Support the runners
To the Editor:
Sunday morning, a couple of my teammates and I trekked down to 34th and Chestnut Street to watch the Philadelphia Marathon. We cheered on nearly 10,000 runners as they passed Penn en route to the finish of the 26.2 mile race. We were inspired by the resolve of the wheelchair racer, the determination of those racing to raise money for breast cancer research and the pride of the few Penn students who ran on the periphery of their campus.
But the three of us were among only a handful of supporters who came out to watch the Philadelphia Marathon. While world-class athletes blazed the roads, most Penn students were entirely oblivious of the event.
The Boston Marathon, on the other hand, brings out the enthusiasm of the entire city. The course is lined with numerous supporters who cheer on the runners, providing cooling relief with garden hoses when it is hot and encouragement when motivation is flagging. The course goes past Boston University, and much of the student body comes out in full force to support the runners. By the finish line, the crowd of fans is 20-deep, everyone wanting to witness one of the greatest athletic spectacles of all time.
The Philadelphia Marathon sports a fast course and a huge throng of runners in one of the greatest cities in the country. But it is far from being an event like Boston's. Let us take an example from Boston and the students at the city's university, cheer on our classmates among the thousands of runners and make the marathon representative of the pride we have for Penn and for Philadelphia.
Emily Buzzell
College '07
Not all pro-lifers created equal
To the Editor:
When I was walking to class the other day down Locust Walk, I saw some depictions of mutilated fetuses that made me feel shocked, appalled and angry. A "community" group, not associated with Penn or run by Penn students, was staffing desks that were handing out preachy brochures comparing modern-day abortion supporters to operators of the Nazi death camps and invoking Bible verses -- with all of their implications of divine punishment -- in an appeal for conversion to the Penn community.
Instantly, I felt both a compelling desire to get these people off my campus and the hope that somebody, somewhere would do something to shut them up and to make sure that they never come back. And this is from a Penn student who considers himself to be both religious and unshakably opposed to abortion.
At a school that has a large Jewish population, where the enormities of the last century's Holocaust are still very painfully felt, saying this is so inflammatory and hurtful that I don't blame people for becoming so visibly upset.
I also think that doing fundamentalist, Bible-quoting preaching is pretty foolish and offensive at a secular university where there are a wide range of opinions on morality and what its implications for society should be.
At the same time, I think that abortion-rights groups on campus need to be aware that some of their activities, like the infamous "My Bush" shirts, provoke the same reaction in us; and that Penn pro-lifers, unlike the people who invaded campus a few days ago, do not make gruesome shock appeals and are working proactively to do things like raise money for orphanages and volunteer at nursing homes. The campus community should not let the extremist activities of an unaffiliated organization damage the reputation or distort the message of pro-life activists here.
Joe Mirarchi
College '04
