Thursday is the new Friday

Today seemed very long. It wasn’t busy at work, but it wasn’t as slow as it’s been other days this week either.

I’m a little OCD I think. Here’s one manifestation: whenever I eat M&Ms, skittles, or any bite size snack food, I have to eat them in pairs, one for each side of my mouth. Well, I don’t HAVE to. But I definitely make every effort to satisfy that need.

I watched again the episode of the Office where Michael leaves. What a tear jerker. Very good acting/directing/writing to pull at my emotions the way it did.

Went for a run after work. I think I pushed myself too hard. I wasn’t able to go as long as yesterday and my ankle started hurting a bit. Tomorrow is a rest day so I hope that I’ll be good to go on Saturday.

I attended a dialogue session at the church tonight on the topic of immigration. It’s a complex issue that I struggle with sometimes. The video we were shown felt so heavy-handed. I wish people wouldn’t do that. It’s really unneccessary.

A particularly incendiary topic :(

Yesterday, there were two events occurring on the quad in front of the Student Center. One was a Geology Club fundraiser, the other was a graphic anti-abortion demonstration. You know, the one where they display six foot posters of aborted fetuses.

The college received two emails regarding the fundraiser. The first was sent on Sunday afternoon. It reads as follows:

The weather is finally clearing! While enjoying the sunshine and greenery, enjoy a Geology Club Bronto-Burger on the quad of East Campus on Monday, March 28. We’ll start serving around 10 AM and serve until we run out (usually about 1:30).
Have a Bronto-Burger For Lunch!
The Geology Club using the proceeds to support students wishing to attend geology field studies at Modesto Junior College.
Thank you for your help!

 

The second email was sent on Monday at 4:45 PM, after the event(s).

On behalf of the Geology Club here at MJC, I want to thank everyone who came out and supported our program by buying a brontoburger. We deep appreciate your support.
We also want to apologize. Because of an e-mail snafu, we did not know that there would be a graphic anti-abortion demonstration on campus today (we thought it would be in April). Had we known, we would not have done our fundraiser at the same time. As it was, we had already purchased all the fresh food materials and arrived on campus to find them setting up. Although we know there are political and moral questions and controversy over abortion and choice, we found their demonstration disturbing and offensive, right down to the parents parading their four-and five-year-old children in front of the graphic posters. We had no association with these people and are sorry to have been anywhere near them.

Thank you once again for your understanding and support.

Geology Club Advisor

 

Ok. I have a couple of reactions. First, I’m perplexed that the advisor thinks that ANYONE could have gotten the idea that the two events were somehow related. It’s a good thing he makes it clear that the Geology Club had no association with “these people”. Glad that got cleared up!

Second, I’m always surprised, vexed, and saddened that people take more offense at depictions of the act than at the act itself. Truly, I find the photos to be very offensive. I would prefer that they did not exist at all! That they can exist is the problem. This is not the first time that I’ve witnessed someone get very upset that people dare to show pictures of what happens 4000 times each day in the United States.

I’m not the first, nor the last, to wade into the abortion debate. I’m sure that most people are firmly in one camp or the other. Whether you, dear reader, are for or against abortion, I would ask one simple thing. Please acknowledge that for those of us who believe that life begins at conception, abortion is indistinguishable from murder. I’m not saying that you or anyone else believes that life begins at conception. I’m saying that I believe that.

Maybe we can agree on one more thing… Don’t we all want to reduce and prevent unwanted pregnancies? Let’s pray/act to see that desire become a reality.