Sydney Hay for Congress

Sanctity of Life

I believe in the sanctity of human life.

Through my personal experience and through a lifetime of involvement in the pro-life cause, I have learned that the pro-abortion lobby has a very low opinion of women in America. Abortion not only kills children, it hurts women.

This is why I actively support organizations like Crisis Pregnancy Centers that provide abortion alternatives. This is why we should do all we can to promote adoption.

There are those who believe that Americans no longer have the character our founders once had -- that we don’t have the character to secure the blessings of liberty to our posterity. They want us to accept a culture that worships self above all and choice above everything.

John Quincy Adams said “Posterity...you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

Good use of it. Not when we there have been over 40 million innocent children sacrificed on the altar of choice.

I can think of nothing that strikes a deeper blow against our nation's character than abortion on demand.

As Ronald Reagan said in a speech that ignited the conservative movement in America over 40 years ago, it is time for choosing.

Will we as a people continue to choose convenience over conscience? Over life? Over humanity? It is no longer possible for anyone to hide behind scientific uncertainty to defend a "pro-choice" position. The truth is unequivocal. It is indeed a child.

And if we continue to get this wrong as a nation, if we continue down a path that cheapens life by allowing the worth of a human being to be determined by whether we were wanted or are free from handicap, not only will we lose potentially another 40 million plus Americans, we lose our character as a people.

So, just as our founders did in Philadelphia in 1776, I believe that we should "mutually pledge to each other our lives our fortunes and our sacred honor" – to, as our Constitution says, "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. " Our posterity. Future generations. Those not yet born.

Sydney has been endorsed and/or supported by several national pro-life organizations including Republican National Coalition for Life, Concerned Women for America and National Pro-life Alliance.


Ronald Reagan said “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last, best hope of mankind on earth or sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done. "

For this reason, as a member of Congress, I will stand for life.

Marriage

Marriage is the foundational building block of American society. It is central to promoting bedrock traditional values and raising children in a healthy environment. And even though states like Arizona have passed "Defense of Marriage" laws, rulings by liberal judges in various parts of the country are making those laws inadequate to protect traditional marriage. Americans who are not married but would like to make sure someone can make health care decisions for them in crisis, or inherit their property or any one of dozens of other things that are held up as arguments against marriage amendments can be handled through legal contracts today. It is not necessary to undermine marriage in all of America to take care of those needs. It is for this reason that I support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution declaring that marriage in the United States shall consist solely of the union of a man and a woman.

Religious Liberty

Someone once asked me, “What principles would you stake your life on?” What a great question. Most people probably never think about such a question. I am convinced those who came before us and gave us this grand experiment in freedom and self-government dealt with that question for themselves and for the nation they were founding and that indeed they staked their lives, (and their fortunes and their sacred honor) upon a few great and enduring principles. It is said that after signing the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin turned to the gathered assembly and said “We must hang together, gentlemen, else we shall most assuredly hang separately.” And he wasn’t kidding. They staked their lives on it. They staked their lives on a few enduring principles.

It is those Declaration Principles that drove them -- that drive me in this run for Congress. What are they?

We have memorized these words from childhood. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.” A lot of time and attention in the public discourse has been given to the pursuit of equality throughout our nation’s history. Sometimes, we’ve gotten it right. Sometimes not. Sometimes we have corrected injustice, sometimes not so good. But, I want to talk about the first few words of that sentence – the part that is often glossed over as insignificant. But perhaps today they are the most important. We hold these truths to be self-evident. Self evident. Patently obvious. Crystal clear. I want to focus on the word "truths." Truths.

Declaration Principle number one: Truths

There is such a thing as truth. I fear we are fast becoming a culture that denies that there is any such thing.

I had the privilege of attending a seminar on the media and politics at the Reagan Presidential library. The moderator of the discussion was Tom Brokaw. Someone asked him what obligation he felt to present the truth on the nightly news rather than some editorialized, biased spin. In the wake of several media scandals that had recently occurred where some reporters had faked sources of their stories, I thought it was a good question. I was unprepared for and shocked by the answer for, in so many words, Tom Brokaw said, “The truth?…There is no such thing.”

While shocking to me, unfortunately I think that attitude has become all too pervasive in American life today. A couple of common American adages come to mind. How about “Perception becomes reality.” Or “A lie often enough repeated becomes the truth.”

And we wonder at the corporate corruption scandals that have rocked Wall Street. All revolving around financial reports that were designed to put the best “spin” on the financial picture of the companies involved. And in the process “pulling one over on” the investors.

And this lack of Truth in American life today threatens the very future of our nation in a way that no foreign power has ever been able to do.

When there is no longer any such thing as truth, then there is no right or wrong, good or evil, no moral absolute. Is murder wrong because it is against the law? Or is it against the law because it is wrong? The future of our American society depends upon our recognizing the existence of Truth.

Declaration Principle number two: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (meaning mankind) are created equal

People usually focus on the word equal. The equality part is important – don’t get me wrong – but the part that is largely missing in the public political discourse today is the created part. It’s the created part that gives us any hope of achieving the equal part. And it’s necessary for Principle number one to survive. So principle number two is this: There is a Higher Power. The author, if you will, of ……Principle number one: TRUTH.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident.” That “all men are created equal.” Not equal by government edict or by an act of any king or monarch. We are not equal by virtue of any particular article of the Constitution or law passed by Congress – we are created equal. The created part is vital. A Higher Power – an ultimate author of truth is necessary for liberty to stand. For without truth there is another thing there is no more of. There is no more Liberty.

Declaration principle number three. Our rights are endowed

The Declaration continues…. “and that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” They are God-given. Unalienable. This is a vital component of what makes us a free society. We are raised from childhood in this country to accept the concept of human rights. That we as Americans are a free people. Included in those freedoms are freedom of speech, of the press… the right of self preservation….how I like to refer to the Second Amendment. And freedom of religion. But, we often fail to teach our children why we are secure in those rights or should be. What guarantees them? Why, as an American, you should expect the freedom to live your life as you see fit with a minimal of government interference. Why you should expect to be able to worship in the church of your choice without fear…or to be able to worship… nothing if you want. Why? Why should you expect that? What gives us the confidence that this is our heritage, our birth-right as Americans?

Freedom only works if we acknowledge what is so clearly set forth in the Declaration of Independence… that our rights come from the hand of a higher power. Whether you believe in it or not. That doesn’t matter. Your rights on not dependent on whether you believe you have them or not, whether you believe in the source of them or not. They are not dependent on you. You’ve got ‘em. You see, if government gives you your rights… then government can just as easily take those rights away. If any individual like a king or despot gives you your rights, they can take them away. If a group of individuals – even the majority by a vote – would be the source of your rights, well you just might lose the vote on your rights the next time. That would be like two coyotes and a chicken voting on what’s for dinner. Democracy easily turns to mob rule without the fundamental understanding that government of the people, by the people and for the people only works if an individual’s rights are unalienable … only if we, each have a fundamental worth and dignity as a human being. And that fundamental, inalienable worth only has validity if one acknowledges the true source of that worth and dignity.

So, the first three Declaration Principles show us in part how our founders would answer: What would you stake your life on?
  1. There is Truth
  2. There is a Higher Power.
  3. Our rights are unalienable
These three principles equal Liberty.

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Sydney Hay to Congress