matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) (08/07/85)
KEN ARNDT writes: > A WOMAN HAS A RIGHT TO AN ABORTION BECAUSE I WANT THE RIGHT TO GET RID > OF THIS PROBLEM!! All the rest is smoke. If this value system prevails > don't complain when they come for YOU. > > Regards, > > Ken Arndt No wonder the pro-choicers tear their hair out over Ken Arndt's articles! He has a style that goes right to the heart of the matter. No wonder those who would quote Ayn Rand, the apostle of selfishness, squirm at Mr. Arndt's no-nonsense postings! Rich Rosen and Thomas Newton argue rights and morality; Matt Rosenblatt argues Constitutional law (and just wait till I get to a law library -- I'll come back with a blizzard of case and statute citations thick enough to swamp net.legal!); Marcia Bear and Marie desJardins Park argue women's issues; others load up their screens with ad-hominem fustian and bombastic rodomontade, then fire the screens off at the net. Your style is not my style, Mr. Arndt. Calling an MIT man "Stupid" doesn't help the pro-life cause. Calling an ARGUMENT "stupid," and then demonstrating its fallacies for all the other net readers, which you do quite well, does help. But aside from the ad hominem stuff, you're a terrific writer, and I like your style. > Look, it's really very simple even from a moral standpoint, so simple > that only the willfully stupid can't understand it. (KEN ARNDT) > Note that I do believe education is important to making the right > decision. But this should be neutral education, not that which is > advocated by some, describing "limbs" being "ripped off" "unborn > babies." Please folks, the correct way to help people make a decision > is not to scare or disgust them. (JIM GORDON, JR.) There is an exchange of letters in the latest issue of Commentary magazine over "peace education" proposed for public schools. Such education would present, in elementary school and beyond, the horrors of nuclear warfare, so that children would grow up to do all they can to avoid an atomic war. One letter-writer calls this propaganda, and asks how its proponents would like "life education," a similar program to familiarize pupils with the gruesome details of abortion. A school can't help imparting values to its students. If parents pay taxes or tuition to support schools, you can't blame them for wanting the schools to impart THEIR values. It's not that young people today are "willfully stupid," Mr. Arndt. It's that they have not been getting anything like a "neutral education." The principle of liberalism, the idea that you can do anything you like as long as you don't harm someone else, has been taught in schools for 30 years. It's no less propaganda than "peace education" or "life education" would be; it's been taught in spite of and often over the objection of taxpayers; and it has been effective: Far too many young people see nothing wrong with a lot of things that their parents think immoral and bad. And so even though no one likes abortion, even though most people on the net have a heart for the little ones being D&C'ed and D&E'd and suctioned and salted-out and prostaglandin'ed, they can't bring themselves to go against the liberal principle that has been drummed into them all their lives. That's why they think it's dirty pool when the right-to-lifers parade in front of abortion clinics waving dead fetuses and placards depicting blood, guts and little limbs. It brings them face to face with one of the more unpleasant consequences of the liberal principle. I believe there has been no nuclear war since 1945 because every Soviet dictator, every American President, is familiar with the gory details of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and knows what would happen to him and his own family in case of nuclear war. While it is not up to the schools to indoctrinate children one way or another, it IS up to each person, on his own, to familiarize himself with both sides of every issue, including unpleasant and even sickening aspects. I don't want to see those aspects ignored, Mr. Gordon -- they are quite relevant to decision-making. Or do you think a bomber pilot flying at 20,000 feet should remain blissfully ignorant of the burned flesh, the limbs ripped from bodies, the innocent human beings being torn apart by the bombs, nuclear or conventional, that his push of a button unleashes? Show the guy what he's REALLY doing, and he may not drop the bomb. Show the pregnant woman on the way to the clinic what she's REALLY doing, and she may not go through with the abortion. -- Matt Rosenblatt
csdf@mit-vax.UUCP (Charles Forsythe) (08/08/85)
In article <488@brl-tgr.ARPA> matt@brl-tgr.ARPA (Matthew Rosenblatt ) writes: >No wonder the pro-choicers tear their hair out over Ken Arndt's articles! Actually, I giggle uncontralably (ask anybody!) and switch into flame-mode. The walls of the kitchen in my dorm are papered with print-outs of Ken's stuff (sans MY commentary) and provide hours of enjoyable paradoy for the residents. >Your style is not my style, Mr. Arndt... >...But aside from the ad hominem stuff, >you're a terrific writer, and I like your style. I don't really believe you wrote this. (stop drinking so much! :-) :-) ) >One letter-writer calls this propaganda, and >asks how its proponents would like "life education," a similar program >to familiarize pupils with the gruesome details of abortion. I think it's a great idea. In my school they called it "sex education" and also taught about (horrors!) birth control. Every year, the same people who lobbied for "pro-life" liobbied to have that class banned. >Far too many young people see nothing wrong with a lot of >things that their parents think immoral and bad. Far too many parents were too narrowminded to try anything unusual. >they can't bring themselves >to go against the liberal principle that has been drummed into them all >their lives. As opposed to the open-minded conservatives who have carfully weighed every side of the issue before deciding. >That's why they think it's dirty pool when the right-to-lifers >parade in front of abortion clinics waving dead fetuses and placards >depicting blood, guts and little limbs. No, it's not "dirty pool" -- it's sensationalism. Maybe I should go parade in front of an operating room carrying pictures of people having their appendixes removed etc. >Show the pregnant woman on the way to the clinic >what she's REALLY doing, and she may not go through with the abortion. And what if she does -- I suppose we lock her up? -- Charles Forsythe CSDF@MIT-VAX "I was going to say something really profound, but I forgot what it was." -Rev. Wang Zeep