VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS, OPINIONS, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Most world leaders
need better safety nets
■ OUR OPINION: Protect '
of high-level officials is
vital to global and national
security
Americans wore rer »?nlly
horrified when a 25-yoar-old
Jewish law student was able
to walk up and fin* point
blank .it Israeli Prime Minis
ter Yitzak Kabul as the leader
was having a peace rally in
Tel Aviv, Israel, on Nov.<!
Many Americans remem
ber where they were and
what they were doing when
John Hinckley jr. nearly suc
ceeded in taking Ronald
Reagan's life as the former
president was leaving a
Washington. DC., hotel in
the early '80s. Incredibly,
news footage from that
assassination attempt actual
ly shows Hinckley's arm and
hand coming up with the
pistol and firing the shots
Almost two gene! ,i! jails
have gone by since John F.
Kennedy was shot and killed
in his personal limousine as
the presidential motorcade
made its way through down
town Dallas. Texas Again,
thousands of Amerii an citi
zens remember exactly
where they were, what time
of day it was. and what they
were doing as the president
died on that fateful day.
Perhaps one reason why
so many Americans still
remember the way Kennedy
died, the way Reagan nearly
died, and the way Rabin lost
his life, is that we don't
exper t world leaders to fall
victim to the same random
violence that takes the lives
of so many "regular" human
beings every day.
We just don't think our
leaders are as vulnerable as
other people.
Americans am used to
being the global loaders in
high-tech areas such as space
travel and "spying an the
had guys." We have power
ful satellites and an entire
army of intelligence o|w*rn
tives whose fob is to waU h
out for America’s national
security. The United States
also has the CIA and FBI to
help protect our leaders
Most of us know just
enough alxnit presidential
sec urity to be mystified and
baffled by it We might not
know exactly how the presi
dent and other important
officials are protected, but
we believe the protec lion
proc i‘ss is carefully detailed
and invariably carried out by
highly trained professionals.
Someone walk up and
•'boo! President t lintou Not
in America.
Actually, it is possible in
America.
Earlier this year a man
wearing a trench coal walked
up to the iron fence sur
rounding the White House,
whipped out a machine gun.
and started peppering the*
presidential grounds with
gunfire
Before that incident, a
man crashed his airplane
into the White House lawn
in a scenario that could have
come right out of a Tom
Clancy novel.
Just when wo think our
leaders and off it ials are safe,
someone figures out some
bizarre way to slip through
the net of protection.
When there is no net, as
was the tragic case in Yitzak
Rabin's assassination, we are
shocked
The movie In the Lino of
tiro featured Clint Eastwood
as a veteran bodyguard who
was willing to "take a bul
let" for the president.
Unfortunately for Israel,
for Yitzak Rabin and for the
rest of the world, no one was
close enough to the man to
step in front of his bullet.
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SUDDCNtY, I ONWRSTAND
Tut APPEAL Of ASSAULT
WEAPONS
7i
Women’s studies: closed for discussion
Several years ago, an article in ixinunen
ion magazine argued that today's univer
sity was not a fomm for ojwn debate, but
rat! i ; ii s, -titiitiDi: that dee aids ,uiv mil
t i I Il>\\ s
Chi' author wrote "jModem MliTi
inodermn s! partisans have lit
Ho sympathy either with open
discourse or with analytic pro
i odurvs that fail to guarantetf
desired conclusions "
no, mere is no secret society
of tenured, totalitarian teachers
waiting to indoctrinate young
minds And yet, fur all of the
courses at the University that
attempt to promote freedom of expression and
respect for opposing views, there are # few sad
dening exceptions
Nomi Pearce's Women’s Studies 101 class
should be put at the top of this list
All of her students give Pearce high marks for
her exposition on issues, such as the societal
devaluation of women. However, when the topic
of abortion comes up, many women believe that
Pearce shifts from instructor to advocate
These women fee! that Pearce has ignored
classroom pluralism in her mistaken assumption
that the terms "feminism" and "pro-choice" are
synonymous
The result has been the marginalization of all
students who do not adhere to Pearce's simplis
tic classroom position on abortion. These people
range in beliefs from pro-choice to pro-life,
including one student who has had an abortion.
Their objections stem from a slide show pre
sentation given by All Women's Health Services
several weeks ago.
In attempting to achieve its goal of "demystify
ing women's bodies," the presentation instructs
its viewers on giving cervical self-exams, illus
trates menstruation and discusses the wide range
of pubic hair patterns. One frame promises to
provide a "new view of the clitoris." and then
shows a woman masturbating to the [mint of ch
loral erection.
No. these weren't the objectionable pieces
However, once the topic of abortion was
addressed, the presentation was no longer con
cerned with "demystifying women's bodies."
Instead, it insulted women's minds.
After watching the presentation, one would
think abortion is the easiest operation known to
woman.
The narrator refers to abortion as a "come-and
go procedure." The viewer is told that most abor
tions take only three to five minutes and that All
Women's Health Services knows the "truth"
almut abortion.
All Women's Health Services and Pearce s ver
sion of this abortion “truth" is illuminated by
one of the presentation's last slides. A thin,
beautiful woman is seen smiling with clean,
white teeth. With every blond hair in place, the
Barbie Doll waves to the camera as she exits the
abortion clinic. The viewer is told that this
woman has had an abortion just moments before.
I his is the only picture of any post-abort ion
woman.
This propagandists caricature is as inisrepre
senlative as it is destructive.
No person, pro-choir e or pro-life, claims that
abortion is an enjoyable experience. The depic
tion of the abortion procedure as being equiva
lent to a three-to-five-minute dental cleaning
simply does not reflect the reality of struggle that
'<) many women endure betore and after the pro
cedure,
Pearce betrays Iter students in attempting to
sell them a smiling Barbie that demeans women
in the most insidious of ways.
In addition to only inviting the abortion clinic
for this presentation, Pearce has assigned several
pro-choice readings in class, one of which argues
that abortion is equivalent to any other form of
birth control. Meanwhile, there nave been no
pro-life readings, and Pearce has rejected the
request of one student to invite a mainstream
rignt-to-life group to offer an alternative perspec
tive.
During our interview, Pearce said, "I don't
think a balance is what I was looking for."
It is this form of pedagogy that subverts the
entire education process Certainly every class
will lie structuriKl around a professor's ideology.
But there must always lx> a genuine attempt on
the part of the instructor to provide a range of
perspectives in class
Stating one’s opinion and then providing bal
ancing ideologies is one thing; silencing all
views that differ from the instructor’s, while con
ducting a pro-choice rally in class is quite anoth
er.
The danger in Pearce's advocacy is manifest in
the silence it creates The notion that abortion is
a "come-and-go procedure" was heard. The voic
es of women who require many hours of post
abortion counseling were silenced.
Barbie was heard. Complexity was silenced.
All Women's Health Services was heard. Fem
inists for Life was silenced.
It's ironic that the women's studies depart
ment has worked so hard to create this silence,
when soldiers for the women's movement have
fought so many years to give women a voice.
The instructors for next term's 101 classes are
Lisa Albrich, Lisa Bornstein, Sheila Page
Edwards and, of course. Nomi Pearce. If you are
considering taking the course, cell these women
and ask them if they plan to invite All Women's
Health Services
Ask them if other perspectives will lie invited,
studied and respected.
Remind them that marginalizing students for
the indoctrination of their agendas is destructive
Remind them that smiling. Abortion Barbie
Dolls insult and demean women just as much as
their Mattel counterparts.
Remind them that propaganda never empow
ers.
Keith Cunningham, a senior majoring in English,
is o columnist for the Emerald.