Notre Dame class should quiz Obama

An article in the May 11 Daily Herald - Catholic political divide exposed - seems to give the impression that Catholics are divided on our president. This is not so. Most all Americans wish him success in getting our country's economic and foreign problems solved. I personally feel that if the president wishes to come and speak at Notre Dame, all Americans should be prepared to listen to his viewpoints. His positive stance on federal funding for stem cell research and abortion is widely known and will surreptitiously affect his speech. I think that a way of compromising these issues would be to have the president give his speech unencumbered by any interruptions and afterward accept questions from both the more liberated and un-liberated students. After all, this is their graduation. The more liberal (progressive) students are quite used to interrupting speakers, mostly conservative types. Here are my suggestions: At what point would he suggest the cut off point for an abortion? If, by our technological advances, we discover that the fetus/baby, at some point of development, is actually feeling pain, would this change his mind? Under law, that would be considered cruel and unusual punishment, similar to the torture of terrorists, with loud music and water boarding. Stem cell research is not a slam dunk positive. When man starts to modify nature there have been and can be problems. When inducing organs to be grown by various bio-manipulations, one can end up with some unintended, if not strange, results.

D.O. Lipensky

Wheaton