Horton Hears a Truth

My family and I recently watched last year's remake of Horton Hears a Who, starring the voices of Jim Carrey and Steve Carrell. It had all the frenetic slapstick and the gratuitous bathroom humor I've come to expect from any non-Pixar CG animation project. What I looked for in all that zaniness, and was pleased to find, was that the simple, undeniably pro-life message came through: "A person's a person, no matter how small."

I say the message is undeniably pro-life, but found it incredibly ironic that the author of the story nevertheless denied it.

According to Seuss biographer Philip Nel, Theodor Geisel, alias Dr. Seuss, actually threatened to sue pro-life groups for co-opting Horton's famous line. This begs the question, "What did the author mean, then?" Horton's statement was simple and profound, and to say it doesn't apply to the unborn is to say it means nothing at all.

After seeing the movie, I designed this bumper sticker for my car, knowing I was not the first to think of it.




Horton was right on, and whether pro-lifers use his words verbatim, this is exactly what they have been saying all along. It is a transcendent truth professed for millennia, even by the earliest Christians who rescued discarded infants from the rivers of Rome, long before Dr. Seuss translated it into a memorable motto.

Who else today has the courage and wisdom to risk reputation and personal safety to protect lives others deny exist? It's a shame that Geisel did not have the moral sense of the hero he created. But it shows that Horton's inspiration came from a greater Source.