The Daily Kent Stater Editorial Board Has No Conscience (Response to the article posted below)

The Daily Kent Stater Editorial “We’re Only Losing Our Appetites” (Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007) makes CBR Midwest’s point loud and clear. The Stater Editorial Board lost more than their appetites; they lost their capacity to possess a functioning conscience.

The “consensus opinion” of the board called our abortion pictures “horrific.” They stated that students will be “angered at the sight of the billboard.” Why would anyone be angered by a picture of an abortion? I thought that abortion simply represented the removal of a blob of tissue during a benign medical procedure. If abortion is such a good idea, a constitutional right, then why would a picture of it be “horrific” and anger people?

The answer is simple: abortion is an indefensible act of violence that kills a baby, and the photographic evidence of that injustice speaks louder than words. “Adults” and those “mature enough to have critical thinking skills” like those on the Stater Editorial board have become part the problem regarding abortion. The Stater’s Editorial uses the rhetorical coping mechanism of changing the subject to hide their complicity in baby killing.

Words fail to adequately describe injustice. Could you imagine attempting to describe the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon in words alone? After viewing the tragic events of 911, how much more information did Americans need to know about Islamic terrorism? Answer: Not much. It was the images of 911 alone that united our nation against terrorism. The difference is Americans did not attack themselves on 911. However, many Americans are responsible for abortion killing and trying real hard to find arguments to justify it.

Finally, the Stater is right about one thing. “Public opinion is still split the same way it has been for years” on abortion despite over three decades of “debate.” This is because when someone says “abortion is murder,” they are dismissed as only stating their opinion. But when someone shows a photo of a baby tortured to death by abortion that no longer represents an opinion, but it represents the incontrovertible evidence of a crime.

CBR Midwest believes in having informed “grown up conversations” on abortion. However, a discussion of abortion WITHOUT the accompanying evidence of the killing is wholly inadequate. The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) combines the evidence of abortion along with the arguments against it.

I wonder if the Stater would welcome GAP to the campus because it “creates a dialogue?” For some reason I anticipate that they will denounce GAP too?

Mark Harrington
Executive Director
Center for Bio Ethical Reform Midwest
P.O. Box 360503
Columbus, OH 43236
Tel. 614-759-5195
Fax 614-759-5194
Cell 614-419-9000
Website: www.abortionno.org

We're only losing our appetites - Daily Kent Stater editorial board

Most of the students at Kent State are 18 years old or older. We're all here to further develop our thinking and reasoning as well as gain work experience to prepare us for our future.

The point we're trying to make is we're adults, or at least near adulthood. We're mature enough to have critical thinking skills and the ability to make rational decisions.

So why does Center for Bio Ethical Reform Midwest, a non-profit education foundation, think driving a truck painted with an aborted fetus around the city of Kent will have any real impact other than making people lose their appetites?

Abortion is a serious and controversial issue. We are not debating abortion. We just don't understand why CBR Midwest thinks Kent State is "abortion vulnerable" and the best way to prevent abortions is to parade around a blown-up picture of an aborted fetus.

The truck will drive around the city today and tomorrow without stopping. No soapbox speeches. No informational literature. Nothing but a giant aborted fetus. That's supposed to make everyone pro-life.

Honestly, that's pretty insulting. All they are trying to do is stir up anger and outrage because the picture is so horrific. It's only an emotional reaction. They aren't explaining why they think it's wrong, immoral, etc. and why you should feel the same way. No, they're just driving around town with a giant aborted fetus behind them.

They've done this before. It's nothing new. Public opinion on abortion is still split the same way it has been for years and will continue to be. They aren't going to change anyone's mind with their macabre strategy. All they will do is cement the minds of pro-life and pro-choice supporters because each side will be angered at the sight of the billboard.

They'll get into arguments over the issue, maybe in the middle of class or during lunch at the Hub. Neither will listen to the other - each one will be trying to yell louder at the other person because that person is trying to drown them out. That's not a healthy debate based on facts, reasoning and personal beliefs. It's just verbal outrage falling on deaf ears.

They don't seem interested in actively engaging students at Kent State in person. Now, if CBR Midwest were to actually stop driving around every now and then, talk to students about their campaign and why they are doing it, that would at least create a dialogue. Then students would learn more about their point of view.

There isn't even a press conference at any point. Interviews are available upon request. So, if the Stater and the Record Courier didn't consider them newsworthy, most students on this campus probably wouldn't even know about it. How does that fit into educating the student body?

We'd like to think that a group so concerned about the unborn children of Kent State students would go to a little more effort. We're not little kids. We have to deal with school, bills, peer pressure, sex, family and every other cause of stress imaginable. We are fully capable of having a grown-up conversation. Is the CBR Midwest?

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.