Does it amaze you (and discourage you at least a little, now and then) what is considered controversial by some people these days? Or what is considered disgusting?
The subhead on this Harvard Crimson article by staff writer Joyce Y. Zhang is "Students rip down controversial pro-life posters in protest":
Posters depicting in utero fetuses raised eyebrows and a small uproar last week. One of the posters, the second in a series created by Harvard Right to Life (HRL), featured the picture of a fetus named Elena with the words, “I’m 25 days old...and my heart already BEATS!!”
“The posters from this semester are getting torn down left and right,” said HRL President Meghan E. Grizzle ’07. “Apparently people find the picture of a fetus gruesome and I don’t understand why, because we’re not showing pictures of an aborted fetus or a dead baby,” Grizzle said. She added that HRL had to constantly replace the posters that were removed from displays across campus.
[...]
But not all students who opposed the posters agreed with those who tore them down.
“I personally find the image disgusting and don’t want to walk past it everyday,” said Nichele M. McClendon ’06, who said she did not tear down any posters. “It doesn’t have to do with abortion as an issue or free speech; it’s about being decent and not being disgusting.”
[...]
Grizzle said that posters from previous semesters had been torn down in far fewer numbers. Last semester HRL’s posters featured different facts and quotes, including posters saying that abortion is the number one cause of African American deaths surpassing AIDS and heart disease....
Do go read the whole thing. (I've cherry picked to suit my mood, I'm afraid. And I am in a mood right now, I must admit.)
I'm having trouble getting on the Internet today. I've had a problem with losing connection once I have managed to get on. And even when I'm on, I'm having no luck connecting to any page connected with Harvard Right to Life, much less one with a copy of the poster in question so we can all see for ourselves how disgusting it is (or isn't).
Anybody? I'd like to see this poster. If you find a good link, please share.
hat tip: The Alliance Alert (parental discretion advised)
Update: My thanks to the tipster (see comments) who pointed out a news story that links to some of the posters and provides more background on the situation. See Pro-Life Posters Defaced, Torn Down at Harvard, by Nathan Burchfiel, CNSNews.com Correspondent, (Cybercast News Service, March 07, 2006).
2 comments:
Story: http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=%5CNation%5Carchive%5C200603%5CNAT20060307b.html
Posters:
http://www.cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/photo/2006/20060306nbElena1.jpg
http://www.cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/photo/2006/20060306nbElena2.jpg
http://www.cybercastnewsservice.org/cns/photo/2006/20060306nbElena3.jpg
That's quite an amazing story. This is the same type of campus that routinely celebrates V-Day on February 14, and peppers the campus with graphic images of female sexual organs -- and the students are unfazed. Yet a picture of a living fetus appalls them. Remind me again that, when my children reach 18, they're going to Harvard over my dead body.
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