I read a letter today in the DTH criticizing the Genocide Awareness Project. The student claimed that “the Polk Place exhibit was not safe” because it put people’s “emotional health at risk.”
I don’t know what you think, but this is the dumbest argument against GAP I have heard yet. The protesters were in the right when they attempted to surround the display and put it out of people’s view because the display “put emotional health at risk.”
T-shirts that say “I love pro-choice boys” put my emotional health at risk by forcing me to acknowledge the moral depths to which our culture has fallen. Yet no one cares about my “emotional health.”
Maybe that is because I do not get angry when people’s opinions or actions make me feel bad. Rather, I get angry every time I hear how America has allowed 40 million of its innocent sons and daughters to die.
People like this student don’t want to sit down and consider when life begins or even how the abortion debate makes pro-lifers feel. They simply want everyone else to be cognizant of their emotions.
Well all I have to say is that this argument makes me feel bad, and now that you are aware that I feel bad, I hope you don’t share anymore “violent” conservative opinions and make others feel bad too.
freshman and dramatic art says it all
but to be fair, genocide is the systematic killing of a people based on race or ethnicity… not age group (although technically a fetus wouldn’t have an “age”) so i think “Genocide Awareness Project” is a slight misnomer geared toward generating an emotional response rather than a rational stance on an important issue.
Yes, it is aimed at generating an emotional response, but that does not mean it is irrational. A murder or a natural disaster are things which cause an emotional response. But it is still rational to abhor murder. Likewise, comparing abortion to genocide is most definitely rational. If you believe that a fetus is a person, which is exactly what the display was trying to show, then you will realize that abortion in the United States has caused more deaths than the holocaust.
I suppose the most interesting aspect of GAP being on campus was the reaction of the people, be it on the left or right, who claimed to be open-minded and yet turned away from the images or made verbal attacks to the GAP volunteers. One of my friends was told by a passer by “Well, I’m pro-choice and I don’t want to see this.”I think that’s the problem. People who are pro-choice don’t want to see the images of what abortion is because it goes against the pretty picture of choice that they have crafted in order to justify their opinion. In all honesty, how open-minded is it to only consider one side of an issue, especially an issue that has taken millions of lives and has the potential to affect millions more?
Everyone’s thoughts are awesome and I’m glad we’re getting some blogging action, but instead of using this comment board, let’s post straight on the blog, so that people have one less step to take to see our wiccked debates.
Another death penalty type Resource… LifeLaw.org . A discussion forum for all that deals with such hot-button issues as death penalty type .