Thanking mom for not erasing him
from:whittierdailynews.com
“Cannon’s new music video “Can I Live?’ tells a tale that’s very different from the gangsta’s paradise of dirty dancing and booty calls. In the song, the hip-hop pop star tells his life story or at least the beginning of it and his mom’s close call with an abortion.
Cannon, 24, appears in the video as a ghost and sings, “Mommy, I don’t like this clinic. Hopefully you’ll make the right decision, and don’t go through with the knife decision.’
A scared teen, his mother was on a gurney that’s how close the call was but got up, and, at least in the video version, ran.
He points out to his mother something she got on some level or else she wouldn’t have gotten up: “That’s a life inside you, look at your tummy. What is becoming Ma, I am Oprah- bound. You can tell he’s a star from the ultrasound.’
The video images tell a stirring, gripping story regardless of where you fall in the abortion debate (more…)
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For starters, I hope that the anti-abortion crowd does not make Cannon into the poster child of the movement. I think that it would add too much noise to his personal message. I, too am glad that my mom did not abort me. She had every “reason” to do it, but she decided to keep me. One last thing, my mom decided to have me with very little money and we lived in inner-city Philadelphia at the time. So this crap that abortion is a much needed option for the poor needs to flushed.
I have already posted my views on this issue a while back. If you have not read it already, I think you will find it interesting.
A Must Read for Every African-American: A TBI Special Report
He won’t be made into a poster child, put he or the song will be pointed too often I’m sure.
Comment by Keith | June 22, 2005
Can We Live?
A few weeks back, while viciously flipping through channels, I decided to pop-in on BET to see just what type of debacle Robert Johnson has left. While I generally associate a high degree of irrelevance and painful ignorance with every…
Trackback by Nykola.com | June 23, 2005
first, let me say that, with all due respect, just because your mother made her decision with very little money doesn’t mean that all poor women should make the same choice, or that it isn’t a much-needed option. also, i think the most radical antis are not likely to become very aware of cannon or his music. plus, he states at the end of the song that he’s not really taking a pro-choice or anti-choice statement, rather he’s relaying his own story and feelings.
Comment by rhythm | June 23, 2005
just because your mother made her decision with very little money doesn’t mean that all poor women should make the same choice
Why not? Especially if there are others out there who would want that child?
Think of all the poets (like yourself) that have been silenced in the name of “not having enough money to take care of” or just convenience.
Did you read that other link that I provided?
As far as your last part goes, you will be suprised just how far some will go to brand somebody for their cause (that goes for both sides on this issue and any other issue out there).
Comment by Duane | June 23, 2005
well, as far as poets that would have been silenced, i guess i’m arrogant enough to believe that my soul would have made it to this planet one way or another. but i do support the belief that women deserve options. and who’s decision is it to condemn someone for choosing abortion out of what you call “just convenience” but to allow an exception for someone if her life is in danger…
besides, no one ever really deals with the issue of all of the children who are abused as a result of having been unwanted or the ones who are put into orphanages and never adopted…
and yes, i read the other link you provided before…that’s a whole other issue…
Comment by rhythm | June 23, 2005
Thanks for returning. This is a good conversation.
i guess i’m arrogant enough to believe that my soul would have made it to this planet one way or another.
Interesting.
So do you also believe that the souls of other children that have been aborted have also made it “one way or another”?
and who’s decision is it to condemn someone for choosing abortion out of what you call “just convenience†but to allow an exception for someone if her life is in danger…
Bingo! This is the question at hand!!!
Why are we making the decision on who is born and who doesn’t get born? From where do we get that moral authority? Tell me, why would any woman want to eliminate her child? Is a mother’s love selective?
besides, no one ever really deals with the issue of all of the children who are abused as a result of having been unwanted or the ones who are put into orphanages and never adopted…
Untrue! There are many people and organizations that are dealing with this issue. In fact, a quick search online will reveal that fact. There are also a significant amount of men (yes black men as well) that do love kids in general want long to take care of them. Unfortunately in our society, we have made this kind of care and concern strictly a “woman’s thing”.
There are a couple of issues that come out of your point:
#1- Newborn children are always in high demand. Even black children are being adopted to white families in countries like Canada.
#2 - As a child becomes older, it becomes very difficult for that child to get adopted because very few people in our self-centered society that want to take that kind of time with a child that is no longer “cute”. We have created a society where something like marriage and commitment have become just mere conveniences to get what we want. Nevermind the children that are involved.
Do we have a lot of children in the world today that are being “victimized”? You better believe it. However, I do not think that these children would have been better off not being born. That is what our emotions tell us. As long as all of us have air in our lungs, we have a chance to make a difference in the lives of these children.
I heard someone say a while back, one of the most valuable pieces of property is the local graveyard because in these graves lie unfulfilled dreams that could have touched the lives of millions or just one. Could it be the reason why we have yet to find a cure for AIDS is because that person with the answer was aborted?
Comment by Duane | June 23, 2005
One more thing that I forgot to add (as if I did not say enough in the last comment
). Just as woman have a responsibility to carry a child full term, men (the fathers) have a responsibility to take care of both the child and the mother weather or not they are getting along. If both the mother and father decide to give the child away for adoption, then it should be a decision where they both agree. Once the child is gone, then there is really nothing binding these parents together other than the fact they had a child together or if they were legally married.
So the father has responsibility in this as well. I think too much attention is just given to the woman becuae she is the one carrying the child for 9+ months. A man that does not do all he can to care for this child while he/she is unborn is has already commited a “type” of abortion. Once they child is born, then they both need to decide how to care for the child (keep it, adoption, etc.). Remember, the child is made up of both the man and woman and both are equally responsible.
Comment by Duane | June 23, 2005
i think it is a sad day and time when the concern for a fetus (or in most cases, an embryo) is put ahead of that for the woman involved. and i also think it is very easy for a man to have an opinion on a position which he will never have to experience. and in regards to a woman’s “responsibility to carry a child full term,” no one puts this much focus on fetuses lost to miscarriage. no one wonders what diseases they might have cured or what they might have been had they ever become people. why aren’t there funerals for fetuses spontaneously aborted??? why, because that would be silly. just as is this argument. no one should be able to force me to have a baby, just as no one should be able to force me not to.
Comment by rhythm | June 23, 2005
I think it is a sad day and time when the concern for a fetus (or in most cases, an embryo) is put ahead of that for the woman involved.
What about the man involved? Once a baby is conceived, it becomes the responsibility of both. A child at any stage of development reminds us that there is something greater than us to sacrifice and live for.
and i also think it is very easy for a man to have an opinion on a position which he will never have to experience.
But I do have plenty of experience of sticking with my woman and providing for her while she was pregnant and beyond. This is exactly what I am talking about here. If a man refuses to care for his unborn child and the woman that is carry this child, then that man is just as guilty as if he committed abortion himself.
no one puts this much focus on fetuses lost to miscarriage. no one wonders what diseases they might have cured or what they might have been had they ever become people. why aren’t there funerals for fetuses spontaneously aborted??? why, because that would be silly.
Again, you are really generalizing here. I have a friend of mine who wife delivered around the same time as my wife. While the baby lay in his mom’s arms, she (the baby) died in the hospital. They had a funeral for this unborn child, but I can tell you, the pain of loosing this child is still with them. Before my big head came along, my mom had a miscarriage. From what she told me, it was a girl. It bothered her for years. I have story after story that I can provide for you where loosing an unborn child was devastating to the parents (some cases just the mom–if she was single).
Ultimately like anything else, the decision is of course yours.
You have given me something to write about tomorrow that I think is a very important issue. Thank you so much for taking the time to discuss this issue.
Comment by Duane | June 23, 2005
[...] such con traversal issues without tearing each other down. Please go to the post entitled Thanking mom for not erasing him to catch up on the discussion. During th [...]
Pingback by The Black Informant » Blog Archive » A Woman’s right? | June 23, 2005
rhythm,
I couldn’t wait. I just did a post on this issue.
Comment by Duane | June 23, 2005
[...] on Conversation by rfburn @ 8:42 pm. Filed under Pro-Life I’ve been watching a conversation over at The Black Informant that I find very inter [...]
Pingback by Little Bit Tired, Little Bit Worn » Blog Archive » Abortion Conversation | June 23, 2005
Excellent job, Duane!
Comment by Steven J. Kelso Sr. | June 24, 2005
“i think it is a sad day and time when the concern for a fetus (or in most cases, an embryo) is put ahead of that for the woman involved…”
I hope y’all don’t mind me butting in…
The CDC and Planned Parenthood (a racist organisation - established to eliminate minorities/blacks) state that 73% of all abortions are made during the second trimester. That means the baby is more than 90 days old. Even growing findernails already. Heartbeats, brainwaves and whatnot.
As far as putting the concern for the “baby” ahead of the mother, the CDC states that less than 400 American women each year have complications that may lead to death during delivery. How many actually die? The CDC said only 1% of those (4).
Straw men (women) rhythm…
Comment by Tye | June 26, 2005