Disappointment: Learning 9

Once again, apologies for neglecting this poor little blog. Also, fair warning that this post may come off slightly rant-y, and is not meant to stir up pro-choice/pro-life debates, although at least one person on my facebook wall has already taken it as such. Ok, so here we go.

I don't know how many of you saw this picture circulating the interwebs, but it got a lot of attention. I had seen the picture in passing, but didn't know anything about it, other than gleaning the fact that it obviously came from a pro-choice rally of some sort.

Well, last night I learned more about the girl who was holding the sign. Turns out she is a 14 year old girl in Texas. It also turns out that a whole bunch of strangers online started calling her a whore, just because she was holding this sign. There were other comments too, such as the ones saying her parents should be arrested for child abuse or that her dad probably has all her friends come over to play abortion clinic. Truly awful stuff. And this nastiness from strangers wasn't limited to anonymous internet people - A grown man shouted in their faces at the protest that she and her friend were ugly, should shave their heads and become lesbians, and that no man would ever want them. An adult man shouting nasty insults in the face of a 14 year old girl. And all that nastiness is why she wrote this response.

I find her response to be incredibly classy. Even more incredible considering it's coming from a 14 year old girl, and she's questioning why grown ups are the ones calling her nasty names. I think that's a great question. I think her response highlights so much of what is wrong and missing from our dialogue, or lack thereof. How adults are unable to disagree appropriately, a skill we try so so hard to teach our students. But how will that skill really sink in when the role models they have all over internet and media and in real life sink immediately to nasty vicious name calling instead of discussion?

So I posted her response on facebook with the message that regardless of what you thought of her sign, we should all be able to agree that no one should be calling her a whore and that her response to such insults was incredible. I truly believed that. And then this morning I find a comment from a family member, who I like very much despite differences in opinion on various topics, who replied that while the term 'whore' was incorrect, she was really a nazi indoctrinated baby killer.

It left me speechless and angry, and I dashed off a couple of carefully worded comments in response, but my blood was still racing and he had not replied again, hence my blog post here. I have to wonder if he even read the article? Does he even hear what his words sound like in his own head? I have no idea how to even communicate with such a person. Feeling pretty disappointed.