Get facts straight, end name-calling

n While a newspaper opinion page is not the ideal forum for a debate on the definition of life and when a person’s rights come into play suffice it to say that I don’t believe a fetus qualifies as enough of a human being for its needs and rights to overrule those of its host there are two particular points I would like to address.

In Alexander Paiva’s letter “Abortion coverage biased,” he writes, “a feminist’s view is in itself in opposition to a gender-equal society” (Jan. 28, pg. 10). This one sentence betrayed his true ignorance of the entire feminist movement and everything it stands for. After reading that sentence, I was not surprised in the least to glance down and see the writer was male, for it is primarily (though certainly not exclusively) a male misconception that the feminist movement seeks to elevate women to a status higher than men, threatening the very basis of male authority and rendering men impotent. In fact, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines feminism as “1. Belief in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes; 2. The movement organized around this belief.” By claiming that feminism and equality of the sexes are mutually exclusive ideas, Mr. Paiva exposes his true fears on the matter not fear for innocent fetuses, but a fear of feminism itself, or rather, his fallacious conception thereof.

In the following letter, Melissa Vise essentially compares pro-choice activists to Nazis when she writes “People … may not want to ‘go back’ to outlawed abortion like certain members of the National Socialist German Workers Party did not want Germany to go back to democracy” (“D.C. march mourns Roe v. Wade,” Jan. 28, pg. 10). I hope I need not point out the sheer ridiculousness of such a comparison. Ms. Vise, while you may not agree with the stance pro-choice people take regarding human life and that of fetuses, it is hardly sporting to compare your opponents to infamous genocidal racists. I see where you’re going with this, and it is hardly accurate or, more importantly, appropriate. There’s an informal law of political discourse: once you liken your opponent to Hitler, it means you have no more valid arguments to fall back on. You, Ms. Vise, have violated Godwin’s Law.

The arguments regarding abortion are tricky ones; it is a thorny issue, and not one likely to be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction any time in the near future. But in the meantime, I would hope we can at least be civilized, get our facts straight and resist the temptation to call each other names.

Randa Tantawi

CAS ’05