One of my dad’s — and most dads’, for that matter — favorite expressions is “Opinions are like assholes. Everybody’s got one.” Some writers quote T.S. Eliot, William Blake or Thoreau to start an article, but why bother when you have a modern day Blake full of gold like this? Of course, something like this is usually only said, by my dad or otherwise, when somebody else’s opinion doesn’t align with one’s own opinion. It does ring true, however, because despite what most of us think, few actually care about what our opinions are.
That is, until we are forced to.
Doug Erickson of The Capital Times noted on Jan. 17 that anti-abortion activists from the Madison Vigil for Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin have maintained a physical presence at the Madison Surgery Center at 1 S. Park St. for over a year. Signs adorned with religious sentiments like “Pray to end abortion” and “Jesus loves them both: Mother and Child” accompany the adamant protesters. This has been the scene at the Surgery Center nearly every day since it was announced that the UW Hospital was proposing adding abortion procedures to the Center.
It seems fundamental to me, and apparently these protesters, that what makes an opinion really persuasive is having lots of other people who agree with you on your side. Better yet, if you and all those who agree with you could get together, say, once a week and repeatedly pound your opinions into other people’s brains until they were no longer opinions but convictions, well, you would have just done something special. Better still, if you could, in some way, indirectly threaten those who disagree with you by assuring punishment from some invisible, all-powerful force, I’d have to tip my hat to you, for you would have just created an opinionated army. And there’s nothing more frightening than an army that doesn’t rely on tanks or guns; because who needs those when you have the wrath of the creator of the universe on your side?
When one asserts religion into an argument — like some members of Pro-life Wisconsin and Madison Vigil for Life groups do — an insurmountable disparity is created and the debate no longer circulates around the issue but instead around the validity of your religious assertion. Even more, this situation only magnifies when the argument is also a political one.
Of course, this debate loses momentum when people who refuse to concede their religious beliefs for the sake of the debate meet people who refuse to support religious beliefs taking part in the debate.
The issue is abortion; not heaven, not hell.
The truth is that regardless of the number of people and types of threatening forces that support one’s opinions, my dad’s favorite saying still holds true. Except now the asshole is a collective one debating the other sizable, collective oppositional asshole. In the end, all that has resulted are two giant assholes refusing to care what the other has to say.
Being religious is a choice. If I decide I’m not religious, I have also decided to disregard religious beliefs. As far as any non-religious person is concerned, one’s religious beliefs shouldn’t extend any further than the believers of that religion. The belief that life starts at conception, in the eyes of the non-religious, is just another religious belief which one may choose to take part in or not.
The persistence in these religious anti-abortion activists is commendable, but it’s also just forming a roadblock, distorting elections and political platforms and, at times, resorting to violence. A compromise between the Lifers and Choicers needs to be made just as any other democratic decision is made. Both sides need to become willing to make concessions. And the debate should proceed by focusing on what those concessions will be.
When it comes to political debates, it is always good to remember to keep church out of your state of mind, because nothing becomes more esoteric, and thus refutable, than citing religious reasons in one’s political argument. With religion out of the abortion debate, maybe real progress can be made.
Both groups of assholes have valid points, and without God presiding over the discussion maybe someone will finally listen to them.
And if after this article prints, I am smote, Pro-Lifers win.
David Carter ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in forestry.
