A Return to Debate and Healthy Disagreement as American Values

By TChris, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Sun May 10, 2009 at 01:15:26 PM EST
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Bishop John D'Arcy has every right not to attend this year's commencement ceremony at Notre Dame. He is free to ask the university to rescind its invitation to Barack Obama to deliver the commencement address, just as he is free to condemn Obama's "longstanding unwillingness to hold human life as sacred." The antiabortion groups that hired a pilot to fly over Notre Dame towing a "giant photograph of a fetus aborted at 10 weeks" are equally free to deliver their offensive message.

The student body overwhelmingly disagrees with Bishop D'Arcy: 85 percent support Obama's visit. Yet some graduating seniors will protest by wearing "an image of a golden cross between two baby feet on top of their mortarboards." Protesters were arrested Friday while "pushing strollers with dolls covered in fake blood" across campus. Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, wants to encircle Notre Dame with a "political mud pit" so deep that the president won't want to cross it. The First Amendment is alive and well in South Bend.

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During the Bush years, our president would have avoided any venue that promised an expression of dissent. Public appearances were stage managed; fawning questioners were preselected to ask scripted questions; protesters were hidden away in free speech zones. It's good to see the new administration taking an approach that is consistent with our nation's core values.

A White House spokeswoman said Mr. Obama "does not govern with the expectation that everyone sees eye to eye with him on every position, and the spirit of debate and healthy disagreement on important issues are part of what he loves about this country."

In that regard, Barack Obama is the anti-Bush: a president who isn't afraid to let the nation hear voices of dissent. That's part of the change Obama promised, and that he has so far delivered. Can you imagine Bush giving a commencement address before students wearing visible signs of protest?

It will be interesting to see whether Notre Dame protesters are swept out of sight during Obama's appearance. Of course, there won't be any small planes flying over the president's head during his commencement speech, but the anti-abortion protesters attempting to create a "political mud pit" at Notre Dame should be left alone to play in their muck. In their recent protests, they've only convinced students that they aren't worth taking seriously.

Caitlin Conway, a 22-year-old political-science major who attends Mass once a week, says she is excited by Mr. Obama's appearance. She says she abhors the idea of abortion, but that she and others on campus are largely turned off by Operation Rescue's tactics and extreme stance. "I consider myself someone who supports life and wants to protect life wherever possible," she says, "but I don't want to identify myself as a pro-life American as [the movement] currently stands."

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A Return to Debate and Healthy Disagreement as American Values | 9 comments (9 topical)

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The anti-choice (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by TeresaInSnow2 on Sun May 10, 2009 at 01:21:52 PM EST

crowd can be nuts. I am certainly pro-choice. However, I appreciate anyone who stands firmly for something (anything1), in a world where politicians only stand for political expediency.

Ditto (none / 0) (#2)
by Militarytracy on Sun May 10, 2009 at 01:30:20 PM EST

Debate keeps a mind young and vibrant too. Everything else you don't get a choice on that about :)

Is Randall Terry still running around (none / 0) (#3)
by nycstray on Sun May 10, 2009 at 01:48:11 PM EST

with his fetus in a jar?

The thing I found most disturbing about OR was their influence on their children. I mean really now, taking your children to a clinic to ridicule women while a man is running around with a fetus in a jar?!

Imagine... (none / 0) (#4)
by roy on Sun May 10, 2009 at 02:01:32 PM EST

Can you imagine Bush giving a commencement address before students wearing visible signs of protest?

When Bush spoke at Notre Dame in 2001, "many students wore armbands protesting his support of capital punishment". At Yale, "students wore caps decorated with power plants, in opposition, they said, to Bush's energy plan."

In 2005 at Calvin College, "A small number of the graduating students wore protest buttons saying, 'God is not a Democrat or a Republican.' Even fewer were spotted with color-coded armbands protesting various Bush policies."

And in 2008 at Furman University, "a gutsy 15 faculty members disrobed at graduation, stood, and displayed "We Object" t-shirts for the duration of Bush's speech." Though I'm not sure whether speaking in front of protesting faculty is more, or less, Obamaish than in front of students.

: To be fair to Obama... (none / 0) (#5)
by roy on Sun May 10, 2009 at 02:59:56 PM EST

I casually tried to research any use of free speech / protest zones associated with Obama events. There were some during his campaign, but I couldn't find any worrisome examples since his election. Of course there were plenty of instances of Bush relying on them.
Hopefully this means Obama really is better is this regard.

Forced maternity tends to *create* Randalls and (none / 0) (#6)
by No Blood for Hubris on Sun May 10, 2009 at 06:11:25 PM EST

Bushes and Cheneys and Rummys et al., and the disproportionate emotional reactivity that goes along. Random parenthood is a bad choice right from the get-go.

It would be better if the government-forced maternity crowd tried generating compassion for and interest in caring for the post-born children we already have.

From a Catholic Perspective (none / 0) (#7)
by indy in sc on Sun May 10, 2009 at 10:54:32 PM EST

I enjoyed reading this article on the Notre Dame dust-up.

Norte Dame Protests (none / 0) (#8)
by mnunns on Sat May 16, 2009 at 09:31:58 PM EST

I assume since people are protesting Obama's speaking at Norte Dame because he is pro-choice also protested the Vatican for moving predophile priests around from church to church. What about the thousands of children born that were sexually abused by priests? Where the the protesters then? Such hypocrits.

Why did Notre Dame Invite Obama if so opposed (none / 0) (#9)
by beverlyt on Sat May 16, 2009 at 10:38:55 PM EST

Why did Notre Dame even invite President Obama if they are so opposed to his stance on social issues?

He did the honorable and courageous thing to still go and speak and show we can disagree but still have civil discourse.

The rabid pro-life groups are so hypocritical. They commit acts of violence yet rail against abortion as violence. They try to stop abortions but how many of them have adopted all the unwanted children from Mothers who cannot take care of a child? They disappear when the child is actually born and don't care what conditions the child lives in, if they are abused, neglected, or eventually end up dead or in prison. It's sickening.

The Catholic Church has been the meaning of the word "hypocrisy" for years. They scream about abortion and child welfare but stand silently by and try to sweep child abuse by their priests under the rug.

The current Pope waits for worldwide outrage before he removes a Bishop who denies that the Holocaust ever happened....and this Pope is German and was alive during the Holocaust years.

I have always viewed the Catholic Church as a money-making business that preys on the poor and builds unholy momuments to their "religion" with objects of great expense and garments of great expense in their churches. Just look at the wealth flaunted at the Vatican and yet their Priests and Nuns are supposed to live simply and with little worldly possessions.

Notre Dame should decide if they want to be an open institution of learning or a close-minded tool of the Republican Party religious radicals.

Thank goodness we now have a President who is intelligent, a real leader, and can handle issues and controversy with incredible grace and integrity. It with great pride I feel we now have honor, decency, and true greatness living in the White House.

I can't say the same for Notre Dame or the Catholic Church.