On the morning of Oct. 27, students, staff and faculty of the School of Art were greeted by a slogan chalked in large letters on the sidewalk in front of our building. It said: “Politicians LOVE birth control,” and around it were representations of the Nazi swastika, the Communist hammer and sickle and the circle with an arrow coming out of it that’s the scientific symbol for the female sex.

What is THAT all about, I wondered. And who is this gang of idiots who go around writing and drawing this stuff and not signing their names? I figure it means something like this: birth control is bad because politicians are in favor of it. Birth control is part of a nasty worldwide conspiracy of fascists, Communists, feminists and politicians who want (good white fundamentalist Christian) people to stop having babies so they (the Nazi-commie-feminist-politicians) can take over the world. But wait! Maybe they mean that we should all go out and copulate like crazy and not use birth control, so that The Good People will outbreed the nasty Nazi-femmi-commie-politicos.

Uh-oh. I just thought of something else. My finely-honed art historian’s eye just realized that the same hand that wrote and drew the School of Art slogan also chalked “Abortion is Murder” on the sidewalk in front of the student center. You’d think that people who are against abortion would be strong supporters of birth control. But no way they could be that logical. Let’s see if I’ve got this right: abortion is murder, and birth control is a commie-Nazi-femmie-political plot. Gosh! Then the only way not to have babies is not to have sex! Not only do these folks want to outlaw non-marital sex, they also expect married people who don’t want children, or who already have all the children they want, to swear off sex permanently. Oh dear, what a dull life these roving chalk-talkers have planned for us. Excuse me while I go find my eraser.

Judith Testa

Professor

School of Art