The Wichita organization ROKICT.com has produced a video that attempts to rehabilitate Wichita’s reputation in light of the events of yesterday.
Introduced as “About wichita — a reaction from the arts community to the kansas stigma after the murder of dr. tiller” it’s been viewed over 750 times on YouTube.
Early on, the video spotlights activist Jason Dilts speaking at the candlelight vigil for murdered doctor George Tiller.
Obviously speaking from the heart, Dilts said “Wichita’s better than this. This is not Wichita. (Cheers from crowd.) … We’re a community that brings people together. Some of us are pro-choice, some are pro-life, but we’re all pro-community.”
That’s all the video speaks to about abortion, except for its ending message “We are more than a stigma, we are stronger than violence.” The rest of the video promotes Wichita in much the same way a chamber of commerce commercial would — although to a younger, hipper, edgy audience.
The problem is that this message — concern that only now, after the murder of Dr. Tiller, does Wichita bear the stigma of violence — resonates only if you believe that a woman truly does have the right to a late-term abortion.
But if you believe, as many Americans do, that abortion kills a human life, then Wichita has born the stigma of violence for many years, as our community was home to one of our nation’s few late-term abortion providers.
This difference of opinion can’t be overcome by the suggestion that we’re all “pro-community.”