Arnie is a Jewish psychiatrist, a former
university faculty colleague and a dear friend. Periodically we have
lunch at a diner near the college where we both taught. We laugh,tell
jokes,argue,debate,gossip and have a lot of appropriate fun.
One time when we were debating Abortion, I
had used the tern " Pro abortion ." Arnie strongly
disagreed with the term and insisted that more correctly I should have said
" Pro choice ." Both of us have an
admirable quality whereby we can fundamentally disagree and
still be friends--and enjoy each other ! In effect,we can disagree
without being disagreeable.
I asked ( being a licensed shrink
myself and sensitive to the CONNOTATIONS of words)
what " choice " meant ? Arnie then used
party line language, saying that abortion was the least desireable of
all options but that he supported the right of a woman
to CHOOSE what to do with her own body. Even though that option meant
( unfortunately )
the taking of an innocent life, the woman still
had that right so to behave. Arnie supported that behavior.
Being a bit of a rascal with my own
Jewish-Irish background, I translated what he said as I saw it in the
following way:
PRO means " I support " or
I am in favor of.
Choice means that a woman has the right to
kill life within her IF she so chooses
"Least desireable" means that we
accept the fact that IT IS killing a fellow human creature.
Hence, when a person says " I am
pro-choice" this person is saying the following:
I support and am in favor of
a woman killing life within her--- if she so chooses.
I know it is killing life but I support
it anyway.
For me putting the proposition into such
bald terms makes the discussion clearer. It appears to me that
is a question of linguistic framing. To say " Pro life "
connotes a far more positive and meaningful thrust than to say
" anti-abortion." To say " pro
abortion" says something more powerful than to say "
pro choice." Arnie saw clearly that my saying Pro abortion
is far more oppositional to his position than for me to say
Pro choice.
Within this framework, the understandable but
devious plea of inconvenience, of limited time, of money, of lost
vacations, of school expenses surfaces when that unwanted pregnancy
occurs!But there also surfaces a more honest appraisal of
abortion. Unmasking happens!
Now we see selfishness and narcississm when the
ugly and grisly "profession" of abortionist
takes center stage. The violence against
an innocent minority ( fetuses) should be seen for what it is.
It is a violence which opens up a world of coarseness,vulgarity, incivility
and insensitivity which has splattered us since l973.
Why speak up? I am a half Jew and I have
learned from the Hochuth debacle of his
"Deputy" that silence is wrong
and inappropriate. I know that silence might be conceived as consent
or compliance with a monstrous evil. I have learned that silence
in the face of oppression helps only the oppressor. I have
learned from the holy Mother Teresa of Calcutta that the unleashing of
violence by mothers against their own children in abortion
has calloused the modern psyche to an unbelieveable and sadistic
level.
Arnie and I debate. But cordially. Out of
the exchanges have come further clarities forme about the eternaltension
between good and evil. I see that this abortion evil has
been sold to the public by clever ( even satanic ) linguistic
skill. To DENOTE what words mean brings clarification about
reality. To retreat to the mists of ambiguity of connotation can
mean living
in a kind of massive,collective trance. People
desperately want to believe in the " nobility" of choice but
at the same time they sense that all is not right in this
kind of Denmark.
Jesus said something terribly frightening
about those who mislead His little ones. A millstone around the neck
and being cast into the sea is not my idea of beautiful living.
Those who
know better hadddbestnot mislead little
ones by keeping silent in the face of evil. Better to be unpopular and
to be considered medieval than to drown in the eternities.
Arnie and I will continue to debate and
laugh and enjoy pasta. And we will continue to
disagree-----but,please God, we will never be disagreeable.