Clippings

Even though I have not followed the career I chose in college, I still read the news almost as obsessively as I did as a journalist intern in DC. I couldn't help but fall in love with this idea from NPR. They decided to buy a toxic asset and watch it die.

The USA Today (It's like a Denny's place-mat with news!) reported on a high school in Mississippi that has decided to cancel the senior prom rather than let a lesbian student bring her girlfriend. They are now encouraging students to plan a private prom, because a private prom can legally exclude anyone for any reason.

A New York Times editorial addressed a few state abortion issues that have been buzzing around of late. An Oklahoma measure to exempt physicians from having to disclose fetal abnormalities was blocked last week, barely.

The Georgia branch of Right to Life has targeting the African-American population with the slogan "Black Children are an Endangered Species." Their schtick is to tell black churches and schools that abortion is a plot to kill off blacks, or, as their website says warn of "the threat of black genocide."

And as if all that weren't enough, Utah just signed a bill into law that will criminalize miscarriages when the woman is determined to have intentionally caused it. I don't know how they plan on enforcing that, but as I understand it, a miscarriage is traumatic enough without being interrogated as to whether or not you did it on purpose.

All this abortion talk brings to mind a girl who arrived at Temple after my time. I apologize that this story is hearsay, and my version may not be accurate. I welcome any corrections from someone who knows it better than I.

Once a week during chapel, the RA's at Temple would do room checks. They would make sure your room is clean, make sure you don't have any R-rated movies or secular music, and make sure you don't have a dead baby under the bed. This girl (shy, overweight, hard time fitting in) failed on that last count. Rumor has it, she hid her pregnancy by wearing baggy clothes, had the baby in her room, and, believing it to be stillborn, wrapped it up and placed it in a drawer or under the bed and went to chapel.

I have no idea what motivated this girl to do such a desperate and sad thing. However, I do know that she lived in a community that demonizes and gossips obsessively over every perceived sin (especially sexual sin.) I understand the fear that she must have felt when she imagined being ostracized, reprimanded, and made into a spectacle if anyone found out what a bad Christian she was. I feared the same thing. I don't think you can attend a school like that without wondering if you're going to be next.

-KL