For two days last week the Genocide Awareness Project set up shop in the free speech areas near the library and in front of the Student Union. Consider yourself lucky if you missed the nauseating display.
GAP travels around college campuses displaying photo-murals that display pictures of aborted fetuses next to images of the World Trade Center attack and the Holocaust.
The organizers and supporters of this project claim that the GAP raises awareness about abortion. As one of the largest college universities in the country, we find it hard to believe that there are students at UCF who are unaware of abortion.
They also claim the project prompted students to take time to consider abortion and their stance on the controversial topic. We disagree strongly with this assumption. All this display did was gross students out.
The GAP shocked students instead of counsel or convince them. We doubt anyone came to the conclusion that abortion is a form of genocide because they were too busy getting away from the offensive images.
Many students were so disgusted with the display that they called or visited the SGA offices demanding to know why the GAP program was on campus. The Students for Life, a pro-life organization on campus, helped organize the GAP’s visit. They also petitioned the SGA Financial Allocations for Organizations Committee for $6,500 to help pay for the event. FAO only approved $1,000.
Despite our disdain for the GAP’s methods of educating the masses, we understand and agree with the FAO’s decision.
Its job is to allocate money to organizations on campus in a fair manner. If abortion rights organizations needed money for a similar event they would probably approve their costs.
Being upset with the FAO is like the GAP’s display - pointless. If you are a student and want to change the displays on campus, you should address the organizations responsible for requesting their presence at UCF.
You could take the time to write them an e-mail explaining that their shocking photos did not make you contemplate your opinions on abortion.
If you are a student who is a member of Students for Life, you should take the time to listen to your fellow students.
Your opinions and thoughts on abortion are decided and declared. You are attempting to convince students to open their minds to your opinions. Try sharing them through an educational seminar or a personal conversation in place of the box truck with giant pictures of aborted fetuses.
9 comments
With all due respect, your position is ridiculous. You posit that the reason people were "shocked," "disgusted," and of course "upset," is because these images are of aborted fetuses and that this is "offensive." Let me reframe this for you: What students passing by viewed were images straight out of the "Saw" movies. People aren't "shocked" by Saw because it is thought-provoking. It does not "upset" them because they realize something fundamental about the worth of a human life. They aren't even "upset" because the movie is more "offensive" than they thought. It is the visual equivalent of the preachers who stand on the chemistry green shouting at passers-by that they are whores and sinners. And no more convincing.The argument basically boils down to this: There are a group of people in the country who believe that fetuses are people, capable of thought and emotion, and who should be granted the same rights as any other citizen. Then there is another group who believe that a fetus in the first trimester is not yet a person. These people believe that an abortion is maybe not the best choice, but it is an option when other methods of contraception have failed. Tell me, please: in what way did the demonstration convince anyone who is of this latter frame of thinking? Or did it serve as a masturbatory exercise for the former group? Letting them announce, if only to themselves, "See! Look how right we are! See how gross it is!?"