One of the most publicized historical facts of American history is the great decimation of the buffalo herds that roamed the Great Plains. When I was a child learning history from TV, museums, and school, it seemed I heard repeatedly how we had callously, foolishly, and rapidly destroyed the herds in the late 1800s. The herds that used to number in estimate between 30 – 60 million in the mid-1850s was decimated to a tiny population of 200 by 1900 confined to Yellowstone National Park. The plains had been littered with rotting carcasses of dead buffalo for the past several decades. The Native American Indian population who depended upon the buffalo for survival was decimated too and pushed onto reservations (1).
I bring up this bit of history because it is so publicized and well-known. I heard it growing up as a child. My children know it from their history studies and education. I was reminded of it again this week in watching a National Park documentary.
I am thankful the buffalo were not driven to extinction. Today over 200,000 buffalo exist. Somehow I don’t think we would want 60 million buffalo still roaming the Great Plains today with our big cities, interstate system, and agriculture usage of the Plains.
Sadly, I believe there is a far greater tragedy and decimation of a huge populace going on within our country today. While it gets lots of attention during election years, on average most of us go through our days without stopping to consider it. I am speaking of the decimation of human lives! Each abortion stops a human heart. Since 1973, there have been over 61 million legal abortions (2). Thankfully, the annual number of abortions has been on decline in recent years. But we still killed 862,000 lives in 2017 (3).
This fact of us killing 60 million lives in the last part of the 20th and first of the 21st century is far more significant than us killing 60 million buffalo in the last of the 19th century. Let us pray that our moral failure and the great tragedy of these actions can be seen by our nation. May future generations publicize regularly in documentaries and history books about the tragedy that led to the obliteration of 60 million precious lives. May God help us to wake up and realize we are leaving a path of decaying carcasses of unborn infant children all because of our selfish and foolish actions.
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(1) – https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-the-buffalo-no-longer-roamed-3067904/.
(2) – http://www.numberofabortions.com
(3) – https://apnews.com/7e45fe6f70cf45f1823a45ef9ad2187c
