In response to Kevin Keane’s March 23rd letter to the Observer’s editor titled “Obama choice unacceptable.”
Dear Kevin Keane,
As a Notre Dame class of ’09 soon-to-be-graduate I am ashamed today of this title. I am ashamed of being about to graduate from a school that at some point admitted you as a student. As you make clear in your March 23rd letter titled Obama choice unacceptable, you plan on attending graduation ceremonies along “with several thousand others to show [your] distaste for this decision.” I would like to ask you: How come you’re ashamed of graduating from Notre Dame today, and not on your very own graduation day? After all, Mr. Andrew Young, the commencement speaker in 1988, is pro-choice.
Please understand that, like Mark Weber makes clear in his March 23rd letter to the editor titled A pro-life perspective of the pro-life protest against Obama, “Obama is not coming to Notre Dame to speak about abortion, nor is his speech supposed to play a pivotal part in the formation of our Catholic identity.” I personally don’t think University officials would give him room to do so either. After all, allowing someone to speak on one issue does not imply an endorsement of all of their other views.
But as much as I would like to criticize the content of your objection- the morality of abortion (please inform yourself about the difference between pro-abortion and pro-choice before you write another article calling President Obama’s agenda a “radical pro-abortion” one), or the respect due to the Office of the President of the United States- I will try a different perspective, that of one who will suffer greatly if you are to “bring with [you] the graphic photos of what abortion does to its victims” to “[line] Notre Dame Ave.” in order to embarrass the University’s administration.
I am sure I’m not the only one in the class of 2009 who has worked hard in preparation for this day. My classmates and I have studied, practiced and trained countless hours and spent many sleepless nights working towards one common goal- graduating from the University of Notre Dame. We made these sacrifices because, in part, we knew that come our graduation day, regardless of who gave the commencement address, we would find ourselves at the proudest moment of our lives. So please don’t ruin it. Please find another way to express your political and moral views. By all means fight for what you believe, but don’t use a day that is meant to celebrate the accomplishments of the class of 2009 as your own personal stage. Show us the same respect you show the unborn.
If others want to keep writing letters or debating this topic, that is fine with me. We’ll all probably look back on it as just one of the many silly Notre Dame debates that took place via Viewpoint: Meat in the DH on Fridays in Lent and Whether Coach Weis should be fired, or Changing the fight song to be female inclusive. Letters were written yet nothing happened. But if this debate extends beyond the Viewpoint section and is manifested in unconscionable ways on May 17th, it will be no longer a laughing matter. It will be the one dark spot on an otherwise amazing four years.
