Racine Residents Don't Want to Know

*WARNING*WARNING*WARNING*
RACINE RESIDENTS SHOULD NOT VISIT THE "BODY WORLDS" EXHIBIT AT THE MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM.

The show certainly is one of the strangest the museum has ever had. "Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies" displays cadavers preserved by a chemical process called plastination. About 20 of the "plastinates" will be complete figures frozen skinless in action poses - "athletes," "dancers" - to demonstrate how the human body works.

The exhibit has drawn nearly 20 million visitors in 35 cities across Asia, Europe and North America.

..."Body Worlds" is a thinking-person's exhibit, a real-life Advanced Biology class where no "student" ever dozes off.

...[T]here are exhibit highlights you won't want to miss. Among them:

Smoker and Non-Smoker Lungs: Nothing like seeing a set of cigarette-ravaged lobes to get you to snuff out that butt. Children have been particularly impressed by this display.

"It's a wonderful thing to show my children," [Cedarburg resident Julia] Wolff said. "Anything that helps illustrate to kids how damaging smoking is, is valuable."

Yes, don't miss those real smoker diseased lungs. That's must-see stuff, a great lesson for kids.

Compare this "amazing" exhibit of real human bodies and body parts in various states on display at the museum with a tiny plastic form of a fetus enclosed in an envelope.

It's quite stunning that the model of a fetus is considered by some to be offensive and in poor taste.

That's right. People in Racine flipped out when they received a little plastic model of a fetus in the mail from the Racine chapter of Wisconsin Right to Life.



Look at it.

It's a tiny baby doll. What's disturbing about it? What's so shocking about it?

Does that little plastic model make you angry?

I don't see what's so offensive about it.

RACINE (AP) -- Peggy Bell didn’t know what to do with the tiny plastic fetus she received in the mail, so she recycled it.

The 51-year-old insurance agent said she wasn’t going to send it back to the anti-abortion group that mailed it to her.

The Racine chapter of Wisconsin Right to Life sent the plastic statues and literature to Bell and other city residents to mark next Tuesday’s anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.

Bell said she normally isn’t bothered by the mail she receives from the anti-abortion group. But this was different.

“I don’t care what literature you send me, but I just think they went too far,” said Bell, who sent the group a letter expressing her feelings. “I was offended. I think it was in poor taste.”

She found the plastic fetus in her mailbox Tuesday in a manila mailer addressed to “Resident.” The model of a roughly 2-inch fetus came with a card detailing the development of an 11- to 12-week-old “pre-born.”

I really don't see why people would be offended or consider it to be in poor taste.

It's not some sort of pornographic thing.

It's a model of a developing human being. That arouses anger in people?

Oh, how horrible! This piece of plastic is the size of an 11- to 12-week-old fetus.

Horror of horrors!!!

Dave Obernderger, project chair for the Racine chapter of Wisconsin Right to Life, said people react to the issue with varying degrees of emotion, but his group meant the mailing to be informative not offensive.

“We hope that she and everybody else that has received the model that they take it in a positive way,” he said. “We meant it as an educational piece.”

I agree that it is an educational piece. It's a complete fetus, a model of a human being at a stage of its development, not an aborted fetus.

What's the problem?

Plastic pieces depicting a ripped apart, aborted fetus weren't mailed to Racine residents. That sort of model would have been disturbing, albeit realistic.

From The Journal Times:

The manila mailer addressed to “Resident” seemed innocent enough to those who found it in their mailboxes Tuesday, but the neighbors agreed the contents surprised them.

The Racine Chapter of Wisconsin Right to Life sent the mailing to mark the Jan. 22nd anniversary of the passage of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling 35 years ago that struck down many state laws restricting abortion.

The roughly 2-inch fetus, called the “Young One,” is a model of a “pre-born.” The model, which fits in the palm of a hand, included a card detailing the development of an 11- to 12-week-old “pre-born.”

“We are sending the ‘Young One’ model to all of the residents in Racine to help remind them of the humanity of the unborn baby,” the letter accompanying the model stated. “We hope that you use the model to involve your family and friends in the discussion of human development.”

If people are upset by this two inch piece of plastic, then perhaps they should stay away from any literature and accompanying models of human development. And certainly, they absolutely must stay away from the "Body Worlds" exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum.

Maybe they're more comfortable believing the stork brings babies.

Such fairy tales don't require one to confront the reality of what happens in the womb during human gestation.

I guess the fetal model is just too much for the residents of Racine to handle.

Relax, Racine residents. You don't have to acknowledge where babies come from. Don't let the plastic model bother you. Try to forget about it.

The stork delivers babies.