Zoe Griffin, 11, a solidly pro-life girl, was attacked verbally by a couple pro-abortion adult women.
Read about it HERE.
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I don’t think adults should manipulate children into participating in their political demonstrations regardless of whatever side of whatever issue. Let the children be educated, grow up, have their own adult views, and then if they wish they can go out and demonstrate. This girl was allegedly exposed to verbal abuse but only because presumably some adult responsible for her put her in that situation. If this girl was indeed verbally abused partial blame goes to the parent or responsible adult who contrived the situation in the first place.
I believe this strongly for ANY side of ANY issue and I have said it here before. It is abuse for a parent/guardian to manipulate a child in her/his care into participating in a political cause that they may very well disagree with when they come of age and possess the maturity to understand.
Fr. Jim: I don’t usually tend to agree with you, but I think I tend to agree with you on this point. I would encourage people to watch a documentary about fundamentalism and youth done around 2002. It’s called “Jesus Camp”. There is a certain maturity needed to do this type of work, and I question if an 11 year-old, as dear as he/she may be, possesses it.
I would still agree that the pro-abortionist was a bully, though. Yet, that doesn’t mitigate the responsibility of parents and youth leaders to protect the minds and hearts of young ones….
FrJim, you’ve been on fire with your past couple of posts, as I’ve agreed with them. I also agree with you on this one.
frjim4321, where’s your condemnation of the “adults” who berated this young girl? Easy to pick on the young and weak. . . especially those still in the womb. How mature.
If this girl was indeed verbally abused partial blame goes to the parent or responsible adult who contrived the situation in the first place.
You are assuming facts not in evidence, as they say. Yo do not know the girl, nor her comprehension of politics and the world around her. You have no way of knowing that some adult put her into this vulnerable situation. Perhaps she begged her parents for the opportunity. She may have worked to earn the privilege. So many assumptions you make. Very sad.
I also tend to agree with FrJim4321. There’s much too much emphasis these days on suppressing childhood in favor of adult attitudes. It’s like learning sports. The first thing a child must learn is that the sport is fun, to love the sport–not to respond to the pressure of winning.
Let children be children and learn to enjoy life. The foundation for the faith is not weltschmerz.
While I don’t know that I would have risked having my kids subjected to this kind of abuse, I disagree with Father Jim’s assertion that abortion is a political issue. It’s not and I think the continued characterization of it as such is why so many are blinded to its pure evil. Abortion is a human rights issue and so long as people continue to see it through a political prism, its eradication will remain an uphill battle.
This lovely girl gave her reason for crying.
“I couldn’t stand any more of those lies. They pushed it too far. In the highest-pitched voice I have ever spoken in, I screamed, “THEY ARE NOT THE ONES MAKING ME CRY! YOU ARE! WITH YOUR DARK HEARTS, YOUR DARK MINDS TURNED AGAINST GOD!”
I think it speaks to the pure heart of an innocent who loves God. She wasn’t frightened, she is in love. How beautiful.
And doesn’t this put to shame “lovers ” of the horrendous anti-life democratic convention going on these past few days booing against God and expounding endlessly about the right to abort babies.
Frjim4321 I must ask you, where is your outrage over what you have seen and heard going on with the party of death’s convention?
You are assuming facts not in evidence, as they say. Yo do not know the girl, nor her comprehension of politics and the world around her. You have no way of knowing that some adult put her into this vulnerable situation. Perhaps she begged her parents for the opportunity. She may have worked to earn the privilege. So many assumptions you make. Very sad. – meyer
These are all logical presumptions.
(1) I know all I need to know about the girl. She is 11 years old. We don’t let people vote in the country until they are 18 for a reason.
(2) The referenced article itself says the girl was with her mother at the site of the DNC.
(3) The referenced article is on a blog that lists the social media director as the mother of the 11-year old, yet the author calls her “my friend and fellow abortion abolitionist.” The girl later says she is using her mother’s blog page. So is the girl a daughter or a friend? Role confusion!
(4) The social media director (the 11 year old’s mother) “has used her grief as a means to motivate her in her pro-life work,” including enmeshing her 11 year old daughter in her personal therapy project.
Perhaps she begged her parents for the opportunity. She may have worked to earn the privilege. More sad assumptions based on facts not in evidence? The referenced blog provided far more evidence for my deductions than for yours.
(Kind of an intriguing web design, though. Wonder what webdesign tool she’s using. )
Come on folks. You don’t think an eleven year old can understand what killing a baby inside its mother’s stomach is all about?
Sorry, frjim4321.The fight to preserve human life is not merely political. Zoe is indeed a beautiful little girl, but she’s also smart and not too young to learn the truth about abortion. If Zoe attends public school, she has already been subjected to the government’s idea of “sex education” and all that it entails. Let’s be frank: our entire society swims in a sewer of sex. The kind of protection that children need and deserve is less and less possible in the world we live in. (This is why so many parents choose home schooling.) If children don’t learn how to defend themselves, they’ll get eaten alive–ignorance won’t save them.
I find it incredibly interesting that liberals want to protect children from abortion images, abortion debates etc… but they think its just fine and dandy to teach children ALL about the pill, sexual self gratification, condoms and the “normalcy” of homosexuality. What hypocrisy! Parents are prudes and throwbacks for wanting to protect their children by opting out of forced sex ed (homosexual; “Heather has 2 mommies”) c**p in the public schools, but if they teach their kids what the liberal free sex party life leads too, wow! their monsters. The usual liberal hypocrisy nothing new. According to liberals its perfectly fine to teach kindergartners all about sexual organs and sodomites. But teach an 11 year old the TRUTH of what cold blooded murder is and well your just a meanie mommy.
Lets see…
St Philomena, died aged 13
St Dominic Savio, died aged 14
St Maria Goretti, martyred aged 11
Blessed Francisco, died aged 10
Blessed Jacinta , died aged 9
St Pancras, martyred aged 14
St Blandina, martyred aged 15
Blessed José Luis Sánchez del Río, , martyred aged 15
and so on…
The Church surely KNOWS that these ‘kids’ are saints and Zoe’s parents KNOW how to raise their four kids and have an obligation before God to raise them in the faith, irrespective of what the kids’ opinions on “mature” topics may be several years later.
What brought us to this situation where a 11 year old had to face this ? Her mom ? No! In her own words “THEY ARE NOT THE ONES MAKING ME CRY! YOU ARE! WITH YOUR DARK HEARTS, YOUR DARK MINDS TURNED AGAINST GOD!”. This is the natural consequence of what happens a few years after “abortion and contraception is to be prayerfully decided between the couple and God”. Disgrace!
“We’ve Had Enough Of Exhortations To Be Silent! Cry Out With A Hundred Thousand Tongues. I See That The World Is Rotten Because Of Silence.”
– St. Catherine of Siena
I think wmeyer is correct. We don’t know enough information to arrive at a just conclusion. Besides, who are we to criticize this child? I do believe she was the one verbally assaulted.
Love the quote of St. Catherine of Siena.
Look, we live in a time where our children will grow up innocent or naive. While we protect their innocence, we can only shelter them so much. We’ve had the Westboro (Baptists don’t want them either) Bunch picket our Churches, disturb Military Funerals and I’ve seen grown men in hysterics regarding their activity. When I was little, I used to read the Lives of the Saints, and I found myself wishing that I had lived in a time of persecution, it seemed so easy to be a saint at that time. As I grow older, that time seems to be coming worldwide at an exponential pace. There is a growing sentiment among those in the UN and in our own country, that simply making one’s child attend Church is a violation of the child’s “rights”. In as much as I hate that a child is exposed to the blind and angry chants of the pro-abortion activists, remember these activists are adults and, as adults, should be held to a standard of responsibility as well. These same adults want to be entrusted with your children via the education system. When Roe v. Wade issued from the injustices of the Supreme Court in our land, and my mom was crying and told me what it meant, I tried to comfort her saying not to worry, no one in their right mind would do such a horrid thing. I was innocent in believing that grown adult women maintained a right mind. I was, however, naive in regards to the fact that when those who are to uphold justice issue an unjust decree, the entire nation loses its right mind.
“If Zoe attends public school, she has already been subjected to the government’s idea of “sex education” and all that it entails. Let’s be frank: our entire society swims in a sewer of sex.”
Exactly.
My daughter indicated at the end of school last year that she did not want her son in
a particular class this year because she and her husband did not like the subject matter. The first
day of this school year he come home with his schedule with that class included. It was not easy but she got him out of the class. The school administrators just did not understand their objection.
You also have to watch what books they are now putting on required reading lists.
Sorry–he came home.
So the issue of abortion is political? If I I recall correctly the Catholic Church “affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion” and “cooperation in an an abortion constitutes a grave offense.” Seems to me that abortion is an issue of morals, not politics.
Fr Jim, I agree with you in principle that children should not be used, but there is no evidence of that here. She was at a pro-life rally praying. What exactly is inappropriate about a child either praying or being at a pro-life rally? She is near the age when some girls actually have abortions, and she can’t help but know it these days.
If a child’s parents are heavily involved in any movement (not just pro-life), it would be naive to assume that the child would not either want to join it because they understand and respect their parent’s cause or rebel against it for the opposite reasons. They would not want to wait until 18. That’s just the way kids are. And it would be irresponsible for parents to push children away from a cause they truly believe in until the child is old enough to go to university and be convinced that the cause was a fraud. Parents are the primary educators of the child after all.
I think it’s unwise to let your 11-yo come with you to a pro-life rally. Everyone knows that the pro-choisers can get very nasty.
Personally, I could NOT have emotionally handled a situation like that when I was 11 years old, even though I knew what abortion was at that age and how evil it was, and I’m not sure that my daughter will ever be able to handle something like that even as an adult. Of course, that’s because both of us are on the autistic spectrum and have a very hard time dealing with strong emotions of any kind. I’m not saying it happened in this particular case (the girl here does seem pretty mature and levelheaded for her age) but I think you do have to be very, very careful NEVER to push a child, or make them feel obligated, to take part in something like this when they are not really ready for it.
Also, not to defend what the pro-aborts did in any way, but they were NOT berating the girl personally. They were berating the ADULTS accompanying her, for “making her cry with their bull….”. The girl’s mother, understandably insulted, shouted back at them and then the girl, wanting to defend her mother, “lost it” and started screaming herself.
All that said… compare and contrast the insulting, in-your-face nature of this pro-abort counter protest with the exuberant “pro life flash mob” counter protest performed by these young people from Chicago:
https://wdtprs.com/2011/02/chicago-pro-life-flash-mob/
frjim4321: you might have a point if the hearts, minds and souls of our young children weren’t the battleground and focus of the forces of evil via the media, planned parenthood, gay activists, popular music and peer “focus” groups.
They know only too well how maleable these young minds are and like all devils, they hate well formed ones with a will directed towards good.
Fire makes steel strong. Without this experience, Zoe will never become the soldier of Christ she is destined to be. The time for being soft is over. She knows it, why don’t you?
frjim4321: A political demonstration is one thing, in which adults should not involve their children, but another thing completely different is the defense of a TRUTH, the sanctity of life. By your same argument, children should not be taken to Mass: “Let the children be educated, grow up, have their own adult views, and then if they wish they can go out and demonstrate” The fight against abortion goes beyond opinions or political inclinations, it is something that should be fought by everyone, especially those most affected, the children.
Good heavens! Has anyone here spent any time in an American middle school lately? I salute Zoe’s mother for exposing her to reality, and preparing her to fight for her faith. Hubby and I often roll our eyes and wonder aloud what will become of the majority of this generation. They expect everything to go their way, and buckle at the slightest resistance from reality. First day of school yesterday, and already we are making calls home.
Our Catherine is in a school run by the Nuns on the Bus, and she has had to correct the theology taught there on several occasions.
I assure you, as the mother of a gal growing up in the ‘oghts and ‘teens, there are many tears to be shed. Little Zoe, if I read correctly, started crying before the crazy lady made an ad hominem remark, not because of it. She was crying because of the hardness of heart. Sounds to me like the kid has two brain cells and more to rub together there, as well as a lot of heart.
Did anyone look at the “leader of the tormenter’s” blog? This was the nice lady who got herself arrested for creating a civil disturbance on the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral the day before the Feast of the Assumption. Then she complained about the hygiene of the NYC jail cells once arrested!
Given what most 11-year olds are exposed to in the way of vacuous, pornorific, nihilist culture, I think a good pro-life rally (as long as you’re not actively trying to get arrested) is good for the average American 11-year old. I mean, really, would you have said the same thing about letting her watch that Democratic Convention last night? Eeeewwww!
VexillaRegis, my son was 9 when we went to pray the rosary outside of the Planned Parenthood Clinic. The priest was there with the Monstrance. This is not a demonstration, but prayer. I also took him to the Iowa caucus when he was 12. Children learn by doing and being with adults. I do not understand why people are afraid to bring children to certain things. This affects their futures and is the reality of the day. That child was hurt, but that is the reality of being a Catholic in the world. My dad when a child was stoned, literally, had rocks thrown at him by Lutherans on his way to the Catholic school. He learned both how important his religion was and how to run fast.
Excuse me, but many girls are in puberty at eleven and know about babies, how to get babies, contraception and abortion. Why are people so concerned about her age? Children can be saints and go to heaven, or can be horrible sinners and go to hell. If we do not prepare our children and help form them during their entire lives, they will not be able to stand up against the really hard persecution when it comes. The “if” it comes is obviously a passe idea. We are training martyrs.
robtbrown, once you are post-pubescent, you are no longer a child. When I taught junior high students, ages 11-13, all of them were either going through puberty or post-pubescent. 15% of Latino girls are entering puberty at the age of 7. This is not new. In my generation, most of us entered puberty at 11 or 12 in the Midwest in the early 1960s.
@Supertradmum: By the pro-choice’ers getting nasty, I meant that they could get physical, i e grabbing your arm or throwing eggs or whatever at you. That happend here, at a peaceful anti-abortion-manifestation in the market square. I agree that we all are called to be witnesses, but one has to be careful when one takes ones children to such an event.
In school, in the seventies, I was repetedly and publicly ridiculed by my teacher and pushed over by my schoolmates for being catholic. It seemed like everything any catholic had ever done wrong, was my fault and responsibility. “Why are you on the same side as the IRA? You are responsible for the (bad sides of) the inquisition and the crusades! Answer us! You are a traitor!” And I was eleven years old. I still can feel the taste of fear in my mouth when they gathered around me and started kicking my legs.
If I wasn’t completely sure there wasn’t going to be any personal yelling-attacks or worse, I would not bring my 11-yo.
My stepdaughter came to the U.S. at 13, from China. She entered 9th grade, where the local (California then) school would have given her a “health” class. She came home one day with a very sketchy syllabus for the class, which included visits and lectures from members of the local gay and lesbian community. It was nothing less than a 6 week session in “alternate lifestyles”.
I wrote a letter, citing language and cultural issues, as well as her immaturity, and had her exempted from this circus. She was, in fact, very bright and level headed, but being freshly arrived from a culture in which dating does not happen until at least college, and often not until after college, the class would have been a rude shock to her. Of course, as I had cited language and culture, by their own standards, all they could do was agree with my request.
I think wmeyer is correct. We don’t know enough information to arrive at a just conclusion. Besides, who are we to criticize this child? I do believe she was the one verbally assaulted.
My criticism is not of the girl, it is of the mother, who put her daughter in a situation that she knew could be verbally abusive. Per the blog, the mother has grief issues pursuant to her own elective abortion. By her own self report we know that she is engaged as an “abortion abolitionist” as a means to process her guilt. She has enmeshed her 11-year-old daughter in her own grief work which is inappropriate. Further, she demonstrates boundary confusion by referring to her daughter as her “friend” and “fellow abortion abolitionist” and frankly it’s a little weird if not creepy how she doesn’t reveal from the outset that she’s talking about the daughter but you can only figure that out from digging around. The role and boundary confusion is really the issue for me here.
As I stated before and as some of the posters picked up, the issue being demonstrated for is secondary. My feelings about this would be the same regardless of what they were demonstrating for, at any point on the ideological continuum.
…further to all that, my step-daughter graduated last spring form the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, where in addition to her academic and military instruction, she took instruction from a wonderful priest, was baptized and confirmed. She is now stationed in San Diego, but during her time at the Academy, worked each week in a soup kitchen, and spent Spring Break on mission trips, except last year, when she and a number of other cadets journeyed with the chaplain to the Vatican.
I do not regret in the least having shielded her from the class in parversion which would otherwise have afflicted her.
The photograph reminds me of a revival hymn: “I will cling to the old rugged cross / And exchange it some day for a crown.”
I think we’ll see a lot more people “clinging to their … religion” in the years ahead.
Folks –
I was there.
Zoe is a mature, well educated and articulate young lady. She knew and understood exactly why she was there. This was a prayer vigil on the Friday BEFORE the DNC. We pro-life (mostly Catholics) had permission to pray next to the arena in the middle of our city and spread 3300 flowers to represent the babies killed that day. Downtown Charlotte was mostly empty and only the press had come to town at that point. – Most of the OWS types didn’t arrive till the next day. Of all the pro-life events in Charlotte this past week this should have been the most family friendly. Pro-life people have children so they brought them. Less than a dozen out-of-town, very professional , hard core LGBT/feminist types (buzz cuts, tats and in-your-face tactics) showed up exactly as the rosary began. They clearly had read in the official schedule in the paper that we were expected. They began chanting practiced phrases and many obscenities to the cadence of our prayers. They blew whistles and stood as close to us as possible. The children stayed at the back of our group and the police watched closely, but didn’t step in since the “anti-patriarchy” bunch didn’t touch us. We did our best not to “engage” them verbally and keep praying. When they noticed that Zoe began to cry they called her “brainwashed” and she mother an “abuser”. That’s when Zoe spoke back to them and told them they were wrong using words that were much more rational than the adults yelling at her. She had every right and reason to be there that day and her parents made a perfectly reasonable call in bringing her to what should have been a low-key prayer vigil – though in hindsight they may wish they had not. She was the best among us and though she may have had her eyes opened a bit, she learned much and has been blessed with a greater understanding of issue behind her own convictions. Sometimes God uses those moment to allow young and old to see clearly.
It is up to the parent to decide if this is appropriate for their child. FrJim and no one else has the right to decide. You are welcome to your general opinion but you cross the line in judging this specific mother and child. Extending you thinking, we shouldn’t baptized infants and bring them up in the faith. Good heavens! How dare we expose a child to the horrors of the crucifixion and martyrdom! And eating flesh!
How else can you expect them to learn? A parent can and should decide based on their child how and when to expose them to these things. Just because this prayer vigil was upsetting for this girl doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have been there or that no child should go. This could be a huge blessing in the long run. I haven’t heard that the mother or child is saying she was irreparably harmed by this so why are you rushing to judge? Kids are hurt all the time. Doesn’t mean we should wrap them in bubble wrap and put them in a cloister. Good parenting is protecting but it is also allowing the possibility of hurt. Once the hurt happens, good parenting is helping the child learn to cope with the hurt. In this case, what a great opportunity to learn forgiveness and charity towards one’s enemies.
BTW, I am a very protective mother of 3 who is always ready to pull a child out of a class or situation that I deem inappropriate. We have, however, been caught off guard and sometimes the kids are part of a discussion that was uncomfortable, upsetting and perhaps harmful in the short run. What my children learned is how to discuss their faith, how to witness to their faith, how to pray for others, how to see the hurt through all the bravado of the modern mind and how to maintain their chastity and purity through it all. And most important, the ugliness of the world reinforces the beauty of their faith.
I am surprised the the pro aborts get a pass on this one. The same was true for Father O’Reilly in Chicago recently. Folks criticized him for praying with not a word again the pro homosexual crowd. Very upside down.
frjim4321 Here in Spain there is a 12 years old martyr, Saint Eulalia, whose mother sent to the countryside in fear she would be too public about her faith, for the roman governor was looking for christians to send to the circus. The girl, in clear knowledge of her duty, escaped the countryside, and appearing before the governor confessed her faith in Christ. She was killed.
Teaching: Christianity is for martyrs: no use in trying to give the children a “flowers and music and easy-going” religion. Think on 2 Maccabean, 7: the mother encourages his son to die martyr, and only for a law which was to be derogated afterwards!!
Our society has lost the time called “adolescent” because of extended education. Adolescence physically and mentally and spiritually is the bridge between childhood and adulthood. Adulthood is the time when someone takes responsibility for he or her own life, such a in marriage, following a vocation,etc.
Adolescence leads one into that and should be a time of preparation for vocations and apologetics, which by our baptisms we are all called to do.
A good parent teaches the adolescent how to assume adult responsibility-learning life skills is one area. Parents for the most part have abdicated this role. Childhood is the time for protection, adolescence as well but to a lesser extent, with learning about and being in the world-learning apologetics can happen in adolescence. Then, adulthood is the time when one goes off on one’s own into whatever call God gives.
A good Catholic parent understands and works with these stages. The mind and the body and the spirit cannot be separated except with dire consequences, leading to serious problems in growth and mental health.
We cannot and must not treat our adolescents like “hot-house plants” or else they will never appropriate their adult faith.
Frjim4321,
you say : ” By her own self report we know that she is engaged as an “abortion abolitionist” as a means to process her guilt. She has enmeshed her 11-year-old daughter in her own grief work which is inappropriate.”
How dare you say that Father! How dare you! How do you know that she is using her daughter as a means to an end? Of course her abortion had a part in her conversion. In that same place where you read about her abortion, it is also written : Through the sacrament of Reconciliation, along with counseling from her priest and eventually a Rachel’s Vineyard retreat, she has found healing from the years of suffering from the trauma of her abortion. Does grief sound like guilt to you or do you not know the difference between the two ? Or do you not believe that the Confession takes away guilt ?
you further say ” Further, she demonstrates boundary confusion by referring to her daughter as her “friend” and “fellow abortion abolitionist” and frankly it’s a little weird if not creepy how she doesn’t reveal from the outset that she’s talking about the daughter”
Well Father, I’ve re-read that link 3 or 4 times to figure out how you got the impression that it is Zoe’s mother who wrote the contents of the link above. I couldn’t – because that is not what is written there and neither did her mom write it. The link above has content from LifeNews (http://www.lifenews.com/2012/09/03/pro-abortion-democrats-scream-at-11-year-old-pro-life-girl-at-convention/) and the author is Bryan Kemper, the youth director for Priests for Life.
“Let the children be educated, grow up, have their own adult views, and then if they wish they can go out and [politically] demonstrate.
St. Joan of Arc didn’t take this advice. Read the link: The Dot-Com generation will end the killing of children. (Of course, it’s not called “killing children”.) Let them get started. Let a child lead this movement. John Lukacs, and I’m quoting him off the top of my head, said back in 05, “For the first time in history, the liberals [really the Pinks and the Reds] are old, and the conservatives [really the Orange Whigs, the Burkean Blues, the Legitimists Blancs, the Catholic Noirs] are young.
frjim4321, you’ve made some strange comments here before…this one (your original comment on this post) sort of takes the cake though. “allegedly exposed”?? “manipulate”? This doesn’t even deserve a response.
I get very tired of people not understanding what a political issue is. A political issue is any issue involving public policy, regardless of which side one is on and why. Does Girgadis, who writes above that s/he “disagree[s] with Father Jim’s assertion that abortion is a political issue” because it is a “human rights issue” not realize that that is precisely what the pro-choice people say about abortion? That that is, mutatis mutandis, what the pro-SSM people say? I was harangued on this very point just a few weeks ago by a pro-SSM person who loudly insisted that he disagreed with my assumption that “marriage equailty” is a political issue—didn’t I realize that it was a “human rights issue”? How dare I make it political! “It’s not a political issue, it’s a rights issue!” Well—poppycock. In essence, the claim is that an issue cannot be political if it’s sufficiently important; it’s an attempt to cordon off an issue about which one cares a great deal and say “politics may not intrude in this sphere.” Any issue is political if a non-trivial number of people want a public policy response. It may also be a moral issue; it may be that morality dictates a specific answer to the political question; but that does not mean that the legal status of abortion (etc.) isn’t a political question.
In the last couple of days things have become quite heated in some discussions here. Could it be an effect of that geomagnetic storm, Fr Z.?
VexillaRegis, at least Christ will not spit us out of His Mouth for being lukewarm.
“In the last couple of days things have become quite heated in some discussions here. Could it be an effect of that geomagnetic storm, Fr Z.?”
Show of hands…who forgot to put on their tin foil hats?
In other news the war on women is now targeting innocent children…
@Supertradmum & The Masked Chicken: ROFL!
I just viewed that pro-life rally by the youth in Chicago that someone posted a link to in the comments. I’m a year late in saying this, but that is so fantastically heartening. It really made my day watching it. I wish we could do something as joyous in tone here in the UK. We need to remind people that pro-life is about protecting the joy and sanctity of life. Positivity always casts light over the gloom and emptiness of negativity, and is the ultimate victor.