Bigger Outrage: Dog Killing or Baby Killing?

I happened to have a hearing yesterday at the Circuit Court in Lansing. I grew up in the area but it’s a court I rarely go to. When I arrived there were three television cameras and a number of photographers. It turns out they were there for the sentencing of Andrew Thompson. A few questions placed to a couple local attorneys and I discovered Thompson is a former medical school student who killed ten or so dogs. It seems he got them from the pound and eventually killed them all. Apparently this was big news in Lansing as the prosecutor spent a good deal of time talking to the press when the charges were originally filed.

Sentencing guidelines called for 0-9 months in the county jail. Thompson had already served over three months and so the judge sentenced him to time served and five years of probation. The local media ran to an animal rights attorney, based in California no less. He feigned outrage over a sentence that clearly was within the guidelines. What Thompson did was evil. But one can’t help but wonder whether these dogs were going to die at the pound anyway. It was pretty clear that Thompson couldn’t handle the stress of medical school and he snapped. He’s already lost everything, to send him away for 2-4 years like the prosecutor wanted seems to be excessive. Not to mention it serves taxpayers no good.

What struck me is the disconnect with the local media firestorm over the Thompson case and the near media blackout of events which occurred at the big leftist netroots conference over last weekend. Speakers at the conference encouraged everyone to “celebrate abortion.” Conference attendees gave a standing ovation to those having abortions. It was a sickening display celebrating murder. Yet the media is uninterested in discussing it, this is the sort of thing they hide under the rug because it makes the left look bad.

The outrage shown Thompson because he killed a few dogs in Lansing was so overdone in relation to what he did. No one likes a dog killer. But the media spent a year on this stupid case, there are dozens of articles online. They sent three television cameras and several still photographers. I’ve been in courtrooms where murderers are there for a hearing, at best you’ll have one camera. So why are there so many for a dog killer?

As a nation we’ve lost our grip on basic morality. The media in part drives this loss of morality but they also reflect it. If people weren’t outraged over Thompson killing a few pound puppies then the media likely would have lost interest. While it’s fine and acceptable to be outraged over what Thompson did, at the end of the day we’re only talking about dogs already destined for death at the pound. Why is there not more outrage over abortion? Where is the outrage when leftist activists “celebrate” the death of babies? Where is the outrage over a standing ovation for women who have had their babies murdered?

What Thompson did was evil. But there are far greater evils in our society. We have an abortion epidemic in this country, well over 1 million babies die every year. Nearly half of them are black. It is a national tragedy, it’s a national outrage. We have one party that celebrates it, cheers it on as though it is a virtue. We have another party that while it maintains a pro-life position never wants to talk about it. We have a society that would rather get worked up over a few dead dogs than a million dead babies. What we need is a return to basic Christian morality. The dog killer is evil but he’s nothing in comparison to a woman who has murdered her own baby or the butcher “doctor” who did it for her.