The DNC: Anti-abortionists try to make their case

When I arrived in Denver yesterday and was making my way through  downtown Denver in my rental car, I was stuck behind a truck at a red  light. When I focused on the imagery on the truck, I saw aborted  fetuses on posters. They were grotesque. I was a captive audience 
sitting there in my car.

I found myself thinking of the 1st Amendment, and the right these 
people have to make their point. I am a great respector of free speech 
even when I feel the message is repulsive and simplistic, as I felt 
sitting behind that truck.  I wanted my own truck depicting the 
imagery of women making that most personal and wrenching of decisions. 
What that imagery would be, I don't know -- how do you depict the 
anguish of the heart, and the desperation of circumstance?-- but I 
wanted to respond.

And now, Monday, I'm in the Black Caucus session where African 
American leaders are at the podium addressing the crowd. An anti-
abortion heckler just stood up and interrupted the speaker.

I couldnt help but reflect that so many anti-abortipnists are men.

The man was escorted out, to chants of O-Ba-Ma. And the speeches 
continued.

The truck and the man were a way to get 10 seconds of attention, not a 
way to inform or change minds.  But this is an issue that pushes us to 
those extremes.

Of course I would have preferred to have seen/heard neither.  But free 
speech is only free speech if those whose messages we abhor have the 
same right to speak as we do.

Comments

[Jean Lythcott]

What a poignant and powerful reminder of both one of the pieces of a real democracy ... respect for the "others" point of view, and one of our constitutional guarantees ... that of free speech. Let us remember that one of the characteristics and successes of the Rule of the Bushies has been to squelch any possibility of overt dissenting voices. We need to hear the avid voices of others again to keep our nation on track, and I so hope that we do. We need to remind the whole nation of what it means to be a Democrat.
At this "Our" Convention, I wish all of you all the patience and respect of the "others" in our party that you can muster and will need in this incredible democratic exercise, The National Democratic Convention. The anti-abortionist said his piece but was removed because he did not have the right to interfere with someone else's speaking as an issue of good manners.
I hope that someone(s) will speak clearly and often of all the ways that the Bushies have trashed the Constitution they swore to uphold.
Be daring, compassionate, joyful, smart, courageous, collaborative, and unabashedly enthusiastic, for all of us at home, as you nominate the next President of these United States, Senator Barack Obama. Yeah!!!!!