Protests

It was bound to make the national media, and it did. With the invitation of our nation's first African American President to Notre Dame, who happens to be a democrat and pro-choice, there was a flurry of ND students and Catholics that raised an uproar. How could someone who was against such a core Catholic belief (life at conception) come to speak at a Catholic University?

The controversy didn't stop there. About three weeks before graduation (and Obama's visit), a number of people protesting abortion starting hanging out at the main entrance to Notre Dame. It's the intersection of Angela and Notre Dame Avenue. It happens to be the one place I drive by almost daily.

I had no problem with people protesting Obama coming to speak. I had no problem with people protesting his support of abortion (pro-choice stance). I had no problem that they were against abortion. I had a HUGE problem with the graphic images they displayed. Aborted fetuses at 10-weeks and older; baby body parts, dead fetuses with foreceps still holding the head. It was horrible. Now, that wouldn't be so bad, but they also got a plane to fly a huge banner around the neighborhood (over ND) with some of the same images. So, even if you could avoid the intersection (which would add at least 20 minutes to a commute), you would still see the pictures in the sky over my house.

Now, even then I wouldn't be too upset- except my daughters, ages six and three, both saw and paid attention to the pictures. That meant that I had to somehow explain an issue many adults don't understand to young children! This is not a topic I want forced on my family when my kids are so young. We haven't even had the "sex talk" yet!

And, despite my cursory and open discussion with Zoë and Megan, I know that it has affected them. After one discussion about abortion, Zoë started not just praying for her (unborn) baby sister, but asking that she be born healthy.

We heard of arrests of people going on campus protesting abortion (some women were pushing strollers with blood-covered dolls inside). We had people standing in front of ND for the last three weeks. There were trucks driving around town with pictures of an aborted fetus on it. The last is the only one I had issues with (again, forcing the issue and exposing innocent children).

We then had a flurry of emails sent on the neighborhood listserve. It started with an informational email telling us of busloads of protestors from Chicago coming to town for the graduation. Then a mother whose house would be right in front of the protestors, said she was defnitely going to get No Tresspassing signs as she was already upset about the horrible pictures, and now they were going to be displayed right in front of her children's windows. That set off a barrage of people saying we should be more tolerant, shouldn't we allow protests, and others saying we should be pro-life cuz we're Catholic (yeah, I'd guess our neighborhood is about 75% Catholic) and/or we work for Notre Dame.

Still, even with hundreds of people lined up over 3 miles around campus, things were peaceful on campus. There was a student-organized peaceful protest on campus- a sit in at a quad, and a prayer vigil at the Grotto. President Obama was welcomed with enthusiasm, even if some people disagreed with him. And, hecklers that shouted out "Abortion is Murder" and "You need to apologize to Our Lady" (meaning the Mother Mary), they were Boo-ed by the student body at graduation and then drowned out by them chanting "We are ND!". Obama calmed the boo-ing, but said that it was OK. His speech addressed stemcell research (another hot-topic for Catholics) and abortion. He really is an excellent speaker.

As for people being arrested- well, they were all warned that campus is private property, and there would be nobody allowed on campus that was controversial (aka anti-anything: anti-abortion, anti-Obama, anti-NotreDame); I heard only of anti-abortion people being arrested.

Although I am not entirely pro-life or pro-choice, I believe in people being able to (peacefully) protest. I had no problem with people being out front of ND and displaying their frustrating and anger over abortion. However, I am VERY mad about the images that were forced on me and my children. I had a few friends that didn't let their kids go play outside when the plane was flyign around, and avoided the intersection with images as much as possible. It wasn't easy. But, I was upset that somebody would call me intolerant or a bigot or for abortion because I was upset over having to deal with these images (which did happen!)

I am glad that the whole debacle is over. The protestors have packed up camp, and our roads are free from horrible images. The students have left and once again I have my favorite time in South Bend and at Notre Dame- full leafy green trees, ducklings following their mom and dad around, the walks to parks and around the lakes on campus. It's beautiful, and it's peaceful. I like it that way.

This youtube video was posted and shows what I avoided- the horrible photographs of aborted fetuses. The protestors lined all of Angela and once to the major intersection (933-Michigan), were along the road for another 2 miles as one drove to the ramp to the toll-road. Please, don't watch this if you don't want to. I just wanted you to have the chance to see what we've seen nearby for the last three weeks.