Friday, October 15, 2004

Hypocrisy

I just got off the phone with the police. On the corner of two of the major streets in Rockford were a row of anti abortion protesters. These people were holding up large (3ftX4ft) pictures of mutilated babies. One that caught my eye was the head of a decapitated baby between a pair of tongs. Now I believe srongly in their right to protest. However, I have my four year old child in the back of the car and to push those pictures in his and my face I regard as obscene and damaging. The police are going out there to break it up, but this has been going on in this town for over a year. Why hasn't anyone been ticketed, fined, or put in jail. Last year, many of these people were screaming bloody murder during the entire Super Bowl mishap. You tell me, what is more obscene? Lenny Bruce once did a bit about how much people freak out about nudity but say nothing about violence. Nudity is natural, love between two people is beautiful. Violence and these gory kinds of pictures can create many more problems in children than nudity. I was almost moved to violence when I saw those pictures. I wanted to bust the lip of one of those protesters and ask them all to go up and apologize to me and my boy. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, your my only hope.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Matt ... did these folks happen to belong to a violent anti-abortion group called the Missionaries to the Pre-born? If it is, well, I interviewed their leader (they're from Milwaukee) Matt Trewhella, and he kind of bothered me. He feels that putting signs of aborted fetuses in people's faces is okay because it makes people think. I'm sure the manager at the Wendy's they were standing in front of didn't appreciate their group being there. What was weird was that there were a BUNCH of kids with these protesters. It turns out they drive around the country in beat up vans and hold these signs. I'm a pro-life guy, but I think that good taste has to be taken into account.

Doctor SAX said...

They were all young kids holding the signs. I talked to somebody tonight who said that they saw somebody pull over and start beating one of the people. I was wondering what it would be like if I stood out there with pictures of all of the innocent people killed in Iraq. Or pictures of women who die from back alley abortions. I am pro-choice, pro-life... I just have a hard time pushing my feelings about something on somebody. I don't know when life begins (I don't remember being in the womb) and though I chose life for my child (choice is the word because we were thinking about abortion) I can't say that that would be the right choice for someone else. Also, most of partial birth abortions are made to save the life of a mother... so maybe they should hold up two signs, one with the fetus decapitated head, and another of the corpse of a teenage mother. All around it is distasteful.