[Peace-discuss] Population control

[jamie storm]

Let me try to provide some perspective on what I understand to be 
Katherine’s views on population control.  Katherine is a friend from my high 
school days here in Urbana where I came to know her best through our mutual 
participation in Liberal Religious Youth (LRY) at the Unitarian Church.  I 
view her as a thoughtful, morally conscientious person who, not believing in 
an afterlife, is committed to getting the most from her brief existence here 
on Earth.

In her early college years, Katherine developed an initial interest in 
population control from concerns related to “ecological balance”, “poverty” 
and, more indirectly, “violence and war” stemming from competition for 
scarce resources.  She saw all of these problems being exacerbated by 
rampant population growth, and became involved with a project on campus 
relating to “zero population growth” (ZPG) as a way of addressing them.

This initial interest, however, took on more personal significance when she 
confronted issues in her personal life.  In her early twenties, Katherine 
traveled to Greece, married a Greek man, took up residence in a small Greek 
village, and tried to carve out a life for herself as a self-taught 
watercolor artist.  Living on a very limited income, when she and her 
husband had a child, she decided to have herself sterilized.  She did so 
very consciously, I think, to cope with her limited financial/material means 
and to provide the best possible quality of life for herself and her family. 
While she divorced later in life, she was able to support herself in Greece 
and to help insure that her son received an education.

It is my sense that Katherine believes she made the right decision in having 
herself sterilized and not having to spread her energy and resources to more 
than one child.  Her advocacy of population control is based several 
grounds.  What she wants to do is “share her story” with others and 
encourage them to think seriously, as she has, about choices they make 
relative to marriage, child bearing, and child rearing.  While she would 
probably recommend that all women who decide to have children limit them 
selves to one child in the interest of ZPG, she would strongly recommend 
that women with limited financial resources do so, not just in the interest 
of ZPG, but to maximize the quality of their own lives as well as the lives 
of their children.  I think she is aware that there are many ways to address 
poverty through social policy and social action (and would encourage people 
do so), but she also recognizes that social change is often slow and that 
individuals can deal with poverty in their own lives by proactively 
“choosing”, among other things, to limit the number of children they bring 
into the world.

With this said, let me close and encourage you to explore the topic further 
with Katherine herself, especially since she is not participating in this 
email exchange. I am sure that her views on population control will continue 
to evolve if she forms new relationships through AWARE, especially if she is 
treated as respectfully as she was by those of you present last Sunday 
night!  Thanks for treating an old friend this way.  Gary Storm