A Return to Debate and Healthy Disagreement as American Values
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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