Cemetery of the Innocents Under Assault

 

This morning, Vita Clamantis, Dartmouth's pro-life group, set up a display of 546 American flags on the lawn in front of Hitchcock. These flags represent the 54.6 million abortions since 1973 and Roe v. Wade. The display is called "Cemetery of the Innocents." It was to also serve as a means of advertising a moderated discussion hosted by Vita Clamantis in the Class of 1930 Room at 8 P.M. tonight.

According to Vita Clamantis's blog, "We put these flags out to ask every Dartmouth student a simple question: when your friend, your sister, your cousin, your neighbor, finds herself in this crisis, afraid and uncertain, feeling like the decision of her life weighs upon her, what will you do?"

This was the high point of the day. The display has been under assault ever since it went up. The signs put up around the edge of the event explaining its purpose were defaced, though Vita quickly replaced them. Some flags were stolen. Someone planted a sign (viewable in the slideshow at the top) that reads "May the child you save be GAY." (emphasis in the original)

Nothing, however, quite prepared the Cemetery of the Innocents for the assault that was to come at approximately 1:40, when a Toyota Camry, pictured below, allegedly drove through the flags before continuing down the street. The aftermath can be viewed in some pictures taken soon after attack, seen below. Click on any thumbnail to enlarge.

The police were summoned. At one point there were three S&S vehicles and a Hanover PD cruiser on the scene.

Because freeom of speech is all well and good until you offend somebody, I suppose? 

--Sterling C. Beard

Comments

[Sam]

Good reporting and pictures Mr. Beard. Diversity of thought is a joke at Dartmouth.

[Sam]

Good reporting and pictures Mr. Beard. Diversity of thought is a joke at Dartmouth.

[Interesting]

Would this be an acceptable attack on set ups like Occupy Dartmouth? Probably not. But no one seems to care about respecting this point of view. I don't agree with it. But it should be respected.

[Well Done Sirs]

Attacking a protest is a thuggish rejection of the free exchange of ideas. Both our university system and our democratic experiment absolutely depend on this very free exchange. He is a base and stupid ass who would attempt to silence another. Cheers for recording this act of aggression, so that we may guard against others like it in the future, and quit patting ourselves on the back for the far more violent ones we have committed in the past. With sledgehammers.

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-21/news/mn-31142_1_dartmouth-college-students

[Anon]

I condemn the car driving through the display, I condemn stealing flags or defacing signs, but lumping someone putting up a protest sign with the other examples? No. One of these things is not like the other one. They had just as much right to put up their sign as Vita Clamantis did to put up their display.

[Sterling C. Beard]

Except for the fact that Vita Clamantis had to get permission from the school to put up their display, Anon. However, the sign is, to my knowledge, still there. The impression I got from the Vita Clamantis folks was that they were going to leave it up.

[Irony?]

http://articles.latimes.com/1986-01-21/news/mn-31142_1_dartmouth-college-students

[Will]

@Anon, that's not true at all. Vita Clamantis had the "right" to put up their display because they got permission from the College. You cannot just randomly put up displays on private property. Of course, liberals believe all property should be public so they probably just forgot. Classic.

[boby b]

The Democrat's First Amendment reads differently than mine.

Theirs says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or abridging the freedom of correct speech."

Plus, they've absolutely taken the flag-burning rule - that expressive conduct can also be speech - to heart. I'm sure that, in many Dem minds, driving your Camry through someone else's obviously incorrect political display is simply an exercise of their own right of free speech.

Remember always, these are the people who exercise their right to free speech by trying to drown out or frighten away speakers with whom they disagree.

They are fascists to the core.