Bag Pipes, Scottish Heritage, and Why God is Offended by Your Abortion

Greeting me as I left a Centennial lunch on campus (it's our 175th year), I ran into an interesting band of chaps, bedecked in red with white sashes. They had a bag pipe player with them, and a large red banner with the words: "Tradition, Family, and Property," written in a calligraphy. What can this group be about, I wondered?

As I got closer to the merry band of bag pipers, I noticed four students sitting directly across from them with a duck call whistle and a sign offering up "Free Abortions." Odd! What does a band of disaffected white male liberals, with a purposely shocking "Free Abortions" sign have to do with this group of men in red? To add insult to injury, one of the disaffected liberal students was reading the Da Vinci code (apparently this same group showed up to protest the Da Vinci movie).

The answer lies in what the TFP (Tradition/Family/Property) group stands for: They are a single issue political activist group. Their goal is to somehow uphold the TFP values by opposing abortion. They hail from Spring Grove, PA and parked themselves on our campus to educate us on the 10 reasons why abortion is wrong.

Many students and faculty are agitated with this group. But, of course, that is their purpose. What I wanted to know was why they used the bag pipes. So, I asked: "Why do you have bag pipes with you?"

"Because they are really effective at getting us attention," TFP speaker #1.

"What do the bag pipes have to do with your TFP stance," I asked.

"They are Scottish," TFP speaker #2.

"Is your organization a Scottish organization," I ask, perplexed.

"No, we are Americans," TFP speaker #1.

"Then why do you have Scottish bag pipes to represent your 'crusade,'" I ask, (truly perplexed).

"Because some of us have Scottish blood," TFP speaker #2.

Before leaving, one of the TFP guys was kind enough to remind me that I was a baby killer and murderer because I was not so interested in their literature. I was a bit put off by these tactics. After all, I had just made my way through a rowdy group of PETA protesters in Philly this weekend. The PETA protesters were engaged in a shock and awe campaign with bloody carcasses of foxes. Anyone who is confused about the similarity between the far left and the far right should compare PETA with Pro-lifers like TFP. The only difference is the bag pipes.

P.S. I find the move that considers that life begins at conception to be so whacked out. If life begins at conception, then God is the biggest abortionist in town and so how can abortions offend God?