As someone who spends a good deal of my spare time on far right-wing and evangelical websites, it can be pretty difficult to offend or shock me. Continually reading the comments of some of the most mean-spirited and judgmental people around has, in general, inured me to a certain level of discourse that a lot of people would probably be horrified by.

But every now and again, something pops up that gets to me. Take, for example, this incredible pinnacle in bad taste: An Iowa abortion opponent is gathering items from his fellow anti-choicers for an eBay charity auction. What are they raising money for? The legal defense of Scott Roeder, the man who shot and killed Dr. George Tiller in church this past May.

I’m not going to go through the laundry list of items that the group has already collected, but one item in particular jumped out at me. It’s a drawing done by one of Roeder’s fellow inmates, autographed by Roeder himself. What’s the drawing of? Straight from one of the organizer’s mouth: “It has David with a slingshot in one hand and the head of Goliath in his other hand and the name ‘Tiller’ on Goliath’s forehead,” she said. “On the corpse on the ground, it says ‘child-murdering industry.’”

Yep. You read that correctly.

As I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, I returned to Planned Parenthood part-time over the summer while I searched for full-time employment. It was a few weeks after I came back that Dr. Tiller was murdered.

Walking into the clinic the day after Dr. Tiller’s death was an eerie experience. I felt uncomfortable; other staff members felt uncomfortable. There was a definite air of shock about the building, and an atmosphere of “what next?” I can’t speak for other employees, but I know that, in the back of my mind, I was wondering if the violence against abortion providers was just beginning.

Working at Planned Parenthood, one assumes a certain level of risk. Let’s face it: abortion is controversial, and it’s plainly obvious that there are individuals out there who are more than willing to commit violence against those who provide these services. And I’m not going to lie. There are times when it can be kind of scary. Driving to work past protesters, spending your day behind bulletproof glass… there are moments in which these things really hit home. So why do it? Well, for me, the reasons were simple… because of the mission, because of the patients, because I wanted to help those who needed it.

Which brings me back to the auction. The fact that these individuals are so glib about the murder of another human being… the fact that they’re auctioning off handbooks that instruct people on how to bomb clinics… well, that offends me to an extent that I’m not sure I can verbalize. And, as is normal for these individuals, the hypocrisy is astounding. That they can scream that abortion equals murder in one moment and sell off grotesque pictures making light of the slaughter of a human being in another is incomprehensible to me. That they can so cavalierly publicize their true intentions and strike fear in the countless employees who already put their safety at risk disgusts me.

It can be difficult sometimes for me to take people like these seriously, because so often they seem like cartoon characters: so over-the-top, so beyond the reaches of sanity and common sense that they don’t pose a real threat. But these people out there on the fringe are a threat, and quite possibly, the most dangerous kind. They show no compassion, no understanding, no decency. With this auction, they’ve proven themselves so devoid of any semblance of humanity that one could imagine that they’re capable of almost anything. They’re willing to make light of tragedy, of death… and to destroy people’s lives… all in the name of “life.”

I would laugh at the irony, if it wasn’t so frightening.

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