I woke up this Monday morning to a call from my roommate, telling me the details of the huge, offensive, and inaccurate antiabortion images on display on Sproul. She proceeded to tell me about them, and after the shock value wore off my immediate response as the president of Berkeley NOW was, "That's why we're here." And all the lingering arguments that people constantly try to give me about how and why feminism is over came crashing down.

Immediately, text messages zoomed around the women's and feminist community, and a counterdemonstration with incredible strength quickly came to fruition. It didn't take long before we all realized that that this was-and still is -bigger than school, and bigger than us.

The fact that we, as Berkeley National Organization for Women (NOW), didn't even directly organize the counterdemonstration, that it was organized by individuals who each had the same independent need to come together to stand up for what they believed, that it was such a solid, immediate and unwavering response, was incredibly inspiring.

People came for minutes, came for hours, came for whatever they could possibly fit into their schedule, to stand in solidarity with us. It didn't so much matter that the posters were physically taller than the ring of chanting people we became. As a unit we were bigger, and that said a lot. If nothing else, this past week is a reminder of the truly incredible things we can do when we come together.

By the end of the second day it was clear that, though the posters would not come up again any time soon, this was in no way over. The Berkeley NOW listserv began to flood inboxes with responses and discussion points from the general community. It seemed that everyone had something to say, but had been given no real place to say it.

Among the many, many responses that were actually able to get out during and after the demonstration, what seemed to be most fundamentally appalling to everyone was the way that the entire thing was done. I believe I can speak for a lot of the campus community when I say that, yes, we believe everyone has the right to freedom of speech. That that definitely includes Berkeley Students for Life in their partnership with The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.

However, by using that right to display such polarized and targeted images, the ability for either side to make any kind of serious and grounded statement disappeared. This was not how to make change. This was how to shock.

I don't know the full arguments of Berkeley Students for Life. I don't know if they took into account how incredibly traumatizing it must have been for the women who have already had abortions and now have to deal with an entire campus-wide slew of reactions. I don't know if, in forming their opinions, they thought of the incredibly complex, diverse and valid set of reasons why each woman would choose to have an abortion. I don't know I don't know if they took into account the absence of any real space for discussion, or if that was in fact their goal. I don't know what exactly they hope to achieve from only showing images that were intentionally triggering, and that misrepresented both Obama and the real definition of "genocide".

I just don't know. But I look forward to reading the article that is placed next to this one to find out.

Since the space for true discussion and emergency organization seems to be so absent and so necessary, Berkeley NOW is hoping to begin the process of setting up an online network for campus community members to do so on a grassroots level. Please note that Berkeley NOW would mereley be providing the space and the opportunity for true freedom of speech, and would not be held accountable for its contents. We mereley see the need and are hoping to provide for it.

A common thread that connects so many controversial issues is that both sides are fundamentally coming from the same place, but they end up developing incredibly different approaches. That is likely here. And I seriously think it is worth finding out.

Tags: ABORTION