On May 19, 2005, at 9:44 AM, Dave Land wrote:
Damn you, Warren Okrassa!
How dare you bring rational thought and personal stories to a discussion of abortion?
I didn't mean to...
I think you know as well as I do that the only way to argue this issue is with pictures of aborted fetuses, Bible verse placards, stories of women killed in back-alley clinics and reams of statistics.
The pictures, when I reflected on it the other day, remind me of the way PETA shows slaughterhouse images or bleeding baby harp seals to try to bludgeon their activist message into the culture. (FWIW I am *mostly* vegetarian, but I don't agree either with PETA's strongarm tactics *or* their long-term agenda, which is at best impractical, and very likely impossible to bring about.)
I think that's one reason I tend to feel a kind of angered disgust with those who use those images, as well as anyone who quotes a book that was written well before abortion was even feasible. Cudgels of any kind are not arguments; they are appeals to emotion and they do not resolve anything.
[I'll snip the heapings of kudos, because, well, it's a little embarrassing. Thanks, though.]
Thank you for sharing the story of your relationship with the 14-year-old that you mentor. I think it helps tremendously to hear what it is that leads us to our opinions, as opposed to simply spewing the latest talking points on the subject.
It seemed relevant. And I thought it was necessary to bring up, mostly from honesty. I'm ambivalent about abortion, and I think it's fair to show that I have several reasons for being so.
-- Warren Ockrassa, Publisher/Editor, nightwares Books http://books.nightwares.com/ Current work in progress "The Seven-Year Mirror" http://www.nightwares.com/books/ockrassa/Flat_Out.pdf
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