emerald
She goes from window to window, blinded by tears,
staggered by the knifing pain in her abdomen. She closes
each window and turns the latch tight. The St. Louis summer
night and Gaslight Square noise is a world apart from her
resolve. That is a world she no longer deserves.
con fernald
sidelong glances
She moves through the dim apartment stumbling over
the razor-slashed canvases strewn about the floor. The walls
are splattered with oils. Twisted tubes of oil paint lie where
they were flung. She is too ugly inside to paint anymore.
She is calm, though the tears and the blood will not stop,
and the pain doubles her over. She closes each window
slowly, deliberately. A car eases around a corner, the radio
loudly playing "California Dreaming”, a new song she used
to like. She shuts the window — music is for the living.
In the distance the bells of Washington University chime
the hour — eleven strokes.
She closes the kitchen door and seals the bottom with a
rolled towel. The pain in her gut — the pain in her heart —
steals her breath. She sways against the counter, startling a
pair of roaches. They scuttle off to a crack in the wall.
It was just last night that she crossed the dark parking lot
to the backdoor of the ramshackle building. She clenched
the wad of bills in her coat pocket. She knocked hesitantly —
and waited, wanting to turn and run. Thoughts sped through
her mind — what if the doctor wasn’t there — what if he was
arrested — what if Bill hadn’t given her enough money? The
door opened and she was drowned in white light. A hand
seized her arm and pulled her in. The room was cold and
smelled of ether and mold.
”You got the money?”
The sweaty ball of green bills shook in her quivering
hand The fat woman snatched the bills from her and
counted. The woman had wild black hair and a doughy white
face She wheezed through her ruby puckered lips as she
counted.
”$400, okay — didja do what I told ya? No underwear?Lie
down,” the woman barked. “Bastard knocked’ya up and
left’ya, huh? In the stirrups." Instruments crashed as the fat
woman sat between her heels. There was cold metal and
pain.
She hasn't stopped crying since then, but she has
decided what to do. She opens the stove lid and blows out
the pilot-lights. The pain becomes so intense that she
collapses on to the floor. She opens the oven door — blows
out the blue flame — and turns the gas on full.
She slumps against the stove and lets all the tears come
So tired so tired, the gentle hissing soothes her.
Anti-abortion groups are currently trying to overturn the
Supreme Court’s decision which legalized most abortions.
Those abortion foes are also attempting to give Congress the
authority to enact a constitutional ban on abortion
In a nationwide poll conducted by the Associated Press
and NBC News three of four Americans were opposed to a
constitutional ban on abortion
The gas hisses. The quiet is shattered as the kitchen
door explodes splinters off the jamb. A man kicks aside the
door and rushes in.
He turns off the gas — then throws a chair through the
window.
She's slumped over the oven door. He picks up her limp
body and carries her to the backstairs. Her pants are wet with
a dark stain — the hemorrhaging never stopped. He shakes
her, then blows air into her lungs. He can taste the gas.
”Baby ... I'm so sorry,” she says, coughing
In the middle ’60s, a woman’s only resort to an unwanted
pregnancy were the “back-alley butchers.” She is now a
successful careerwoman, with a business and a future I ask
her if she ever regrets that back-alley abortion? “No, not at
all I was a 17-year-old college freshman — there are enough
problem children already without a child being forced to
raise an unwanted child.”
US. TOR06N pDUCV—' l%Z
letters
GPA funds
Dave Thomas (letters, Feb 5)
asserts that two conditions
plague the University: the man
agement of the "University"
Post Office, and the support of
the University for gay rights ac
tivist groups Conditions are so
bad, he claims it "makes me
sick ” It seems that Thomas is
too easily nauseated
The US Post Office substation
located in the EMU is not a
University service It is a branch
office of the US Postal Service I
suggest Thomas contact the
Postmaster if he has a com
plaint
The second issue raised is
even more inane, but for subtler
reasons It consists of two
claims. First, he hints that
University support for gay
groups is a cause of fee in
creases If he believes that the
Koinonia Center receives
University funding, he is wrong,
it receives none If he seriously
thinks that ASUO support of the
Gay Peoples Alliance (GPA) is a
cause of fee increases, he is
also wrong The GPA receives
0 1 percent of the $44 per term
incidental fee (that’s 4 4 cents).
This is small change and of no
fiscal consequence
Second, he claims that such
support "infringes upon my
rights" (sic), and that homosex
uals should use their own
means to further their cause.
Thomas may not care to admit it,
but a great many students are
homosexual, certainly more
than 0.4 percent of current en
rollment (the GPA fraction of the
ASUO budget). Since the GPA
is a student organization run by
and for students the conclusion
is inescapable that gay students
are furthering their own cause. I
also cannot fathom what rights,
(yes, plural) he means Perhaps
the right to spend that 4 4 cents
his own way?
I hope something comes of
your first gripe, Thomas As for
the second, I recommend Pepto
Bismo. and graduation
Richard Ludescher
Graduate, chemistry
Closed mind
It's a shame when a movie
reviewer goes to the movie with
both eyes open and his mind
closed
Matt Meyer obviously likes
morals, but what about hetero
sexual morals7 Many people
feel premarital sex is just as
wrong as homosexual sex, but
Meyer surely wouldn't label the
heterosexual counterpart im
moral
Why not7
Meyer says the movie "Mak
ing Love" shows only one side
of the issue of homosexuality,
and ignores its moral implica
tions.
But isn't he doing the same
thing7 Isn't he ignoring the issue
of heterosexual morals?
Meyer sees homosexuality as
apparently some kind of disease
that he's afraid to catch He says
the movie comes across as "a
slickly-produced advertisement
for the gay movement "
Poppycock!
“Making Love" is a classic
example of a movie dealing with
a touchy subject filmed on neu
tral ground At no point does it
attempt to favor or oppose
homosexuality — it simply por
trays it in a real-life situation —
typical or no How can that be
called immoral?
It's a shame Meyer feels our
society's morals have possibly
"crumbled so far that someone
considering homosexuality
wouldn't even stop to question
the implications of his actions '
How can someone who feels
attracted to a member of the
same sex think about the im
plications of his actions'? Why
should he be worried about
what other people think or say
any more than a man sleeping
with somebody else s wife
would?
Meyer's review was initially
good, as is the movie, but he
attempted to cast his net too
wide On a subject as con
troversial as homosexuality, I
don't think "Making Love took
the "easy way out’’ — Matt
Meyer did
Erin Knowles
freshman, heterosexual
Objectivity
I realize that the Emerald is
only a college paper and that
the staff is not professional but
this time you have gone too far I
read Matt Meyer's review (Feb
17) of "Making Love" and I was
appalled It has to be, by far, the
most biased, amateur piece of
junk I've ever read
For the record, I am not gay,
nor have I seen the film; it does
not appeal to me I am a devout
Catholic The homosexual
lifestyle does not particularly
please me but even so, I would
never question the decision of
anyone who chose it Would you
have accused the film of taking
the "easy way out" if Zack's
lover had been a Black woman,
for instance? To me your right
eous review was the same kind
of bigotry Before you write any
more reviews, Meyer, perhaps
you should review your jour
nalistic ethics, particularly the
one that stresses objectivity
Kathleen Fox
Senior, history
staff
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