Where Are We Now? Where Are We Headed?

We have had the scourge of legal infanticide with us now for nearly four decades. The political fortunes of this pestilence have ebbed and flowed over the years, but the number of victims has continued to mount almost unabated.

Can this epidemic of death get any worse? Yes – it can and it will - short of Divine Intervention.

Why? Because the guardians of the rats that first brought this plague on board are now in Complete Control of the ship!

Daily, the captain issues new regulations specifically designed to provide ideal conditions for the unrestricted proliferation of his pet rodents and their attending fleas. And his crew has the ship’s gold with which to buy cooperation, and the shot and powder to enforce his will on any who resist

And so, the medical officer is ordered to assist with the infestation - or risk demotion to cabin boy. And the pharmacist’s mate is instructed to provide succor for the vermin - or be thrown overboard.

Soon, the chaplain will be whipped at the mast - if he wakes up long enough that is, to protest this state of affairs. And any occupant of the hold below who dares complain of the pervasive stench of death interfering with their slumbers, will invite a long walk off a short plank.

"Listen!" shouts the watchman high above in the rigging. “Can you hear a faint but irresistible melody across the deep? Is it not the song of that ancient Siren from the abyss, enticing our ship toward some point of no return?"

But the deck below lolls silent in the mist. For the passengers, like the chaplain, lie dreaming in their berths. And the captain is huddled in the cabin with his crew and furry minions, charting a course to carry the plague to new and unsuspecting ports of call.

So, the ship sails on into the dusk, undeterred.

Somewhere ahead in the gathering gloom, lies the Bay of Reckoning, prepared and waiting. Soon, the current will be inescapable and the destination will be sure.

Faintly now, the warning from the watchman echoes through the fog...

But, the ship sails on into the dark night, undeterred.

Drawing ever nearer to that final anchorage – where plague infested vessels are first purified with flame, then scuttled to the forgotten depths below …