Truth And Reconciliation Needed

Tony Riddick is an entrepreneur with three businesses. He is also the son and only child of Elaine Riddick who was raped at age 13 in North Carolina by a man living in her neighborhood.

At the time of the rape, Elaine Riddick lived in a two-bedroom house with her grandmother, Maggie Woodard, known as "Miss Peaches". After her rape North Carolina state staff compelled Miss Peaches, who was illiterate, to sign a form if she wanted to continue to receive public assistance including food stamps. Miss Peaches signed the form with an "X" that permitted the state to sterilize Elaine Riddick without her consent.

North Carolina's actions were legal and based on a 1933 law similar to the Virginia sterilization law upheld in the 1927 US Supreme Court Buck v. Bell decision. Watch Elaine Riddick tell her story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFJNX5bHYVI.

Desmond Tutu retired as archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, in 1996 to head the Truth and Reconciliation Commission where many victims and perpetrators of apartheid discussed the deeds done during apartheid. America needs a truth and reconciliation commission on state-sponsored sterilization. Nationwide more than 60,000 documented cases of state-sponsored sterilization exist based on the type of sterilization law upheld in Buck v. Bell. Also all government records of sterilization have not been made public.

Proverbs 18:15 Amplified Bible says, "The mind of the prudent is ever getting knowledge, and the ear of the wise is ever seeking (inquiring for and craving) knowledge." Like the 1973 US Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized abortion and has not been reversed, neither has the 1927 Buck v. Bell decision legalizing sterilization. In 1974 Elaine Riddick filed a lawsuit accusing the North Carolina Eugenics Board, social workers and the local hospital of unlawfully depriving her of the right to bear children. The US Supreme Court refused to hear her case.

Unjust acts need a hearing, so that knowledge and truth can be tools to right wrongs. Abortion has received more public attention than sterilization. Over the years information made public about abortion has revealed knowledge and truth that abortion kills unborn girls and unborn boys in the first-trimester, second-trimester and third-trimester of pregnancy, and abortion also has taken the life of adolescents and adults. Read my article "Thoughts About Abortion" at http://michelefjackson.blogspot.com/2013/01/thoughts-about-abortion.html.

Abortion is involved in many areas of sexuality and reproduction. Sometimes fertility treatments result in more human lives than a couple desires. Gladys Flores and Jose Abel del Cid went through fertility treatment expecting one or two children. Instead five were conceived. Some people will abort some of the multiple babies. But this couple did not. The Salvadoran quintuplets were given little chance of survival when they were born prematurely on January 19, 1995, at San Salvador’s Maternity Hospital after a 32-week pregnancy. Today Thelma Estefanie, Irvin Norberto, Cristian Israel, Edwin Oswaldo and Milton Oliver del Cid Flores are healthy 18-year-olds contemplating futures in college.

Watch this video of a father testifying on behalf of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act which protects unborn girls and unborn boys age 20 weeks and older from death by abortion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7O2rgG67Ak. Human life is valuable in all its varieties and various ages. Congressman Trent Franks who is in the video has also "adopted" Pastor Saeed Abedini through the Defending Freedoms Project which is an effort of multiple groups including the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission to increase attention and support for human rights and religious freedom through focusing on prisoners of conscience across the globe. Members of Congress "adopt" prisoners of conscience to advocate for their release. Pastor Saeed Abedini is a dual national of the US via naturalization and Iran by birth and is currently in Evin prison in Iran because of his Christian faith and works. Advocate for Pastor Abedini's release by prayer and by signing a petition at http://www.savesaeed.org.

In Iran and in China it is difficult to be a Christian and to raise a family. Bob Fu, a Christian, left China with his wife, who was pregnant with their first child. The Fu family did not have government permission required under China's one-child policy to conceive and to give birth to a child. Today Bob Fu is head of ChinaAid which works for religious freedom and against China's one-child policy. Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp0RDMK-huY.

God gives people permission to celebrate two birthdays, one natural and one spiritual. John 1:12-13 Amplified Bible says, "But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]" Being born of God is living a good life now and forever including overcoming evil in an unbreakable relationship with God the Father, God the Son Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit. Abortion, sterilization, discrimination and a lack of liberty are some evils.

If you have family and friends in North Carolina, please let them know about North Carolina's financial compensation to victims of sterilization. Ten million is to be split equally. Compensation claims must be filed by June 30, 2014, for victims to receive a one-time payment to be distributed June 30, 2015.

North Carolina's compensation excludes some people who were sterilized. To receive compensation victims must be alive as of June 30, 2013, and must prove that they did not receive informed consent. An appeals process exists. What types of sterilization compensation limits are bad? What types are good? Write to:
Michele F. Jackson
P. O. Box 2106
Woodbridge, Virginia 22195

Follow Michele F. Jackson on http://www.Twitter.com/Michelelove30.