In the recent issue of The Notre Dame Magazine, which I receive as a graduate of the 1964 class at the Notre Dame Law School, because of President Obama's views on the abortion issue, there appeared a number of letters to the editor criticizing the University for ever having invited him to set foot on campus, not to mention deliver the commencement address to the graduating seniors. I wrote this letter to the editors of the Magazine in response.
To the Editors:
To the Editors:
Thanks to Richard Conklin for providing much-needed historical perspective regarding the Notre Dame/Obama controversy that dominated the July issue. Even so, however, it seems doubtful that his contribution to the discussion of the propriety of the President’s visit would pose any significant restraint on those sanctimonious alumni who wrote to declare their intention to cancel their subscription to the Notre Dame Magazine or withdraw financial support to the University, each of whom took a more pious and less tolerant position than either Pope Benedict XVI, who graciously received President Obama and his family at the Vatican on July 11, or Father Hesburgh who was pictured in the Magazine in a warm mutual embrace with the President at the time of the latter’s commencement appearance.
All of which prompted me to wonder whether those who wrote criticizing President Jenkins and the University so vociferously had taken a similar stand when President George W. Bush was awarded an honorary degree in 2000. Did they stop their subscriptions or withdraw financial support back then? Did they yell or picket or stomp on the ground upon Mr. Bush’s arrival on campus nine years ago?
Or didn’t they bother to check the record and learn that George W. Bush, during his six years as governor of Texas, presided over the execution of 131 Texas inmates, more than any other governor in the nation’s recent history? Did they learn that Mr. Bush was advised on many of the executions by his legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, later Attorney General of the United States, in cursory execution summaries usually presented on the day of execution and in oral briefings that usually lasted less than 30 minutes? Did they know that Mr. Bush himself rarely, if ever, personally reviewed a petition for clemency?
Did they know that the most notorious of those executions — that of Karla Faye Tucker in early 1998 — followed upon Mr. Bush’s refusal to consider evidence that Ms. Tucker, though having viciously murdered two sleeping persons with a pickaxe, had in the intervening 15 years in prison become a "born again" Christian, an exemplary inmate, an outspoken opponent of addictive drugs, and a "role model," as it were, for a multitude of depraved and suffering women? Did they know that Mr. Bush ignored evidence that Ms. Tucker had been abandoned by her parents when very young, had first smoked pot with her sisters when she was eight years old, was shooting heroin by the time she was 13, followed her mother into prostitution when only 14, and that from the very beginning her life revolved around drugs and violence? Or that Mr. Bush had turned a deaf ear toward hundreds of clemency pleas for Ms. Tucker from around the world including those of religious leaders (such as Pope John Paul II), foreign heads of state (such as Vladimir Putin), celebrities (such as Bianca Jagger), and even right-wing evangelists (such as Pat Robertson)?
Did they bother to check to find out that Mr. Bush, himself "born again" after overcoming addiction to alcohol and who at the time was widely promoting himself as a "compassionate conservative," publically defended his intransigence toward Ms. Tucker’s case for clemency by saying he was seeking "guidance through prayer," and abjured his statutory responsibilities as governor with the pious pronouncement that "judgments about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority"? Did they learn that Mr. Bush had no clue whatsoever about what he was saying, and that if, as he suggested, commutation of death sentences ultimately comes to rest in resort "to a higher authority," then all the clemency statutes in the land have been relegated to the trash heap?
And did they learn that Mr. Bush had told the journalist Tucker Carlson while traveling during the presidential campaign in 1999 that he had refused to speak with Larry King when he had come to Texas for his famous death row interview of Ms. Tucker. Or that when Mr. Bush was asked by Carlson what Ms. Tucker had said in response to King’s question about what she would say personally to the Governor if she had the opportunity, Mr. Bush famously answered by derisively whimpering, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "Please, please, don’t kill me"?
The long and short of it is that George W. Bush personally had his fingerprints all over the execution of a large number of inmates during his six years as Governor of Texas. Whatever his beliefs, or whether or not you agree with them, I don’t think you can say anything comparable about President Obama and the deaths of any unborn children.
All of which prompted me to wonder whether those who wrote criticizing President Jenkins and the University so vociferously had taken a similar stand when President George W. Bush was awarded an honorary degree in 2000. Did they stop their subscriptions or withdraw financial support back then? Did they yell or picket or stomp on the ground upon Mr. Bush’s arrival on campus nine years ago?
Or didn’t they bother to check the record and learn that George W. Bush, during his six years as governor of Texas, presided over the execution of 131 Texas inmates, more than any other governor in the nation’s recent history? Did they learn that Mr. Bush was advised on many of the executions by his legal counsel, Alberto R. Gonzales, later Attorney General of the United States, in cursory execution summaries usually presented on the day of execution and in oral briefings that usually lasted less than 30 minutes? Did they know that Mr. Bush himself rarely, if ever, personally reviewed a petition for clemency?
Did they know that the most notorious of those executions — that of Karla Faye Tucker in early 1998 — followed upon Mr. Bush’s refusal to consider evidence that Ms. Tucker, though having viciously murdered two sleeping persons with a pickaxe, had in the intervening 15 years in prison become a "born again" Christian, an exemplary inmate, an outspoken opponent of addictive drugs, and a "role model," as it were, for a multitude of depraved and suffering women? Did they know that Mr. Bush ignored evidence that Ms. Tucker had been abandoned by her parents when very young, had first smoked pot with her sisters when she was eight years old, was shooting heroin by the time she was 13, followed her mother into prostitution when only 14, and that from the very beginning her life revolved around drugs and violence? Or that Mr. Bush had turned a deaf ear toward hundreds of clemency pleas for Ms. Tucker from around the world including those of religious leaders (such as Pope John Paul II), foreign heads of state (such as Vladimir Putin), celebrities (such as Bianca Jagger), and even right-wing evangelists (such as Pat Robertson)?
Did they bother to check to find out that Mr. Bush, himself "born again" after overcoming addiction to alcohol and who at the time was widely promoting himself as a "compassionate conservative," publically defended his intransigence toward Ms. Tucker’s case for clemency by saying he was seeking "guidance through prayer," and abjured his statutory responsibilities as governor with the pious pronouncement that "judgments about the heart and soul of an individual on death row are best left to a higher authority"? Did they learn that Mr. Bush had no clue whatsoever about what he was saying, and that if, as he suggested, commutation of death sentences ultimately comes to rest in resort "to a higher authority," then all the clemency statutes in the land have been relegated to the trash heap?
And did they learn that Mr. Bush had told the journalist Tucker Carlson while traveling during the presidential campaign in 1999 that he had refused to speak with Larry King when he had come to Texas for his famous death row interview of Ms. Tucker. Or that when Mr. Bush was asked by Carlson what Ms. Tucker had said in response to King’s question about what she would say personally to the Governor if she had the opportunity, Mr. Bush famously answered by derisively whimpering, his lips pursed in mock desperation, "Please, please, don’t kill me"?
The long and short of it is that George W. Bush personally had his fingerprints all over the execution of a large number of inmates during his six years as Governor of Texas. Whatever his beliefs, or whether or not you agree with them, I don’t think you can say anything comparable about President Obama and the deaths of any unborn children.
