Thursday, March 6, 1986
Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan
'Color Purple' sparks issues
By Brian Kaberline
Staff writer
It has been said that art imitates life and life imitates art. In the spirit of this adage, the issues raised by the novel and movie "The Color Purple" were the topic of a forum last night.
The forum, sponsored by Praxis,
along with the Emily Taylor
Women's Resource Center,
Spinister's Books, 801
Massachusetts, and the departments of women's studies, African
studies and sociology, was a part of the campus celebration of
Women's Historv Week.
About 120 people attended the discussion of the novel by Alice Walker and the screen version
Pennington said the novel and movie showed different levels and types of social power men have had over women.
directed by Steven Spielberg. The forum was in Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union.
Some of those levels come from notions that men can start relationships and hold the power within those relationships, she said.
"The Color Purple" is the story of a Southern black woman who is abused by her stepfather and husband and eventually learns to become an independent, self-fulfilled person.
Members of the panel were Dorothy Pennington, associate professor of African studies and communication studies; Laura Ofobik, who has a doctoral degree in mass communications; and
A panel of three speakers gave their impressions of how the novel and movie addressed issues pertaining to women and blacks.
Karen Jurs, Lawrence graduate student
Oofike said the novel and movie helped blacks and women by raising issues such as exploitation of women because of economic dependence and sexual abuse.
She said the problems shown in the novel and movie were not "color-coded" but applied to everyone.
On Campus
A stere receiver and a tape deck, with a total value of $600, were stolen Monday night from a house in the 600 block of Ohio Street, Lawrence police said yesterday. The thieves entered through a window and left through the front door, police said.
On the Record
A free film, "Moor's Pavane," will be shown at 4 p.m. today in 252 Robinson Center.
A free film, "Reds," will be shown at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Ecumenical Christian Ministries.
■ A car stereo, 48 cassette tapes,
power booster, digital clock and two
speakers, with a total value of $867,
were stolen between 6 and 7:15 p.m.
m. Monday from a car in the 100 block of
Massachusetts Street. police said.
The KU Ki-Aklido Club will meet at 5:30 p.m. today in 130 Robinson Center.
A bag containing $200 was lost Saturday by a Lawrence woman in the 900 block of Tennessee Street, police said.
A plastic panel from a sign, valued at $300, was stolen Feb. 22 from a shopping mall in the 2400 block of Iowa Street, police said. The theft was not reported until Monday.
Eight dresses, with a total value of $890, were stolen at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday from a clothing store on East Eighth Street. Police said.
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An analytical balance, valued at $3,000, was stolen between 1:30 and 2 p.m. Tuesday from a room in Malott Hall, KU police said.
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Alderson Auditorium Thursday March 6 at7 p.m.
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Michael Blumenfeld, former Associate Vice-President for Public Affairs at Harvard, will speak on "Dimention and the University," and will answer questions from the audience.
This Spring Break, if you and your friends are thinking about heading to the slopes, the beach or just home for a visit, Greyhound* can take you there. For only $86 or less, round trip.
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ARE LAW SCHOOL FACULTY MEMBERS PUSSYFOOTING AROUND THE ABORTION ISSUE?
When Mr. Bunker claims everyone opposed to legalized abortion thinks "any interference with that life . . . constitutes a deliberate taking of human life with malice aforeshould" he ignores those guided by Black's Law Dictionary which defines a homicide as "The killing of one human being by the act, procurement, or omission of another" and murder as "the unlawful killing of a human being by another with malice aforeshought." Because almost every one who undergoes an abortion doesn't realize the intrauterine infant is alive and rapidly developing, those women are not able to deliberately andfor maliciously plan its execution.
Mr. Bunker implies only an obstreperous lay minority thinks life begins at conception, although all accredited medical schools and institutions of higher learning have taught this since the late 19th century. Walker Percy, who is both a novelist and an M.D., puts it this way: "The onset of individual life is . . . a fact of science."
Chris Bunker, a second-year law student and University Daily Kansan (UDK) staff columnist, attempts to defend legalized abortion in the February 24th UDK. Because Mr. Bunker is both intelligent and compassionate—as anyone who has heard him discuss the situation in South Africa knows-it is reasonable to wonder why this law student knows so little about what he thinks is "probably . . . the most divisive issue of our time."
For instance, Mr. Bunker says: "Those who oppose abortion argue that abortion is murder. They think that human life begins at conception and that any interference with that life, no matter how it was created, constitutes a deliberate taking of life with malice aforethought."
Mr. Bunker says: "Those who support abortion as a legitimate option argue that a fetus is merely a conglomeration of cells, like a toenail. They think that a woman should be allowed to choose what to do with those cells." Mr. Bunker obviously doesn't realize that toenail cells are a part of a person and can only reproduce themselves as toenails cells. But the fertilized ovum, in the words of Dr. and Mrs. J. C. Wilkite, "is not a part of another person but is a whole person itself. It will not merely reproduce itself but is in totality a complete human being and will grow into a full adult if given time. Any one of hundreds of millions or billions of these cells in a human person's body can die and we do not say that the person has died. When a single fertilized ovum cell, however, dies, the entire new person is dead."
Mr. Bunker effects an almost complete change of direction when he alleges: "The problem with the abortion issue is that it requires a balancing of rights, those of the woman against those of the unborn. To many it seems unfair to impose a death sentence on a fetus who is clearly blameless of any wrongful act."
Here Mr. Bunker seems to be admitting the fetus is not just "a conglomeration of cells." But he reverts to meandering form with the following pronouncement, "On the other hand many think that it is just as unfair to impose nine months of physical discomfort and a lifetime of mental distress on a woman against her will, especially if that woman has been the blameless victim of a rape." He concludes, "... abortions should be available in some cases but should not be used as a substitute for careful and conscientious birth control."
Mr. Bunker evidently considers every one of the 1.1 million teenage girls who are impregnated annually an adult because of the decision each is called upon to make. Because all of these WEBA members were rendered adults by the decision required of them, says Mr. Bunker, "it was their responsibility, not Planned Parenthood's, to make sure they gathered sufficient information . . . (about) their legal abortions . . . to make an informed choice."
I am one of those who feels Mr. Bunker's attempt to achieve "a balancing of rights" is unsuccessful because when admitting "it seems unfair to impose a death sentence on a fetus who is clearly blameless of any wrongful act," Mr. Bunker finds this solution acceptable when the gravida体会 to enduring the "nine months of physical discomfort" which carrying the fetus entails.
Perhaps Mr. Bunker's startling discovery of adolescent adulthood is a reaction to Planned Parenthood's gross irresponsibility. Although Margaret Sanger considered abortions "... the ... barbaric ... killing of babies" and Alan Guttmacher, the former United States president of Planned Parenthood, wrote in 1961 that when "Fertilization ... has taken place, a baby has been conceived," Dr. Guttmacher and Planned Parenthood were calling for the legitimation of abortion by 1968.
Says Mr. Bunker: "They (the members of WEBA) say they were not given sufficient information to make an informed choice on whether or not to have an abortion ... the villain in their ... scenario is Planned Parenthood ... WEBA needs to rethink its position ... their assertion that they were exploited by abortion is just flat wrong. When they had their legal abortions they had a choice ... If they did not have enough information to make an informed decision ... it was their responsibility, not Planned Parenthood's, to make sure they gathered sufficient information. In other words these women were adults, making an adult decision ..."
Although Mr. Bunker thinks an abortion is justified when the mother senses before her "a lifetime of mental distress," he devotes the rest of his column to attacking a group, Women Exploited By Abortion (WEBA), each of whose members now regrets having allowed an abortionist to kill her child.
Because Mr. Bunker, an industrious and concerned individual, knows so little about the abortion tragedy, some of us now are wondering if Mr. Bunker's uninformed state is the result of too many Kansas University Law School faculty members' pussyfooting around the abortion issue.
William Dann
2702 W. 24th Street Terrace
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