Pro-Life Demonstration on Campus PART I: What Happened

Yesterday I was on campus a littl earlier than I needed to be. My internship started at 10am, but I scheduled to meet with my advisor at 8am to discuss courses that I need to take for next year. We wrapped up around 8:30 and I started heading across campus to the department where I am interning. I knew I'd have some spare time so I figured I'd pull out a book (A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller) and find a spot somewhere along The Green, which is a stretch of grass that slices through a number of academic buildings. Imagine The Mall in Washington D.C. on a much smaller scale.

While walking under the brick archways to enter The Green, I noticed some minor construction taking place. Somewhere near the middle of the stretch of grass, pipes and posters were being assembled. Leading up to this were bright orange signs reading "Caution: Genocide Pictures Ahead". At this point I had a strong inkling on what I would be seeing. Before I reached Pro-Life display, a former professor and current "higher-up" at the University came walking away from the set-up and asked if this was something I was interested in (most of my professors have at least an inkling of my faith). I responded yes and he continued on expressing rumors he had heard about a counter-protest right around noon. My lunchbreak that day was noon, so I quickly realized where I'd be spending it.

The adminstrator was obviously busy, so he went back to his office and I continued on to the exhibit which was being setup by The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (. The presentation included three sides facing sidewalks, then an open area facing the open space of grass. Each side of it large pictures including babies in the womb, aborted babies, and body parts of the deceased babies, as well as images from the genocides in Rwanda, the Holocaust, and lynchings of African-Americans. I met a man named John who was a gentleman from the area who was volunteering to help the organization prepare this demonstration. He explained who the group was and how they were invited on campus by the Pro-Life Vanguard. It's a traveling exhibit that goes from college to college, with their next stop at Temple University on Monday and Tuesday of the following week. My univesity was allowing them to be present on campus, but restricted them in not allowing them to present a large-scale speech. I found this fairly reasonable. I gave John the heads up on the counter-protest, but he seemed pretty nonchalant about it; surely he's used to such groups coming up, but he appreciated the shared knowledge of a time frame.

Not too much seemed to be going on at this time. I found a spot away from The Green to read before heading over to my internship. I would come back around noon and then would pass it a second time when I left for the day. My second post will discuss my obersvations and reflections from the affair.