Pro-life means all lives

To the editor:

While driving around Cape Girardeau lately, I've noticed many yards and other property with no campaign signs except "Vote Pro-life," as if this election were a one- issue election. It isn't, but let's just pretend it is for a minute.

Pro-life means, or should mean, pro all life. It should mean that the lives of our sick and elderly are valued. It should mean that the lives of our men and women in the military are valued, not sacrificed in a war that might have been avoided. We should be indignant at such a waste. Every life matters. It should mean that the life of an expectant mother matters as much as that of her unborn child. It should mean that women as well as men the world over have their lives valued. That's pro-life.

Who could argue? The Bush administration supposedly believes in pro-life, but it picks and chooses whose lives to value. The life the administration means by pro-life is an unborn baby's life. As for other lives, they are negotiable. This view is overly simplistic, and life isn't simple. Complications are abundant, and some room for other, more comprehensive views of reality must be recognized.

This election is much too important to limit a vote to one issue.

PAMELA HEARN, Cape Girardeau