St. Edward's University Hilltopper (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 18, 1983 Page: 2 of 6
six pages : ill. ; page 18 x 12 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Forum
Friday, November 18, 1983
HILLTOPPER
Page 2
Editorialmmm
J)
J)
fl
444
Commentary
What?
Penn protests legalized abortion
W
Room 300P
Main Building
How about the rest of the community? Sure we can all
discuss these matters in hush-hush conversations, but what
good does that do for our common interest? How does all
that petty talk help insure the future of our University?
This killing of America’s unborn
children will stop only when enough
of us come to see clearly what is
really at issue in the abortion con-
troversary and make the commit-
ment of heart necessary to help stop
the killing. This commitment pro-
perly takes many forms and what is
appropriate to one person may not
be to another.
There will be a Right to Life
meeting in Moody 142 Faculty Con-
ference Room at 5 p.m. on Tuesday
Nov. 22.
that it was legal, good for the infant
and even better for the mother, and
if you came upon this scene daily
for ten years and were powerless to
put a stop to it, you’d get pretty
heated up to.”’
“When articulated in these sim-
ple visceral terms, the emotion
generated by the issue became all
too understandable. It was only
then that I was able to commit my
heart to the pro-life cause, and I
passed from disinterested observa-
tion, through indignant protest, to
angry resistance.”
Yes, a business. Cold and heartless as most businesses are
in the so called “real world.” A machine.
In the last two editions of the Hilltopper there has been
much space and time devoted to the budget cuts administered
by SEU President, Stephen Walsh. Many of the SEU com-
munity may view all this as sensational or overkill coverage.
We at the Hilltopper do not.
The suddeness of the cuts and the seemingly brutal fashion
with which they were executed came like a shock. St.
Edward’s University is an institution which is operating in its
98th year of existence. In that 98 years the University has
weathered and survived much. There have been some very
harrowing moments in this institution, but yet good ole SEU
has endured. Attribute this institution’s survival to the
tenacious and diehard attitude of all the prior generations of a
spunky SEU community.
Looking to the past we can see that it had been the com-
munity under the direction of gallant, but wise leadership
which has kept this university afloat. Now, because of that
tenacity and foresight the once so called “Catholic Farm” has
prospered to a multi-million dollar business.
HILLTOPPER
Campus Mail Box 714
Editor-in-Chief: Al Puente
Managing Editor: Rob L. Wood
Assistant to the Editors: Phil Rocha III
Layout Editor: Tomilee Harkenrider
Sports Editor: Rose Shuler
Sports Staff: Richard Nira, Pati Juarez
Staff Writers: Brian Pankau, Tom Scherrer
Contributors: William Penn, Robin Mick, Denise Ford
Cartoonist: Todd De Long
Photographers: Marlene Fortuna, Kay Milam, Ed Bright
Photography Supervisor: Damian Morgan
Advertising Salesperson: Dennis Kane
Business Manager: Kathy Lind
The Hilltopper is an award-winning weekly newspaper published by the
students of St. Edward’s University. The opinions expressed are either
those of the staff or of the individual writer and do not necessarily reflect
those of the University.
William Y. Penn, Jr.
Assoc. Professor
Philosophy & Religious Studies
Are we discussing the same personable St. Ed’s of
yesteryear? The same institution where the Mission Statement
proclaims, “...the University identifies itself as a community
commited to communicating the dignity of the human person
as created in the image of God...” The same institution which
is founded on a Catholic heriatge. Yes, sad to say we are
discussing the same Christian institution.
By its actions the University has seemed to ignore its very
loving Christian attitude and function more like a cold
heartless machine. But what of the community? How has it
acted, and where has it been?
The community has acted frightened and distraught. Facul-
ty and staff seem to be to scared to voice their opinions, and
rightfully so, their job security hangs in the balance. The
students seem to be to confused and uniformed to voice a
position, or perhaps to apathetic. The trustees echo the senti-
ment of our fearless leader. But is anyone really talking, or
for that matter is anyone really listening.
This week much space was given to actually solicting the
responses of the community. The Hilltopper did this in an ef-
fort to reach out and make the community aware that they do
count. We are not advocating rebellion or mutiny, just the
need for clear communication. There are a lot of ill and un-
sure feelings about campus, and these feelings along with
many others, good or bad should be expressed.
What happened to the caring St. Ed’s community, what
happend to the risk takers and the diehards? Walsh took a
risk in eliminating the positions he chose to do. The outcomes
of this decision will not fully materialize for at least another
year, but at least he took a stand.
}
This institution was built out of a community effort, not
out of the actions of a handful of people.
To date the Hilltopper has been carrying the brunt of the
communication effort. We aren’t trying to be martyrs or
saviors, we are just trying to provide an open forum which the
University so desperately needs. Please speak out.
444-2621, Ext. 389
St Edward's University*3001 S. Congress, Box 714»Austin, Texas 78704
FH
LE
?
V
When I was at the pro-life
demonstration last January, I was
saddened by the fact that there was
no organized representation from
St. Ed’s to express publicly our
community’s commitment to the
sanctity of all human life. Many of
us on campus are now working to
organize a pro-life group at St.
Ed’s. Part of our purpose is to
organize now for our participation
in the march on the State Capital
this coming January. We also need
volunteers for other activities such
as Life-Line, an organization which
provides financial, emotional and
other help to women with problem
pregnancies and who are looking
for other options than the destruc-
tion of the life they carry. The task
is large and none of us can do it
alone. Together we can share the
burdens so that no one individual
has to do too much, and by each of
us doing a little in ways appropriate
to our concerns and talents, we can
help stop the killing.
N
297
This past January I joined with
others from Austin and all across
the State who marched up Congress
Ave. to the State Capitol to protest
the killing of over 12 million un-
born children in our country since
January 1973 when the U.S.
Supreme Court legalized abortion
on demand. In the year 1983 ap-
proximately 1.5 million additional
deaths will be added to the toll.
I have consistently found that
most of the people involved in such
protests are very gentle and com-
passionate. Their protest is express-
ed more in terms of sadness and in a
gentle yet determined resolve to do
what they can to stop the killing.
Yet when I talk to intelligent and
“fair-minded” people about this
issue I frequently find that what
most offends them is the “moral
zealotry” and “emotionalism” of
those involved in pro-life move-
ments. I frequently hear comments
like, “Well, I’m not really in favor
of abortion but I’m certainly not
going to be identified with folks
who rant and rave like the ‘pro-
lifers’ do!” Or, “I just can’y abide
their intolerance or judgemental at-
titude.”
Such responses miss the mark in
two important ways. First, they
represent a caricature of the pro-life
movement and ignore the gentleness
of most of the people involved in it.
Second, they fail to see the fun-
damental issue of the abortion con-
troversy and thus that there is due
cause for the expression of great
emotional distress. Apart from this
blindness to the fundamental issue
of the abortion controversary it is
difficult to explain the fact that
some people are more offended by
expressions of moral outrage
among pro-life people that they are
by the fact that over 13.5 million
human beings have been killed in
our country by abortion. This is not
to say that an essentially negative
spirit of vindictiveness and condem-
nation that is found among some in
the pro-life movement is a good
thing. It is to say that it is an unfor-
tunate set of priorities which is
more upset by harsh language than
by the harsh reality which is the
cause of the outraged cry.
Br. Bernard Nathanson, who was
in the forefront of the movement to
repeal abortion laws in the early
70’s and who for 19 months pre-
sided over the largest abortion clinic
in the Western world, has recently
© C=583
‛s/N
I
< > St. Edward’s University
$ HILUTOPPER
written in a very illuminating way
about the failure to understand the
intensity of emotional involvement
among people in the pro-life move-
ment. In his first book, Aborting
America, he explains how scientific
facts lead him to confront the
undeniable humanity of the child in
the womb. In his most recent work,
The Abortion Papers, he writes, “It
is four years since Aborting
America was published. I had
hoped that that book, an account
of my odyssey through the byzan-
tine world of abortion politics and
the charnel houses of abortion
technology, would have slowed the
steam-roller a little... (but) that
hope has died. The Abortion
people, flushed with victories in
Congress still rule the day...
“Significant advances in science
and technology in the past four
years, such as realtime ultrasound
scanning, fetal medicine, intro-
uterine surgery, and in vitro fer-
tilization have all confirmed beyond
a reasonable doubt that prenatality
is just another passage in our lives-
lives which commence with fer-
tilization and end with death. Could
any truth be more obvious, more
self-evident?
“Yet infuritatingly, like the
Bourbon kings, the Abortion
people have learned nothing...They
cling to their flat earth credo, and
would have the rest of us subscribe
to it too.
“Even following the publication
of (Aborting America I continued
to distance myself from the thick
purple vein of emotion which per-
vades the abortion issue. I had great
difficulty comprehending the impa-
tience and often the rage with which
pro-life advocates debate the ques-
tion. Then one day two years ago,
following an address to a pro-life
state convention, I queried a
women whom I respected for her
otherwise calm and intellectual ap-
proach to complex questions as to
why we became so heated and so in-
tense on this particular issue.
“She looked at me almost un-
comprehending for a moment, then
replied: ‘Doctor, if you walked into
a room in your hospital from which
screams were emanating and found
a women beating her six-week old
infant with a blunt instrument-
blood everywhere and the infant
grotesque and unrecognizable from
the marks of the beating - and if
you tried to stop it and were told
/
UNEMPLOYMENT
15 Ohybody itaning?
(P,
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
St. Edward's University Hilltopper (Austin, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 10, Ed. 1 Friday, November 18, 1983, newspaper, November 18, 1983; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1519080/m1/2/: accessed July 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting St. Edward’s University.