January 21st, 2003
The Case of the Missing Abortion Fliers
Here is the letter I sent to the Batt today:
During the last two weeks, the A&M Objectivism Club has been organizing a speech called “Pro-Choice Is Pro-Life: The Philosophical Basis for a Woman’s Right to Abortion.” Because this is a very controversial topic, we expected a fair amount of controversy, but what we did not expect was for our fliers to be torn down with such aggressiveness by our opposition.
As a poor college student, printing hundreds of fliers is a significant cost to me and the other members, and reflects our strong opinions on the issue and our desire to share our views with our fellow Aggies. Monday afternoon, another member and I spent several hours putting up 500 fliers all over campus. When I went to class this morning however, I discovered that nearly all of those fliers had been torn down, leaving the other groups’ fliers around them intact. This action is only indicative of a larger history of tearing down and even vandalizing our fliers and posters.
It seems to me that no one who is confident in the truth of his or her position would be so desperate to silence his opposition for fear that they will change their audience’s mind. However, this has not been the case, as some unknown groups or individuals have decided for the rest of Texas A&M which issues and arguments students deserve to hear. I hope that my fellow Aggies will agree with me that no matter what your stance is, each side deserves an opportunity to present its ideas in a public forum, and censure their friends or groups when they decide to go on their next “censorship run.”