Goings-On, In Brief
By Jacqueline Wong-Hernandez
Opinions Editor

On September 11, I walked south toward Big Bridges to see the candle display commemorating the deaths of the 2,800 people who died in the terrorist attacks. As I approached Sixth Street, I saw people carrying large signs and distributing newspapers. I assumed that the gathering had something to do with the tragedy’s anniversary, but as I got closer, I realized that the protest was unrelated. The sign-holders were anti-abortion protestors.

I cringed at the exploitation of a day of mourning. As I passed by them, I saw that one of the large signs read “Hitler’s Holocaust,” and featured a photograph of a mass grave of Jews. Below it, was a photograph of a third-trimester aborted fetus, and the sign proclaimed “America’s Holocaust.” I was shocked and disgusted.

The protestors, all of whom wore t-shirts that read “We are survivors of America’s Holocaust,” explained that, “Hitler killed Jews because he thought they were lesser people, and that’s why we think we can kill babies.” The gross over-simplification of history was astonishing. The protestors truly believed that they had accomplished an enormous feat by having not been aborted.

When I asked one protestor if she thought that their message could be offensive to Jews, and to the community at large, she quickly said that the American Holocaust was sad but true. “It was horrible that 6,000 Jews were killed, but 3, 000 babies die every day.”

I corrected her. It was over 6 million Jews. She looked shocked and a bit confused. Where do these people come from?