I had a horrible childhood, but I turned out OK

May 15, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

I’m a 58-year-old man, and there were countless times that my mom had mentioned that she thought about aborting me before I was born. My mom had a choice to keep me or abort me. My mom chose life. This makes her pro-life. My mom is a single parent of eight children. Growing up, whenever my mom got frustrated and angry with me, she would say to me over and over again that “I should thank God that she didn’t have an abortion.” Being poor and powerless, she suffered greatly. She worked hard day and night at Far East Chinese Restaurant near Stabroek Market to put food on the table to feed us. It wasn’t easy. As a result of our poverty, my oldest brother had to drop out of school to babysit us. Because of this, he barely learned to read or write and the same goes for my mom. Growing up in Albouystown among some of the most violent people was terrifying and scary.
During my childhood, did I go to bed many nights without food? You bet I did. Did I go to school hungry? You bet I did. Would I wish growing up in poverty on my worst enemy? I would not. Although my brothers and sisters grew up in abject poverty, none of them wished we were aborted. In spite of my horrible childhood, I’m glad that I wasn’t an abortion. I am glad she didn’t aborted me. If she had aborted me, I would not have had five children and all attended university. I wouldn’t have gone to university, and I wouldn’t have served in the United States military and deployed to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. And for sure I wouldn’t have been writing this letter today. Therefore, I’m glad that my mom didn’t have an abortion. I am glad that my mom doesn’t believe in abortion. I’m glad that my mom gave me an opportunity in life by giving me up for adoption. I am glad that my mom chose life over death. So I wasn’t surprised when Steve Jobs became rich and famous, he wanted to meet his birth mother who gave him up for adoption.
He wanted to meet her mostly to see if she was OK and to thank her, because he was glad he didn’t end up as an abortion, according to biographer Walter Isaacson. Don’t worry, “I had a horrible childhood, but I turned out OK,” Jobs said. There is no coincidence that the first right cited in the declaration is the right to life. The United States Declaration of Independence has become a well-known statement on human rights, particularly its second sentence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” There are Bible verses which state: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. … My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. I would be happy if the United States Supreme Court make abortion illegal, and Guyana do the same. God bless the United States Supreme Court and God bless Guyana. Like Steve Jobs, I had a horrible childhood, but I turned out OK.

Anthony Pantlitz
(Tony from Maichony)

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