We love free speech at The State Press, but we also know that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.
We know that we've got a reputation for being controversial and riling people up, but as you know from reading our editorials in the past few weeks, we put serious thought and much discussion into those decisions.
Too bad other organizations don't do this. We're talking about the obscene images of mutilated fetuses plastered around campus yesterday.
OK, so you're against abortion. Cool. We respect you and your right to tell us what you think. As a matter of fact, we don't complain when we walk down the mall and are told we're going to hell or when we have pamphlets thrust in our faces.
It's important to our society for people to be able to express their beliefs.
But in those situations, we have the option to ignore, look away or refuse to open the material. We have a choice.
Yesterday, we pushed through the hordes toward the Memorial Union to get our mid-afternoon grub only to be stopped dead in our tracks by a huge image depicting the kind of gore only found in B-level horror flicks.
Placing these images at the place where roughly 50 percent of the ASU student population eats lunch doesn't make a point to us, it just makes us want to hurl.
We didn't have the option to go into the Union through a back way because these images were unavoidable.
Again, we normally wouldn't be bothered by large signs with pro-life messages (actually, this editorial board is split down the middle on the abortion issue). We simply have a problem with unavoidable gross pictures when we're trying to eat a bagel.
We assure you, The State Press would feel the same about images produced by PETA of animal testing.
These are pictures that are better suited for a pamphlet. If we're interested in your view we can open the flap and see these images. Maybe they'll sway us, maybe they won't, but at least we'll have the option of when to view the graphic imagery.
When The State Press received pictures of John Rose-Palermo, a former ASU student who drowned in Tempe Town Lake earlier this week, we discussed whether it was appropriate for our publication. And no, it wasn't necessary. We aren't sensationalists.
Of course, activists are not held to the same ethical obligations that journalists are, but the technique employed yesterday only enraged and grossed out students -- we doubt anyone changed their abortion stance.
We respect everyone's freedom of speech, but there is a line that should rarely be crossed -- and it's around the Memorial Union.
