Sunday Forum

Bodies ... The brouhaha

An appreciation for the activist

Thanks for the Sunday Journal article "An activist awakens" about Sarah Redpath's work to call attention to the inhumanity of "Bodies ... The Exhibition."

I had the same reaction as she did when I read your first article about the exhibition. I was fascinated to read how Redpath went about getting together with others who share her opinions.

I thank Redpath for all the work she has done to bring the public's attention to man's inhumanity to man, woman and child in this despicable display.

Princie King Evans

Wilson

Bodies an inspiration

I was outraged when I opened the Sunday Journal on Sept. 16 and saw the article "An activist awakens."

If Sarah Redpath had taken a moment to go through the exhibit, I wonder whether she would have found a different exhibit from the one she thought she "saw" in the newspaper. Instead, she made an assumption, and when she could not find enough community support, moved to a national level.

She was curious as to why more people did not protest it? Here's one idea: Maybe they saw the exhibit.

While I can appreciate differing opinions, I do not think she deserved an inch of print because she should have seen the exhibit before attacking it. Redpath does not care about the human rights issues that came up in this exhibit but about controlling what is exhibited.

I saw the exhibit twice, and I saw many children viewing the exhibit and asking questions about their own bodies. It was inspiring.

Katherine Kemp

Chapel Hill

Macabre mall misses out

Congratulations to Sarah Redpath for her efforts to discourage attendance at the macabre "Bodies" exhibition at Streets of Southpoint (Sunday Journal, Sept. 16). I will say the shopping center did accomplish one very specific thing. With that exhibit, it guaranteed that our family will never again darken its doorstep for any reason. Displaying dead bodies for commercial gain is repugnant.

H.L. Norman

Raleigh

Effective exhibition

I was incensed by the article "An activist awakens" in the Sunday Journal section Sept. 16 concerning Sarah Redpath and her protest of the "Bodies ... The Exhibition."

I have attended both the Chinese and German shows displaying the plasticized bodies and have found them fascinating. I gained an appreciation for the human body and the effects of disease and misuse on it. The feeling at the shows was one of hushed awe. Whether you think the body is the result of creation or evolution, it is truly marvelous. These exhibitions are the most novel and effective way to show this and to educate the public.

If Redpath does not want to attend, she is not forced to do so, but she should not try to dictate her choices on everyone. We have seen the results of her thinking in the Middle East, and it is not pretty.

William Stephenson

Raleigh

A body's benefits

Regarding the Sunday Journal story "An activist awakens":

Whatever Sarah Redpath's qualms, the "Bodies" exhibit does, indisputably, present real, accurate scientific truth, however unpleasant she makes it. The exhibit, Redpath said, "undermined the very essence of human connections." How so?

Contrarily, perhaps some patrons, simply by attendance, might have learned enough to enhance that essence with life improvements, provoked solely by knowledge acquired at "Bodies." Insofar that it "disturbs the kind of world my children will grow up in," I daresay there are events much grander than this exhibit that will affect our children's world far more significantly.