Christine M. Flowers: One tiny vote for John McCain

SCRANTON made the big time this year. Sort-of native daughter Hillary Clinton was shaking glass from her hair as she hammered away at that ceiling.

Native son Joe Biden was tapped to be the Democratic veep pick.

Native son Bob Casey Jr. made lots of new friends at the Democratic convention by making nice on the abortion issue.

But perhaps the most important appearance Scranton will make in this election is in the person of a man named Joseph Martino.

You've heard of Joe the Plumber - well, this is Joe the Bishop.

Joseph Martino is head of

Scranton's Catholic diocese, which may hold the key to at least one battleground state. Catholics are a good bellwether for national trends. And Bishop Martino is trying to make sure his flock trends in the right direction.

He recently issued a letter warning that "being 'right' on taxes, education, health care, immigration and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of human life."

This is a swipe at prominent cafeteria Catholics and noted theologians like Nancy Pelosi who've tried to argue that Catholics shouldn't be one-issue voters. Knowing that many Catholics tend to be squeamish about the party's stand on abortion, Democrats have tried to appeal to this important demographic by playing bait-and-switch - if they can divert our attention from their support for the abortion lobby, we'll be able to pull the lever for Obama.

That might work with the I'm-personally-against-but-don't-want-to-impose-my opinion types. But they can't hoodwink Joe the Bishop. Martino has enunciated the church's beliefs by emphasizing that if you don't respect life at its most defenseless and elemental, concern for the rest is meaningless.

Yes, children need health care. Yes, the education system needs to be overhauled. Yes, middle-class families deserve a roof over their heads, food on the table, the prospect of prosperity for the next generation. And immigrants need to be treated with respect and not like pariahs.

But as Bishop Martino says, what does any of this matter if a woman's right to choose to bear a child takes precedence over the child itself? When sons and daughters become disposable, it's irrelevant that they don't have books to read or food to eat.

Letting women (and women alone - no fathers allowed) to make this choice effectively redefines the meaning of "life." It's no longer an inalienable right, like liberty and the pursuit of happiness, simply an option for those who had the good luck to make it out of the womb.

Barack Obama, despite the backpedaling he's done on the campaign trail, is NARAL's best friend. While Joe the Senator is more reticent about his support for abortion rights, saying that, for him, life begins at conception, Obama has long made it clear that Roe is sacrosanct.

He voted to block legislation to mandate medical care for babies who survived botched abortions because he felt it infringed on the right to choose. He's also promised to sign the Freedom of Choice Act if elected. Among other things, FOCA would let tax dollars be used for abortions, gutting the Hyde Amendment.

Bishop Martino is right that abortion is not just one life issues but the issue. Catholics who want to support Obama can do so, no priest has the right to control our vote. But conscience and elections are very different things.

Catholics can't pretend to be in good standing when they cast a vote for a man who has been so devoted to abortion rights that he'd deny a child the right to medical care if it compromised a woman's right to an abortion. (And if you think that's hyperbole, go to www.ilga. gov/senate/transcripts/

strans92/ST033001.pdf.)

Last week, a miracle came into my life. His name is Alexander Christian, and he's my nephew.

He's more precious than anything at the Barnes Foundation. I'm sure that if Obama had the chance to hold Alex, he'd flash that radiant smile of his and talk about my nephew's right to a bright future.

But Bishop Martino knows Alex had a right to that future even while nestled in my sister's belly.

And while Catholics can run from that truth, they can't hide.

At least not in Scranton. *

Christine M. Flowers is a lawyer.

E-mail cflowers1961@yahoo.com.