A pro-life activist, James Pouillon was shot and killed on Friday because, the defendant, Harlan Drake, “was offended by the manner of Mr. Puillon’s message.” Compared to coverage that George Tiller received when he was shot and killed the coverage surrounding this shooting has been pretty sparse. My hometown paper, The Des Moines Register, nada.
It took President Obama two days to make any type of statement on this shooting. He said the following yesterday:
President Barack Obama is calling the shooting of a Michigan anti-abortion activist "deplorable."
The White House on Sunday released a statement from the president on the shooting of James Pouillon. Obama says that "whichever side of a public debate you’re on, violence is never the right answer."
So far, nothing mentioned on the White House website. Compared the statement above, to what President Obama said a couple of hours after George Tiller was shot and killed.
I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.
I’m glad that he made the statement that violence on both sides is “deplorable,” but isn’t he shocked and outraged by this? I wonder if he’ll call for an investigation? Honestly I don’t really want him to do that because it isn’t a federal matter, just like the killing of Dr. George Tiller wasn’t a federal matter. Well this isn’t the first time that we can see contrasting statements with President Obama before.
Then then there is the media silence on this shooting which really didn’t get much national media attention until President Obama made his statement today. The New York Times today felt like it was appropriate to note that Pouillon “loved the controversy that his protests generated.” I’m sure he did. People were discussing the issue, but I doubt that he would have loved this.
Then there is silence from the pro-abortion groups. Many anti-abortion groups and myself condemned the shooting of Dr. George Tiller. It is inconsistent with a pro-life stance. It was deplorable. I’ll be waiting for Planned Parenthood’s and NARAL’s statement. I may be waiting a long time.
I’m not saying that this event makes any type of statement about how pro-choice crowd acts, just like I don’t think Dr. Tiller’s murder says anything, by and large, about the pro-life crowd. But compared to the attention that Dr. Tiller received, while I understand that he was more of a national figure than Pouillon, still the silence on Pouillon’s murder has been deafening. And that I think speaks volumes.
