Another Emmett Till: Today’s Spark for Societal Change

May 17, 2013 | 0 comments

By: Dan Bartkowiak

Let me tell you a story. It’s a tragic story you may have heard about — one that needs to be told and won’t soon be forgotten.

It’s about a very young boy, who through grievous circumstances captured the hearts and minds of a nation.

Our story takes place in a rough neighborhood. Segregation runs deep, as it was “the way of the world” at that time.

This young boy never had a permanent home. He was an innocent boy, one with a life full of experiences ahead of him.

Tragically, this young boy was brutalized by a ruthless man. Witnesses say they could hear the sounds of the boy struggling and crying — helpless to protect himself from the harm the man was causing — but they did nothing to stop it.

The man ultimately carried the boy off and ended his life, putting a hole through his head.

The body, bloody and broken, was hidden away. Eventually, it would be recovered. It was then determined to show what was left of the boy to the media, for all the public to see. It was important to do so, for it was the only way you could fully grasp the brutality and injustice of the killing.

The murderer was caught and brought to trial. The truly perplexing part of the story is the perpetrator admitted to the killing, yet didn’t believe he was guilty of any criminal charges or that he had done anything wrong.

EmmitTillNow, what’s even more tragic is that this is not just a story of one but of two boys. One is Emmett Till, an African-American who at 14 years old was brutally murdered in Mississippi for flirting with a white woman. The other is “Baby Boy B,” a 28-week old “fetus” born alive and murdered in Philadelphia, his maimed body discarded into a shoebox by his killer, abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

Emmett Till’s death and his open-casket funeral pricked consciences and began a conversation around the country in the 1950s about the social divide of racial segregation. His racially motivated murder sparked the effort for change.

Another spark is beginning, as more people find out about the death of “Baby Boy B.” Abortion is the great social divide of today. Ignorance and tolerance of the brutality of second- and third-trimester abortions have been caused by a societal and political aversion to tough conversations about abortion. That must change.

While what happened to “Baby Boy B” — one of the babies dropped from charges against Gosnell — as he took his first breaths was horrific and illegal, the same gruesome savagery is considered legal in our country when it takes place inside the womb. As USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers put it, medical advances prove “that late-term abortion is not a moral gray area, and we need to stop pretending it is.

America must pull back the curtain. Read the grand jury report against Gosnell. Watch the online documentary called “3801 Lancaster,” with interviews of women who suffered at the hands of Gosnell and his horrid clinic. Learn exactly what happens during these procedures. Once we’ve “looked inside the open casket,” explain how we as a nation can, in good conscience, allow late-term abortions to continue.

Emmett Till’s death sparked much-needed societal change. Great injustice could no longer be overlooked. If the word gets out and people truly listen, the violent deaths of “Baby Boy B” (and A, C, D, E, F and G) and the Gosnell trial will do the same.

 

(This appeared in the Bucks County Courier Times and LifeNews.com)