Sir, - Nuala O'Faolain's article (January 29th) on the power of pictures and the visual media in general to sensitise people to the experience and suffering of others touched a chord with me, and I have no doubt with many other people. Yet two things puzzle me.
Firstly, why doesn't Nuala (and those in the media worldwide) present us with the truth about abortion - in pictures? Is it because the wilful destruction of the most defenceless is an article of faith of the kind of feminism which many, both men and women, wish to foist on all women everywhere? Why is it politically correct to present visual evidence of the suffering of the Chernobyl children or of the child prostitutes in Asia, yet anyone who attempts to raise public consciousness about abortion using visual evidence is deemed a fascist by the media? The honourable and courageous exception in this regard is Kevin Myers, who in "An Irishman's Diary" (January 16th), wrote: "One day the world . . . will stand appalled at the abortion industry".
Secondly, why is Nuala so deeply pessimistic about the power of empathy and understanding to transform the world? Surely the individual witnesses she cites as examples belie her pessimism? It took just one little old black lady to set in motion the whole civil rights movement in the United States. Like one word of truth and one deed of truth, one picture of truth outweighs the whole world. - Yours, etc.,
Associate Lecturer in Philosophy,
The Milltown Institute of
Theology and Philosophy,
Milltown Park, Dublin 6.