Here are a few of the beautiful pictures of vigils in honor of Dr. George Tiller that I found this morning:

Gloria Feldt, former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, has a moving piece up at Salon about the need for a reaction more definitively political than vigils. An excerpt:

Each time, we held vigils all over the country. We wept and we pledged to continue our work. Which we did, increasingly, in isolation. We were the ones who had been wronged, and yet we were labeled controversial, to be shunned rather than supported. The murders were only the tip of the iceberg, among over 6000 cases of violence, vandalism, stalking, bombings, arson, invasions and other serious harassment.

Later, during the nine years I served as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, we dramatically beefed up our own security while figuring out how to make our health centers nevertheless welcoming to patients and workers alike. In fact, we got so adept at the task that during post-911 anthrax scares, we provided federal government agencies with model protocols for dealing with such threats. But though self-sufficiency is valuable, a just society should offer much more succor to citizens who are attacked.

That's why today, after what happened to George Tiller, I know that the only thing that will assuage my personal grief over his shocking loss is for leaders across our nation to join me in expressing outrage at this heinous crime, this domestic terrorism. And yes, they need to call it out in exactly those terms.

So far, the only public statement that President Obama has made is this: "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."

2 Comments

June 2, 2009 10:30 AM

[0+]  biancamarissa said:

I wish the President would say more. He needs to say more.... People seeking legal services in this country should not receive the kind of harassment, threats of violence, and actual violence that abortion seekers and abortion providers face.

I saw Bill O'Reilly's talking points on the subject of Tiller's murder. In it, he said that he was not going to rationalize his past comments, failing to realize that his entire entire segment did just that--rationalized why his position was, and is, just fine. His one line about Tiller's murder being wrong was a throwaway line--brief and there just to cover his ass, because I guess he stops just short of expressly advocating murder.

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June 2, 2009 10:56 AM

[0+]  johanna in dairyland said:

I agree with Gloria Feldt - these vigils are a needed moment for reflection and healing for the movement, but it must not end at that. This is domestic terrorism. Acts such as the murder of Dr. Tiller, the bombing of clinics, the harassment of patients and doctors for seeking or providing LEGAL medical services serves no other purpose than to terrorize them into not seeking or providing these services.

I'm really disappointed in President Obama's response - this goes beyond "profound differences" to illegal acts of terror, which should NOT be tolerated.

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