Nerve Endings Firing Away

College Station is a conservative place typical of small-town America where down-to-earth values of morality and family are central to its ethos. But thanks to the presence of a nationally renowned university that attracts hordes of international students and faculty, the environment on campus is somewhat moderate. I wouldn’t call it as liberal as I have seen in my previous colleges but you have to remember you are in the heart of Texas. In fact, the only Planned Parenthood Clinic in town is always besieged (ok! strong word…picketed) by anti-abortion protesters who stand around with wreaths and heads bowed; most of whom are teenagers and kids. I wonder if they have had the opportunity to make that choice of protesting. But thankfully no abortion clinic bombers in this town.

As I was going to my early morning class, I noticed fencing and scaffolding material on the Rudder Plaza (near MSC]. Signboards saying, Warning: Graphic Images ahead and You may be offended by these images were lying around. I couldn’t wait to get back but Monday is kinda a marathon session in terms of classes and labs i.e. 5 straight hours. When I returned in the afternoon, I was shocked to see graphic images of fetuses and aborted babies displayed on a huge poster wall. When I say huge, I mean a 20-25 foot wall. The images could be seen from over 50 yards. I could see students walking by shocked by the graphic nature of images.

Near the display, they had a writing wall titled, Free Speech Wall or something like that where you could scribble your thoughts. There was the usual rhetoric of abortion is bad and how God is angry with those who do it. But I had expected that in College Station but I was surprised by the amount of pro-choice comments as well including some hilarious ones like, Make abortion not just legal but mandatory. To which someone had replied, yup! we should have told your mom that! There were many comments chiding the organizers for displaying such offensive images which they claimed, offended both sides of the debate. Most of the people stood around reading the comments and no one was writing anything at least when I was there. Exercising free speech in presence of onlookers is a daunting task especially when your views are in the minority.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t hang around much as I could see my bus in the distance. But I did observe plenty of volunteers with cameras and notepads. I am not sure if they were really anti-abortion people or merely conducting an exercise in free speech behavior. Probably tomorrow’s Battalion should answer that question.