This opinion was written and submitted by Jack Wright.
My wife and I are frequent visitors to Cape Charles, and we have always felt that this quaint town on the Chesapeake offered a welcome respite from much of the seemingly endless, highly charged, emotional posturing found so frequently in the news and in towns and cities across America.
Cape Charles is a wonderful, beautiful place, especially for families with children, and it is perhaps uniquely well suited to provide those families with many memorable experiences. The pace of life in the town and the surrounding area, even during the summer, is measured and refreshing. The shops and restaurants welcome their patrons with pleasantness and consideration.
However, as we were walking down the Mason Avenue today, we were confronted by something that seemed to us a direct assault upon all that we had come to expect from Cape Charles.
The assault to which I am referring came in the form of a store front’s, crude, vulgar, self-indulgent rant about abortion rights which, among other things said “ Supreme Court my ass, “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries”, OMG GOP WTF, and My Body My Choice displayed upon purposely ghostly, disturbing images.
I instantly recall a statement made over 2000 years ago by Aristotle “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it”.
It was obvious to me that these people had no interest in either entertaining ideas or in looking after the best interests of the Cape Charles community. The effect these images might have upon children or upon what should be a commitment never to privilege emotion or bias over reason, at the expense of mature dialogue about important social issues, is obviously no concern of theirs.
As Christopher Hitchens once said of those who advocate so fiercely for the abortion on demand position that they “can’t or won’t see the essential dignity of the right-to-life position”
The privately held opinions of the people who are the authors of these irresponsible and inappropriate displays would legitimately be part of a public discussion about abortion, but choosing an appropriate forum for that discussion is of vital importance and clearly, they do not care about that.
It is worth noting that these same individuals, who are so contemptuous of life-affirming attitudes, have themselves enjoyed the great privilege of having been allowed to be born and are living in this country where they now have the freedom to develop and express their opinions.
That they engaged in their juvenile grandstanding at the expense of their fellow citizens should not go unanswered.
I sincerely hope that the town takes a stand against this sort of thing, for if this proliferates in the future, the wonderful character of the Cape Charles of today will soon disappear into the past.