Students at West High were so upset by the protesters at their school that they planned a counter-protest to take place at the Spirit One. Louis Goseland, an editor of the school newspaper and a director of the Peace and Social Justice Center, organized and led the protest. The event took place as planned on Sunday, October 9. Goseland was pleased with the outcome.
"At least three schools that I know of-- WSU, West, and Southeast have come out to protest. We printed about three hundred brochures and sent out press releases. We're just really happy with the turnout we got," said Goseland. Several members of the Muslim Public Affairs Council were also present.
Goseland made it clear that the protest was against hate speech and not specifically in in favor of abortion. Some of the signs bore messages such as 'No More Gore,' 'Stop the Hate,' and 'Hate is not a family value.'
"We came because we were aware of these people at the WSU campus. They were making hate quotes against Buddhists, Jews, homosexuals-- and a lot of students upset," said Donna Sibaai, a member of the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
The Spirit One protesters did not carry signs; instead they had two large billboards, one with a picture of a smiling baby, and another with a gruesome picture of a fetus. They also had two large faux-stone tablets bearing the ten commandments, and between them a large bell.
"OSA brought the bell," said a Spirit One protester, "Every twenty seconds a child is aborted, so every time we ring this bell a child is killed."
The OSA protesters sought to explain that they were not engaging in hate speech, but merely spreading the 'truth,' or the word of God. A pamphlet that was distributed references more than a dozen Bible verses to support their activities.
"Buddha can't get anyone to the Father, Chrishna can't get anyone to the Father, not even Mohammid can get one to the Father. ... Either Islam is a lie or Christianity is a lie. Both can not be true," the pamphlet said.
"God hates things," said Greg Hedrick, a Spirit One member, "he hates sin, but he doesn't hate people. And I think some of the people here have got the wrong idea about what we're about."
As generally happens at protests, both sides at times were 'off message.' The counter-protesters were heard to chant "Rapist, rapist" whenever a certain man spoke. One protester said, "There's a rapist over there that's over there preaching."
When asked how chanting 'rapist' gibed with their message of tolerance, the protester said, "He's over there trying to preach to us the word of God, and it's kind of hypocritic."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Pierce R. Butler
Bravo to Louis Goseland and his classmates!
Dr. Tiller's first name is George. The Operation Rescue/SaveAmerica people have been targeting him for years, and the movement they represent has done so for decades (including an attempted assassination by the "Army of God"). Did they really get his name wrong, or did Sam Jack?
2 - Sam Jack
Sam Jack did... I've corrected it on my web-log and it'll be printed correctly in my school newspaper. I was mixing him up with the head of the Spirit One group, whose name is Mark Holick.
-Sam
3 - Brother Donald
The students were pure hypocrites. Denying the anti-abortionists their free speech rights and harassing a church. They were the ones obviously filled with hate and they proved it by their actions. Innocent babies deserve to live and not be murdered by George Tiller. If they will murder helpless babies, I'm sure they are capable of any other evil thing.
4 - tobra
operation save america is an extremely dangerous group, i hope and pray the high school students will read their Bibles, trust Christ and not let OSA's incorrect statements influence them. tobra, OR worker in 1994
5 - Jennifer Swackhamer
It is unbelievalbe that people actually get outraged at organizations like Operation Rescue, The Center for Bio Ethical Reform, sidewalk counselors...etc for displaying graphic horrifying images of what "choice" truly is in America...but the same people express NO outrage that THIS IS THE REALITY of what abortion does to a REAL LIVING BABY! The word ABORTION has lost ALL it's true meaning in society...the ONLY way to ignite America's consience is to OUTRAGE people with TRUTH! YES it is awful to see...YES it is a nightmare...YES it is disgusting...NOW do something about it! VOTE Pro Life and promote the PRO LIFE message! Get educated about abortion, the after affects on a womans health and emotional state, the humanity of the unborn child being torn to shreds at the hands of abortionists...IF WE DONT SPEAK FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US, THE UNBORN CHILDREN, WHO WILL????
6 - Sam Jack
I don't think that anyone ever contested these people's right to protest. Of course they have the right to protest. They have the right to pass out their crudely drawn and frantically worded pamphlets, and they have the right to set up in front of schools with their posters. Does that mean that they should?
It's not like the students at that school are particularly heathenous. There are so many high schoolers with infants that the school has a day-care.
I think that the pro-lifers authentically have a reasonable case that they can make, but no one wants to be that crazy guy on the street corner who is foaming at the mouth. If the goal is to change minds, the pro-life protesters do a very poor job.
7 - tobra
phillip benham is the leader of OSA and should take responsibity for his group's actions. perhaps a picket at his house in concord, north carolina would be benefical, mr. benham has made pubic threats against prolifers so please be careful when picketing his house.
8 - Steve S
IF WE DONT SPEAK FOR THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US, THE UNBORN CHILDREN, WHO WILL????
The mother?
9 - Guppusmaximus
People always abuse something.... Parents that have no control over their kids who then have babies should foot the bill for that baby, Not the High School. The parents should home school them because now it just gives the other students bad ideas...Nobody wants to take responsibility for their own actions!!
Pro-Life is a great idea but the burning question for me is,"What should a woman do if she is impregnated by a rapist?"
10 - tobra
give birth, don't kill a child for the crime of it's father.
11 - Steve S
oh yeah, and there's a child that won't have any issues.
12 - tobra
all children and all people have issues.
13 - Steve S
and there's nothing like growing up with the knowledge that your dad AND your mom didn't want you.
14 - tobra
there is nothing like a lot of things. you don't kill someone because they have issues.
15 - Steve S
a fetus doesn't have issues.
16 - tobra
a human fetus is a baby and babies have issues, survival is a big issue with unborn babies.
17 - Steve S
did they tell you that personally?
18 - tobra
i beg your pardon, i don't understand who they is?
19 - Steve S
the unborn babies. Did they tell you that they have issues?
20 - tobra
it is called crying and it occurs shortly after birth.
21 - Joey
Babies are so adorable! I could never understand why anyone would want to harm one, let alone end the life of one. End the life, end the life... that's harsh. That's extreme prejudice.
I agree that choice is an issue here, but I believe the key is when to exercise choice.
Then comes the 'ol rape scenario. Would capital punishment for rapists curtail some of the activity?
It the baby of a rapist guilty of the rape?
It's complicated. But the babies are still adorable.
22 - Anthony Grande
Joey, they aren't babies, they are balls of matter. There is no life involved. Us living things(plants, turkeys, apes, humans) need air to live. Fetuses don't need air, because they would sufficate in the womb if they did, therefore they aren't alive. So don't call yourself pro-Life, call yourself pro-Matter.
23 - tobra
my goldfish is alive and jaws doesn't need air to live. the baby of a rapist, like the baby of a president is guilty of nothing.
24 - Anthony Grande
Goldfish have gills, balls of matter don't have gills.
25 - diana hartman
abortion is not a choice, it's an action...one makes a choice when one decides which action to take...
there is only one other action one could choose to take when pregnant and that's carrying the child to term...at that point there is the choice between two actions: keeping the child or adopting the child out, unless nature intervenes...
the choices that follow the decision of carrying a child to term usually come with considerably less interference from all sides, a curious thing given the number of abused, abandoned, and neglected children in the world with no one yelling and hollaring on their behalf, but i digress...
there are other choices in life as well, such as choosing to engage in activities like those in the photographs above or hashing it out with the opposition online -- neither of which has ever proven to get anyone anywhere...
for all the woulda-coulda-shoulda in the world there's even more can-will-did...
woulda-coulda-shoulda deals with both the past that can't be changed and the future that isn't even an issue yet...
can-will-did is what's happening right now, and right now there are people who don't know enough about their own bodies and their own sexuality to make informed and educated decisions and choices...the last thing they need are people just as uneducated as they are yelling at them for any reason at the precise moment in their lives when everything is at its worst...where were these yellers when that person was making the decision that got them there in the first place?
ah, but it's easier to find pregnant people because you know where they gather...it's not as easy to find people wandering around trying to decide whether or not they want to have sex...it can be done, it's just not as easy...i suppose some people just aren't up for the extra work...
there does not exist a single reputable and accredited institution of education or qualified educator on this planet that uses guilt, shame, humiliation, embarrassement, passive-aggressive torment, emotional blackmail, name-calling, insults, yelling, fear, threats of any kind, or violence to educate students...these are the tools of people who refuse to accept that others' behavior is outside their control and that educating others is well within their control...instead of educating themselves and others, they resort to the aforementioned tactics in much the same way an abusive husband destroys his wife's life to insure her compliance -- even if the cost is everything he married her for in the first place...
every unwanted pregnancy started with unprotected sex...every unprotected sexual encounter started with a failed contraceptive device, ignorance of the human reproductive system, someone's idea that a pregnancy wouldn't occur, and/or apathy about the potential outcome...
these are the causes of unwanted pregnancies and this is the starting line in the effort to bring about real change...any pro-lifer trying to win converts at an abortion clinic is nothing more than a vocal and disgruntled fan at the finish line of a race...
no one ever won a race by starting at the finish line...yelling at the guy who came in second or third doesn't change his running time, and continuing to yell at him instead of training him for the next race will do nothing for his run time come the next race...additionally, sending untrained runners into a race with the expectation that they will somehow win is just stupid -- this is the dynamic behind abstinence-only "education"...
see the guy who fell down in the middle of the race with cramps and a dislocated knee? his coach said he didn't need training, he just needed to have faith and a mantra of "just say 'no' to preventable injuries!"...the poor, unbelieving sap...let's go protest him as he's being carried away on the stretcher!
pro-choice advocates waste equal amounts of time and energy arguing with pro-lifers, and for many of the same reasons...
if one is not willing to educate themselves with at least the very basics of physiology, anatomy, sexual development, biology, psychology, and sociology, and share that knowledge in a caring, understanding, non-judgemental way with their fellow human beings, then it doesn't matter which side of this issue one is on, one is just a putz on the corner with a sign...