Dated February 12, 2007

Rep. Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.

Dear Madame Speaker:

     My name is John Riedell.  I'm concerned about the future of our country, and question whether many Americans sufficiently see the perils facing us, which should include our vulnerability in the moral sphere.     
     We should consider what George Mason said during the federal convention on August 22nd , 1787: "Every master of slaves is born a petty tyrant. They bring the judgment of Heaven on a country. As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities."      
      While his words are part of our past, we should consider whether they have relevance today. Slavery is gone, but we have, in fact, another whole group of humanity treated unequally.  Millions are destroyed through abortion and practice akin to it, which now includes embryonic stem cell research.
       It's not sound science to cross a moral border as this research does.  Besides, science has umbilical cord and adult stem cells for research.  Conception, not implantation nor any later time, is the frontier of new life, and stem cell research involves the destruction of a human life at the outset, a life already having an immortal soul.  Ours is a universe with a moral dimension, with a governance of it beyond ourselves.
       You are quoted as saying, "The reasons I came to Congress are simple: the children, the children, the children."  But many of "the children" are given no chance at all.  An ancient Mexican historian estimated that one of five children in Mexico were sacrificed.  Our ratio is worse.  I read that over 30% are aborted, sacrificed for the wants of others.  And where?  In the body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
      If you have a military jet to fly you -- an extraordinary protection -- think of the unborn who lack even the ordinary and natural protection of life.
     When the Blessed Virgin made haste to the hill country to visit Elizabeth, a moment enshrined in the Hail Mary, she could've reached there in a matter of days.  Elizabeth said, "...blessed is the fruit of thy womb!  And how have I deserved that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"  This affirms very early on, not only Mary's motherhood, but also the Personhood of her Son, Who was our Embryonic Savior and the Fetal Son of God.  He was never not God, and when Elizabeth spoke these words, it had to include the humanity of Christ within Mary.
      In the Psalms it says, "Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother's womb..."  Today many unknit the little lives within.  They should bless the fruit of the womb, and so should those who govern.
      The preamble of our Constitution says that it was ordained for the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity. Posterity includes the unborn.
      The sin of abortion has taken strong root in this nation, including in the Congress.  God has blessed America, but we cannot expect God to bless America for abortion--and for practice akin to it.  What George Mason spoke of, was national sin, and the taking of the innocent life of the unborn is a grave misuse of liberty, which ill befits a civilized society.
       I believe it prudent for Americans to consider whether we are vulnerable to the calamity and chastisement Mason spoke of---if it isn't already upon us through storms and nature, and in other ways, perhaps pending worse yet to come.
      Abortion imperils not only the child in its early stages but I believe America itself.  For the sake of the unborn and the country, I appeal to you to use your voice to reverse this permissive thinking and practice in our nation.

                                                                              Thank you, John Riedell