Walking through North Campus at noon on Sept. 14, it was easy to notice the group of people frozen during the clock chimes. What wasn’t so simple was understanding why.
A group of students participated in a freeze mob to promote the art show, ‘Face Forward: Eyes Open.’ The event will take place Sept. 17 at First Avenue.
Rather than promote with fliers, Face Forward founder Amanda Leaveck chose to advertise the show in the spirit of the event, with art.
“This city is overwhelmed with fliers … so why not doing something creative and get attention out of it that way,” Leaveck said.
Frozen forward
Participants involved in the freeze mob were recruited through e-mail and word of mouth. Sophomore Rae Horton got involved after receiving a text from a fellow participant.
“Face Forward is a wonderful way to get people to open up their eyes,” Horton said.
During the freeze mob, which lasted throughout the O’Shaughnassey-Frey Library’s noon clock chimes, participants froze facing Ireland Hall.
Some held signs promoting the event, while others, who were not frozen, passed out informative fliers. Each person involved wore a black top to distinguish themselves from the crowd.
‘Face Forward: Eyes Open’ will be similar to the last event, which took place last spring.
The upcoming show will feature musical acts, a modeling show and spoken-word artists. The proceeds will go toward the Global Fund for Women, a non-profit foundation that creates grants to advance women’s rights worldwide.
Gina Dolski can be reached at grdolski@stthomas.edu.
I checked out the Global Fund For Women, and, unfortunately, they are a pro-abortion group, as evidenced by their website: http://www.globalfundforwomen.org/find-out/who-we-are
I encourage those at UST who want to support the poor to support organizations like Catholic Reliefs Services and Sharing and Caring Hands, or religious orders that serve the poor and vulnerable in society, such as the Litle Sisters of the Poor, the Missionaries of Charity, the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and/or the Franciscan Brothers of Peace. The Global Fund For Women neglects the well-being of the most vulnerable members of society, the unborn, whereas the groups I listed respect the dignity of all human beings, born or unborn, in addition to serving the poor, suffering, and vulnerable members of society.
Michael-Although I respect others’ opinions on certain subjects, I have to say that your comment was a bit misleading about the goals of this group. First of all, it is pro-CHOICE, not pro-abortion. Second of all, abortion is not the main focus of this group, as you made it out to be. The members and the contributors of the Global Fund for Women strive to be “part of a global women’s movement that is rooted in a commitment to justice and an appreciation of the value of women’s experience.” The students and people in charge of Face Forward are followers of Christ that are reaching out to women in order to find the best solutions for each of them.The main goals of this group are:Ending Gender-Based Violence and Building PeaceEnsuring Economic and Environmental JusticeAdvancing Health and Sexual and Reproductive RightsExpanding Civic and Political ParticipationIncreasing Access to EducationFostering Social Change PhilanthropyI just wanted to clarify the goals of this group because I respectfully believe that your comment will misguide students.I encourage students to research the cause further and support the Face Forward group and the Global Fund for Women if they feel morally and spiritually subjected to do so.
What a fantastic way to promote a fantastic event!
The Global Fund for Women is “pro-choice” in precisely the same way that the Confederate States of America was “pro-choice.” They support empowering one group of people to exterminate the rights (and, often, the lives) of another group of people. This is savagery. Abortion may not be the “main focus” of GFfW, but it is one of their top six priorities, according to their mission statement. No person of good will and conscience, Catholic or otherwise, should financially support such an organization, especially when so many true charities are desperate for funds in the midst of our recession.
I can definitely understand how this mob-thing might have been approved by Campus Life. The Spring FaceForward show benefited the legitimate charity CAVE, so this follow-up was probably greeted with a presumption of legitimacy. Moreover, Campus Life probably lacks the staff and the resources to do exhaustive research on the destination of every dollar of every group that even remotely touches a UST campus event. And this little flash mob was just not that big a deal. Still, I’m mildly saddened that a pro-abortion — excuse me, pro-“choice” — group managed to advertise itself on our campus today.
Neat ad concept, though. Flash mobs are cool, I must admit.
Thanks to Mike for…
Erika, I never said that abortion was the main focus of the group, and the link that I included makes that clear. However, whether abortion is the main focus of this group or not, “reproductive rights” includes abortion and contraception, both of which are contrary to Catholic social teachings.
This may be a group that supports women’s rights, but what about the rights of the unborn women that are destroyed by abortion? In the eyes of groups like this one, such women have no rights.
Regardless of the laudable things that this group does, it is complicit in a grave intrinsic moral evil by its support of abortion.
It is true that we must strive for peace and justice, but we must never sacrifice or neglect our duty to protect the sanctity of all human life from conception until natural death. Mother Teresa has a quote that sheds some light on this:
“The greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion, which is war against the child. The mother doesn’t learn to love, but kills to solve her own problems. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.”
There are groups out there that advocate for peace and justice without betraying the unborn. I encourage fellow Catholics to support those groups…
The last line of my post should have read as follows:
“There are groups out there that advocate for peace and justice without betraying the unborn. I encourage fellow Catholics to support those groups instead.”
Paragraph 24 of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ document “Living the Gospel of Life” sheds some light on this situation:
“Since the entry of Catholics into the U.S. political mainstream, believers have struggled to balance their faith with the perceived demands of democratic pluralism. As a result, some Catholic elected officials have adopted the argument that, while they personally oppose evils like abortion, they cannot force their religious views onto the wider society. This is seriously mistaken on several key counts. First, regarding abortion, the point when human life begins is not a religious belief but a scientific fact — a fact on which there is clear agreement even among leading abortion advocates. Second, the sanctity of human life is not merely Catholic doctrine but part of humanity’s global ethical heritage, and our nation’s founding principle. Finally, democracy is not served by silence. Most Americans would recognize the contradiction in the statement, “While I am personally opposed to slavery or racism or sexism I cannot force my personal view on the rest of society.” Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling vigorously to advance their beliefs by every ethical and legal means at their disposal. “
The full document, “Living the Gospel of Life”, can be found here, and I encourage my fellow Tommies, especially fellow Tommies who are Catholics, to read it. It covers not only abortion but unjust war, capital punishment, euthanasia, and all threats to the sanctity of human life.
http://www.usccb.org/prolife/gospel.shtml
Michael has this one right on. In defending our Church against the evils of our current materialistic society, I can tell you as President of the Catholic Defense League, the killing of the innocent unborn rates right at the top of the list. Any organization which even lists “pro-choice” as one of the things it supports or advocates is just one small step away from the back rooms of Planned Parenthood, which also lists abortion as just one of the things it provides. Such organizations hate the Catholic Church and all that it stands for, and belonging to such an organization is as dangerous as those who watch pornography “just for entertainment”. The first step towards sin is always the most dangerous one, with many more usually to follow. Instead of joining an organization which endorses evil, even if only “mildly”, why not join an organization which only endorses good. That is the free will choice that God has given us, to choose the good and avoid the evil. If everyone did that, what a world we would live in, but we can do it one person at a time.