give rights to the weak and oppressed. In abortion we have finally found a wrong the gives us pause. We want to help those who cannot help themselves, but we simply seem unable to DO that for these two groups. If we help women, we destroy the unborn. If we help the unborn, we destroy the freedoms of women.

What do we do? The church seems fully decided. It is the duty of catholics to help the unborn at the possible detriment of women. In an unusual break, the democratic party also seems fully decided. It is the duty of democrats to help women at the detriment of the unborn.

Both views seem simple and weak minded. They are both correct. They are both wrong. They are both blind to the realities of the opposite side.

A professor of mine argued that with enough creativity, it is possible for everyone to come out happy in a conflict. And so I have homework for any readers I might have (i.e. I guess nobody). Find an answer. It can be brilliant. It can be idiocy. Just find it. How do we stop destroying the unborn, while maintaining the rights of all women?

I wish you good luck and pray you don't stop without an answer.