The pros of glaze-eyed protests

Concerning your editorial last week entitled "The hysterical campaign of the so-called 'pro-life' movement".

I wish to explain the "glazed-eyed" change which came over your Catholic friends (being a Catholic and classing myself as a friend). There were a number of sentiments which I shared with I am sure many other students at the march.

To see one's own parents and the parents of friends walking through the crowded city, being occassionaly jeered at, feeling strangely defenceless and bloody cold, gives one a sense of achievement. Achievement because in that crowd of five thousand were many parents previously the critics of the validity or worth of public political protest, suddenly swallowing their pride and publicly demonstrating on a moral-political issue.

Achievement because the hours of frustrating debate with parents over political activities are not now wasted. Now we have a common basis from which can be approached the questions of freedom in Malaysia and South Africa, of the injustice of our economic system, and of the type of society which would eliminate the demand for abortion. The validity of public protest and the need for political action has been for them established by this march.

There was a certain amount of hope generated by that march: hope that now our religious leaders have taken a lead in a moral issue and involved themselves in political action, perhaps they will be more willing to take the lead in other moral issues requiring political action.

Hope when one sees the type of prayer said in the Cathedral after the march:

"Forgive us when we try to mould men to fit systems instead of moulding systems to fit men..."

And finally hope when one realises that people refuse to conform to labels of "liberal" or "conservative", "progressive" or "reactionary" and can still take their stands after deciding the merits of an individual issue.

So I think the glazed-eyed looks were not based on the pleasure of out numbering the counter-demonstrators or any sense of self- righteousness, but on far more positive things.

J.M.