He shared a story about one of the loudest abortion foes he ever encountered, a woman who stood year in and year out on a ladder, so that her head would be above other protesters' as she shouted "murderer" at him and other doctors and "whore" at every woman who walked into the clinic.
One day she was missing. "I thought, 'I hope she's O.K.,' " he recalled. He walked into an examining room to find her there. She needed an abortion and had come to him because, she explained, he was a familiar face. After the procedure, she assured him she wasn't like all those other women: loose, unprincipled.
She told him: "I don't have the money for a baby right now. And my relationship isn't where it should be."
"Nothing like life," he responded, "to teach you a little more."
A week later, she was back on her ladder
UNQUOTE
I do not believe this ending, either by the anonymous "doctor" or by the writer who once was a room-mate of the "anonymous" doctor....too dramatic.
Let Frank Bruni produce the "doctor", or let the "Doctor" write "Re-thinking My Religion." Until then, this is beautifully-written fiction.
And there you have it.
Bolaji Aluko
--"I MOVED into my freshman-year dorm at the University of North Carolina after many of the other men on the hall. One had already begun decorating. I spotted the poster above his desk right away. It showed a loaf of bread and a chalice of red wine, with these words: "Jesus invites you to a banquet in his honor."This man attended Catholic services every Sunday in a jacket and tie, feeling that church deserved such respect. I kept a certain distance from him. I'd arrived at college determined to be honest about my sexual orientation and steer clear of people who might make that uncomfortable or worse. I figured him for one of them.About two years ago, out of nowhere, he found me. His life, he wanted me to know, had taken interesting turns. He'd gone into medicine, just as he'd always planned. He'd married and had kids. But he'd also strayed from his onetime script. As a doctor, he has spent a part of his time providing abortions.For some readers his journey will be proof positive of Rick Santorum's assertion last month that college is too often godless and corrupting. For others, it will be a resounding affirmation of education's purpose.I'm struck more than anything else by how much searching and asking and reflecting he's done, this man I'd so quickly discounted, who pledged a fraternity when he was still on my radar and then, when he wasn't, quit in protest over how it had blackballed a Korean pledge candidate and a gay one."- IkhideStalk my blog at www.xokigbo.comFollow me on Twitter: @ikhideJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide
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