College campuses are no longer places of openmindedness where ideas are shared and debated. We’ve long seen the evidence that anything short of full-fledged groupthink is increasingly unwelcome, if not flat out forbidden. The sentiment has become so pervasive that when university administrations allow for free speech, students will take it upon themselves to disrupt and destroy anything they disagree with.
At Stanford University, pro-lifers are still certainly in the minority among students. But Stanford Students for Life (S4L) were allowed to create a display of crosses, each decorated with a soft white flower in honor of the innocent lives taken by abortion, the group’s main focus. Along with the display was a table and a small group of students willing and able to have conversations with anyone interested in discussing abortion.
At least one pro-abortion student couldn’t stomach the peaceful display and decided to start stealing the flowers from the crosses in plain sight of the pro-life students. When asked to return the property to the display — or to simply put the flowers in a box — the student refused and claimed the pro-life students didn’t care about people’s lives. A truly bizarre line of argument to take.
Tensions grow
“It’s a couple of flowers,” the student vandal says to his confronters. “I don’t know if it’s that deep, especially to you guys if you just tell people to get an abortion and leave and soon as you convince them of that. You’re not going to like think about the consequences are for their lives.”
“Well, this table is here, so you can talk about that,” one S4L student explains.
“I don’t understand the purpose of like a public stunt to like demean other people’s opinions,” the student argues.
“I don’t think we’re demeaning anybody’s opinion, we’re very open to discussion,” another S4L member counters.
One member finally calls campus police to report the theft and the student backs off, relinquishing the flowers. However, he wasn’t done vandalizing the property of those he disagrees with, as one student reported, “He did not stay and help clean up, but he did kick a few of the lawn stakes as he walked away.”
Hopefully, the encounter with the peaceful pro-life activists will serve as a lesson in how to interact with those one disagrees with in adulthood.
At the very least, the school needs to step in and administer punishment for this student’s lack of self-control. As we know, if the roles were reversed and a pro-life student vandalized a pro-choice student’s demonstration, the liberal media would be all over it.