Working for a pro-life activist organization, I’ve come to realize that hate mail is one of the things that comes with the territory. As nasty as hate mail can be, there’s something about it that tells me we must be doing something right. After all, if those who want to keep abortion legal weren’t concerned that pro-life activism really is effective, they wouldn’t go to the trouble of contacting us. Instead, they would simply ignore us. But they don’t, and for the past several years, we’ve continually received a steady stream of hate mail. Case in point — this e-mail we received earlier this week:
From: Heywood Jablowme [mailto:hjablowme@yahoo.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2006 8:05 PM To: Pro-Life Action League Subject: Message to the Pro-Life Action League [Message from Heywood Jablowme (hjablowme@yahoo.com)] YOU are completely despicable. In the name of “truth” you distort the truth by blowing up the photos you have many many times larger than real life. Your real agenda is to control women, deny them their constitutional rights and make them vessels to carry out your warped agenda. Too bad YOU weren’t aborted. The world would be a much better place. Why not worry about the people who are BORN instead of imposing your religious beliefs on people? How many children have YOU adopted? And Have YOU ever had the wrenching decision to possibly give birth to and have to care for a severely disabled child? YOU and organization are slime. And if there WERE a hell, you’d burn in it. Heywood Jablowme
This e-mail prompted me to think two things.
- Could our cheeky friend “Heywood” have possibly crammed any more tired old soundbite arguments into his e-missive? (About the only one that’s missing is the oft-parroted “Don’t you know abortion is safer than childbirth?”– a variation of which was voiced most recently by frequent commenter Lauren — and which was recently debunked, at length, for the umpteenth time, by Dr. John Willke.)
- Has it occurred to him that we have heard all of these things before — many times?
Here’s another hate e-mail we received a few days after we announced our upcoming Contraception Is Not the Answer conference:
From: Jody [mailto:no@no.no] Sent: Friday, July 28, 2006 2:30 PM To: Pro-Life Action League Subject: Message to the Pro-Life Action League [Message from Jody (no@no.no)] Your site is completely disgusting. You guys are severely unhinged. I can not express enough how much I am disgusted by you people. Birth control is bad? But sexism is okay? You f***ing morons. Go get bent Jody
All the more reason that it is absolutely necessary for us to roll up our sleeves and tackle the issue of contraception head on. Which leads me to the second part of this post’s title. Last month I found on this on Mark Shea’s blog: 
It’s an ad for Legends condoms. According to The Curt Jester, it recently won an advertising award at Cannes. This blog has the details of the award (along with two other similar and equally disgusting ads):
Type Of Advertisement: Magazine Category: OTC Pharmacy Title: BEAR Advertiser: LEGENDS CONDOMS Product or Service: CONDOMS Entrant Company: CLEMENGER BBDO SYDNEY Metal won: Bronze
Mark’s one-sentence commentary on the ads:
Show me a culture that despises virginity…and I’ll show you a culture hates (and I mean hates) children.
Zippy Catholic throws in his $.02:
Children screaming, suffocating in latex bags, seen as a good thing. Protect yourself from the vile little parasites while having your fun. The gloves of the Powers and Principalities are starting to come off. Choose your side.
The line has been drawn in the cultural sand.
