Letters to the Editor

Pro-choice and Republican

To the Editor:

Last Friday's advertisement in The Daily Pennsylvanian for NARAL's pro-choice march contained a picture of President Bush signing into law some presumably abortion-related bill with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Senator Rick Santorum and other prominent congressional Republicans behind him watching approvingly. The picture accompanying the ad hinted at a devilish delight in their collective eyes. The question was posed, "What's wrong with this picture?" I have three points to make about what is wrong with the ad and not the politicians in the picture.

First, 60 to 80 percent of Republicans (myself included) are pro-choice. Since his campaign in 2000, Bush has supported six principles with which mainstream Americans, pro-choice or not, agree. They include: ban on partial-birth abortion; that the government should not fund abortions; some form of parental notification; and most recently, a bill to increase the penalty for criminals who harm pregnant mothers and opposition for a litmus test when making judicial appointments. In sum, you can be pro-choice (as I am) and still support all that Bush and Republicans in Congress have done regarding the abortion issue (as do I).

Second, President Bush is not a threat to Roe v. Wade. Bush himself has said that "the country isn't ready for Roe v. Wade to be overturned." Furthermore, Republican appointed Supreme Court justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter, and the court as a whole, have explicitly said that they are not ready to take up the issue anytime soon.

My third and final point is that not only did I find the ad misleading and untrue, but I also found it somewhat offensive. It is implicitly saying that Republicans and legislators in general should not be able to determine abortion policy. What makes Democrats any more able to handle the issue? Government handles war and peace and life and death all the time. Why are abortion-related issues any different? The core of the debate is whether or not a fetus is a living, breathing human being. Once this is settled, then it can become a "women's rights" issue, but not until then.

For years, Democrats have used abortion as a wedge issue among women and young people to score political points and distract less-sophisticated voters from bigger-picture issues such as the economy and national security. It is high time for the Republicans to put a stop to it.

Scott Robinson

Wharton '06

Respecting secularism

To the Editor:

I find it hard to believe Zachary Noyce's assertion in his column ("Finding a place for religion at Penn," DP, 04/09/04) that the prevailing secular culture at Penn dismisses religion and places it only outside of our campus. Religion, indeed, is all around us at Penn, and plenty of people are taking pride in it. In fact, Penn's Web site lists no less than 25 religiously oriented organizations on campus. However, not one has promoted a nonreligious worldview, until the recent establishment of Secular Student Awareness.

While religious believers are often made out to be the oppressed citizens of our society, the nonreligious can attest to their own history of persecution, stretching back to the days when atheists were burned at the stake alongside witches, and continuing to our own lifetimes, during which George H. W. Bush declared, "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." If there exists, as Noyce asserts, "a sense that no religious reason could ever be good enough," then it stands alongside the all-too-common notion that the decisions of seculars are immoral or unethical because of their lack of faith in God.

Penn should not be a place where any beliefs are spoken of with a "dismissive tone," and I agree with Noyce that we all should take pride in our beliefs every week, not just during particular periods such as Passover and Jesus Week. But that should include those who choose not to subscribe to a religion as much as those who do, and Noyce should remember this point of view the next time he tries to argue that "God should still matter in our classrooms."

Maya Williams

Wharton '06

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