I recently posted a rather more muddled than usual bit on the video of the Libertyville anti-abortion demonstrators. This attracted The Pro-Woman Authority (yes, that's the name) from a blog titled The Pro-Woman Pro-Lifer. We had a good civil debate in the comments of my post. We were both polite in the discussion and that felt good. Yet I find myself feeling like I was not being completely engaged or honest.

I'm sick to death of strident slogans being shouted from both sides of the abortion debate, forcing the evacuation of any middle ground. There's a feeling I compromised some of my own beliefs about the issue in discussion. This is perhaps inevitable when acknowledging that an opponent has integrity and legitimate ethical concerns. It's so much easier to say "I'm right, you're wrong. Not only that, you're stupid too!"

This is part of the current political atmosphere: Attack your opponent, deny their humanity, deny any possibility they could have a valid and intelligent perspective. There's the feeling that conceding the least point weakens your position, lessens your strength. And it becomes a battle, a furious effort to keep or gain ground.

So I'm left a little pensive and sad in the aftermath of the discussion.

Slight update: There's also a strangeness to me that a sizable number of recent visitors to my blog are coming from an anti-abortion blog called RealChoice which mentioned me in a post. While I think the conversation I detailed above was fine and dandy, I don't really want to participate in such conversions on a regular basis. I feel less like a bridge in this instance.