Where my friend Jojo Ruba goes, controversy follows. I have lost track now of the number of schools where one of his presentations has precipitated some sort of backlash against the campus pro-lifers. (Let's see . . . Carleton . . . York . . . I assume he was at least indirectly involved with the recent GAP presentation in Calgary . . .)
The wildest part is, it's not his fault - it's just that insofar as he exists, and has strong opinions on the topic of abortion, there are always a certain number of black-shirted campus shouters who have strong negative opinions on whether he should express them.
The latest august institution to feel the wrath is St. Mary's University in Halifax, where the requisite angry mob shouted down Jojo's presentation on Thursday night. This time, the confrontation made YouTube:
Now, I stand firmly in the "give 'em more rope" camp of conflict resolution; had I been in Jojo's shoes, I might well have done or said something to stir these "ladies" up even further. ("Gee, officer, how was I to know that an offhand comment about multiple piercings and questionable personal grooming would provoke such a violent response?") But I have to hand it to him: he didn't lose his cool.
Unfortunately, it appears that the proper response to "Sit down and let's talk" is now to shout bad poetry.
Let's take a look at some of that, shall we?
Not the church, not the state,
Women must decide their fate.
That the state cannot decide women's fate will, of course, come as a great surprise to all those pro-choice women who write letters to the editor arguing that since the Supreme Court struck down the existing law prohibiting abortion in 1988, it was now legal and we should all get over it. (And did I mention that the majority of judges sitting on that arm of the State were men? How inappropriate.)
Pro-life men have got to go!
When you get pregnant, let us know.
I've been waiting for an excuse to re-use this graphic:
Women's bodies, women's lives,
We will not be terrorized.
If around 10 women feel "terrorized" by one rather short man standing alone at the front of a room, then I humbly submit that feminism hasn't empowered women as much as we have been led to believe.
No hate speech in our school!
I guess "Come in, sit down, and I'll answer your questions at the end" counts as hate speech now.
As always, this whole scene just goes to show: which side are the real fanatics on?
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