Books, Books, and More Books

I finally, I say finally but I really wish I hadn't finished the latest Harry Potter novel. Great book. Go out and get it if you don't already have it.

I was out running around the other day and stopped off at a bookstore. While purchasing a couple books for jaymen, the clerk was pointed out a book by Marc Pittman saying he had just been in days prior for a book signing. I have no idea who this guy is, but on the cover is a picture of a football player in uniform taken during a game. I said I wasn't a football fan and she said it's not really about football. She said it is about a man whose son dies in a car accident. Of course the Child Life Specialist in me wants to read it because it sheds light on the father's perspective of grief. So now I am about to start on Raising Cole. It's already after midnight, so I have a feeling it will have to wait until tomorrow.

While we are on the topic of books, there is one I have been thinking about a lot lately. I read Letters to Gabriel probably in '98 or '99. I ordered it through the Couple to Couple League and is published by CCC of America. The book is written by Karen Garver Santorum, Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's wife. Senator Santorum is known for leading the ban on partial birth abortions. The author began a diary the day she found out she was pregnant with Gabriel Michael. Each entry is a letter to her unborn child. Near the end of the book, the author was discussing one of the days during the debate on partial birth abortions. Here's my favorite excerpt of the book:

A senator was thanking the women who had had partial birth abortions for coming forward with their stories. She said, ". . . they are crying. They are crying because they do not understand how Senators could take away an option . . . They are crying because they do not believe that those Senators truly understand what this meant for their families . . . "

Daddy said in response, "The Senator . . . said she hears the cries of the women outside this Chamber. We would be deafened by the cries of the children who are not here today to cry because of this procedure."

The Washington Post described what happened next. "Republican Senator Rick Santorum turned to face the opposition and in a high, pleading voice cried out, "Where do we draw the line? Some people have likened this procedure to an appendectomy. That's not an appendix," he shouted, pointing to a drawing of a fetus. "That is not a blob of tissue. It is a baby. It is a baby."

"And then, impossibly, in an already hushed gallery, in one of those moments when the floor of the Senate looks like a stage set, with its small wooden desks somehow too small for the matters at hand, the cry of a baby pierced the room, echoing across the chamber from an outside hallway. No one mentioned the cry, but for a few seconds, no one spoke at all."

How profound is that? Mother Theresa wrote the foreword to this book. She said "Every human life, from the oldest adult to the very youngest unborn child, is a gift of God ~ to love and be loved."