Where are our Priorities At?

As you all know I do not like to touch on political/societal issues as I really want to keep this blog focused on life and living it the best with the most fulfillment that we all can.

I just read a story that made me want to vomit and I felt compelled to share it all.

I will include a link to the article below, but I have to warn you, it is hard to read.  I will provide a brief summary for those of you who do not think you can stomach the full article.

Essentially this Dr. named Kermit Gosnell has been operating an abortion clinic in Pennsylvania since 1979.  Pennsylvania law prohibits abortions past 24 weeks.  Dr. Gosnell's practice focused on performing illegal abortions, ones past the 24 week mark. 

The way he performed these abortions was that he would give the women medication to induce labor.  Once the baby was born he would cut their spinal cords in half with scissors. 

His primary clientele were women who were very poor and often minorities.

It is believed that he performed 100's of abortions this way.  At least two women died while being treated at his clinic.

His staff was untrained.  He had a 15 year old high school student performing work that only a licensed medical professional with years of training should do.

Many women who came to his clinic were infected with diseases from Dr. Gosnell reusing unsanitary equipment.

The list of atrocities goes on and on

If you would like to read the entire article I read, click here.  Again I must warn you it is very very hard to read.

Throughout all this going on for the last 30+ years, reports were filed, complaints were made, and yet nothing was done to shut this down!  Dr. Gosnell should have been in jail years ago, yet he was allowed to continue on doing what he was doing, and nothing was done!

Why?

My next question, how come we have not heard about this?  Why is this story not national news?  Why does our National Media put a higher weight on where Jay - Z and Beyonce choose to go on vacation than alerting the public that there are Dr. Gosnell's out there doing horrible things and encouraging us all to be vigilant?

My final question, what is our responsibility?  If the media is an industry and it supposedly gives us, the consumers, more of what we want to be informed about, does that mean we as a society have become so disconnected that Jay Z's vacation and the fight at the Dodgers baseball game has become so important to us that it allows the Dr. Gosnell's of the world to operate free from the public eye?

 Does it mean that we are failing in not putting enough pressure on our political leaders to stop bickering and focus on holding agencies accountable that should be put in place to stop the Dr. Gosnell's?  It seems with each passing day we become more ok with the fact that politicians fabricate, twist, embellish, and just plain out lie about the truth.  These are the people that represent us and we as a society are ok with that?

What can we as a society do to change to help ensure a case like Dr. Gosnell's never happens again? ( I guess I had one more question ;) )

I believe that we need to all step back and acknowledge the  power that each and every one of us posses - the power to change - the power to do good.

We posses weapons of change that we did not several years ago, mainly social media.  We live in a world where an unknown can become a household name over night after their video goes viral on Youtube.  We make this happen by passing on information, we have the power to spread information.  With this power, we can make hero's, we can right wrong's, and we can bring about change.

What ways can we use the power of social media to better hold ourselves, our elected leaders, and our media outlets accountable? 

How can we better be the change we wish to see in the world?

I would love to hear your thoughts, please share below.

Note this is a very sensitive topic please be respectful of everyone's thoughts and feelings.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse