Monday, March 06, 2006

Eggshell kids at Harvard


Harvard students are apparently
tearing down posters placed around campus by Harvard Right to Life
. The posters include a picture of a fetus named Elena and say that "I'm 25 days old ... and my heart already BEATS!" The posters are not grisly. They do not depict an aborted fetus or a dead baby. This is a picture you'd find a high school biology text and an absolutely accurate medical statement. But it is apparently too much for some of our best and brightest. I guess they're fragile.

“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.”

As they say in the Harvard English department, let's unpack that statement. Apparently Ms. McClendon has gotten through almost four years at America's premiere university and somehow still believes that free speech cannot be disgusting. I'm assuming she did not major in Political Science.

And, what exactly, is disgusting about the poster? Is it the way a fetus looks? The fact that it has a heartbeat? Or is the problem that Ms. McClendon doesn't want to be reminded of those facts because they challenge her assumption that nothing so insignificant as a baby should disrupt your wonderful life?

Sometimes the Veritas hurts.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, I suspect the REASON she believes that free speech cannot be disgusting is that she has spent almost four years at America's premiere university.