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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!tulane!mintir!seashell!elendil
- From: elendil@seashell.mintir.new-orleans.la.us (Edward J. Branley)
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.catholic
- Subject: Re: Operation Rescue
- Message-ID: <R6iawB3w165w@seashell.mintir.new-orleans.la.us>
- Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 08:23:26 CST
- References: <92357.162123MNHCC@CUNYVM.BITNET>
- Organization: Seashell Software
- Lines: 63
-
- Marty Helgesen <MNHCC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:
-
- > I have read some of your posts but not all of them. I am
- > sorry if I misunderstood your position.
- >
- > I have not studied Operation Rescue in detail. What I have read
- > about it discussed non-violent blocking of access to abortion
- > chambers--"putting their bodies between the killers and the
- > intended victims" as OR spokesmen put it.
-
- Which is classic civil disobedience. If that was all that OR was doing, then I
- would not have such a problem with their actions. However, since the clinics
- have switched from passive (letting the police just clear the
- sidewalks/entrances) defense to a more active form of defense ('clinic
- defenders'), OR's tactics have become increasingly more violent. There have
- been documented cases of attacks by OR protestors on clinic defenders. Six
- people arrested two weeks ago in Baton Rouge for aggravated battery in
- connection with an attack on a clinic guard. That's not the stuff of
- non-violent civil disobedience.
-
- The pro-life movement has regularly invoked the imagery of the '60s civil
- rights and anti-war protests. The similarities have been quite profound. As
- soon as OR starts down the path of violence, the imagery shifts from sit-ins
- and putting flowers in the barrels of guns to that of the SDS and Black
- Panthers.
-
- >
- > John Brown was wrong to kill people who were pro-choice on slavery.
- > (Slavery was a matter of free choice. No white man who was personally
- > opposed to slavery was required to own slaves.) In fact, I have used
- > the Pottawatomie, Kansas Massacre and the Harper's Ferry Raid in
- > discussions with pro-abortionists, pointing out that just as his
- > wrongful activities did not justify slavery or discredit the entire
- > abolitionist movement, less drastic wrongdoing on the part of
- > some pro-lifers cannot justify abortion or discredit the right to
- > life movement. The important question is not whether pro-lifers
- > are good people but whether unborn children are people at all.
- > -------
- > Marty Helgesen
- > Bitnet: mnhcc@cunyvm Internet: mnhcc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
- >
- > "Experience beats in vain upon a congenital progressive."
- > -- C. S. Lewis
-
- Your point is well taken, but I believe that your analogy is flawed.
- John Brown led a small group of fanatics,
- and it was indeed unfair to characterize the entire abolitionist movement in
- that fashion. OR, on the other hand is going across the country, organizing
- protests and training others for more protests. It's as if John Brown had
- chapters of his abolitionist movement in cities across the country. Further,
- OR has become the primary outward symbol of civil disobedience with regard to
- abortion. If OR continues their violent tactics, then the entire pro-life
- movement will be tainted. What is necessary is for groups not affiliated with
- OR to organize true non-violent protests, sidewalk blockings, etc. If that
- means that it's more difficult to perform 'rescues,' then so be it. The loss
- of the moral high ground on this issue is devastating to the entire cause.
-
- Merry Christmas, Marty. I hope I've explained my position better.
-
-
-
- |Edward J. Branley elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us|
- |Seashell Software, Metairie, LA +1-504-455-5087|
-