This hawk or eagle had been perched in a tree near the GAP display, and I caught it on film as it launched. We were at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga on November 12 and 13, 2008. More photos and information to come.
Life Advocates Asheville
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
GAP at UT, Chattanooga
This hawk or eagle had been perched in a tree near the GAP display, and I caught it on film as it launched. We were at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga on November 12 and 13, 2008. More photos and information to come.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Universal Man
by Meredith Eugene Hunt
a novel in three volumes
copyright 2009
The novel is complete except for professional copy editing. I began writing this novel in year 2000. An Asheville artist has committed to allowing me to use three paintings as cover art. The anticipated length of the entire book after editing is 286,000 words. At 400 words per page, Volume One will be approximately 179 pages; Volume Two, 207; Volume Three should be 330 pages.
Written as a “contemplative thriller” combining elements of classic literature and contemporary story telling, Universal Man is an unflinching look at the most longstanding and divisive domestic phenomenon of our day. Universal Man plunges into depths of human corruption and suffering, but emerges into clear light that we could find by no other path.
Universal Man is an answer and antidote to “pro-choice” films and works of fiction and to pandemic propaganda/censorship in the mainstream news media.
Working full-time in the pro-life movement for 19 years, being the father of six children, loving beauty in nature and art, and growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I have wide experience in the issues presented in the novel. I am presently writing a novel titled, Clouds Fall to Earth, a futuristic tale inspired by “steam punk”, about a people who have lived in the sky in dirigibles for a thousand years.
A full proposal for Universal Man is available upon request from potential significant donors toward self publishing, or from royalty publishers. My plan is to self publish, unless a major royal publisher expresses interest, which I do not expect.
Write to:
Life Advocates
P.O. Box 19205
Asheville, North Carolina 28815
Financial contributions to Life Advocates for the publication of Universal Man are deductible for income tax purposes. Profit from the sale of UM will support the work of Life Advocates.
a novel in three volumes
copyright 2009
PROSPECTUS
[This description contains spoilers.]
As powers of life and death battle around him, a high school English teacher rises to a place of national leadership by simple courage, friendship, and love. Set in the near future in the Pacific Northwest, Universal Man follows the middle years in the life of Stan Timmons. After he marries a lovely young woman in Oregon, Stan is recruited by her father into an international underground organization, the Chinook Assembly, which is committed to restoring the true government of the United States. As part of its function, the Assembly arrests abortion doctors and tries and incarcerates them in South America. The novel also follows the story of Stan’s friend, Tommy Duckwitz, a talented Shakespearean actor in college. When Tommy’s girlfriend dies from abortion complications, Tommy seeks revenge. Soon after, he is cast into the real life role of an assassin of abortionists on a national stage. Stan and Tommy meet in a dramatic confrontation, and by this the Chinook Assembly is uncovered to the U.S. Government in Power (GiP) with shocking, violent results. As a result of his associations and decisions, Stan endures tragedy and loss, isolation, prison, and torture. He finds friends in unusual places. Through all this he discovers the way of Christ and emerges as a leader in a nation swelling toward civil war.The novel is complete except for professional copy editing. I began writing this novel in year 2000. An Asheville artist has committed to allowing me to use three paintings as cover art. The anticipated length of the entire book after editing is 286,000 words. At 400 words per page, Volume One will be approximately 179 pages; Volume Two, 207; Volume Three should be 330 pages.
Written as a “contemplative thriller” combining elements of classic literature and contemporary story telling, Universal Man is an unflinching look at the most longstanding and divisive domestic phenomenon of our day. Universal Man plunges into depths of human corruption and suffering, but emerges into clear light that we could find by no other path.
Universal Man is an answer and antidote to “pro-choice” films and works of fiction and to pandemic propaganda/censorship in the mainstream news media.
Working full-time in the pro-life movement for 19 years, being the father of six children, loving beauty in nature and art, and growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I have wide experience in the issues presented in the novel. I am presently writing a novel titled, Clouds Fall to Earth, a futuristic tale inspired by “steam punk”, about a people who have lived in the sky in dirigibles for a thousand years.
A full proposal for Universal Man is available upon request from potential significant donors toward self publishing, or from royalty publishers. My plan is to self publish, unless a major royal publisher expresses interest, which I do not expect.
Write to:
Life Advocates
P.O. Box 19205
Asheville, North Carolina 28815
Financial contributions to Life Advocates for the publication of Universal Man are deductible for income tax purposes. Profit from the sale of UM will support the work of Life Advocates.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Welcome to Obama for America
Dear Asheville Joe Sixpack,Barack Obama said that he doesn’t know when an individual human life begins. It’s “above my pay grade” as he said, and yet in this ignorance he is willing to take a reckless chance that abortion does NOT kill a baby! If elected as President of the United States he will by his judicial nominations ensure for a generation that babies like this child in the photographs (and those older) can continue to be “legally” aborted.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Verdict: Guilty by Association
Arthur, Anna (two of my children, both of whom are students at AB-Tech) and I endured our third full trial on the AB-Tech trespass charges yesterday. The results were not good. What sunk our ship was the incredible instructions to the jury from Judge Dennis Winner that virtually guaranteed a guilty verdict. Winner refused to give the jury the instructions on the law that Judge Baker gave them in our first State Superior Court trial earlier this year. Those instructions said that to be found guilty of trespass on public property we [as individuals] must have engaged in conduct that nullified the implied consent we had to be on the property.
However, Judge Winner’s instructions were that if any members of the “group” that were protesting engaged in improper conduct, then ALL members were guilty.
A female security guard (an obese one who could not in court conceal her emotion toward us for bringing the images of aborted babies to her campus) testified that one of the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust gave her a belly/chest bump. Since Anna, Arthur and I had not seen this at the time, and had not even heard of it until she testified yesterday (she was not present in the other trials), and since we had no part in it, we could not contradict her testimony. And yet, despite no evidence whatsoever that we three had done anything to justify our arrest, according to the judge we were guilty. This is basically what the judge said to the jury!
I told a reporter for the Mountain Xpress that to the judge, we were guilty by association. The concept of guilt by association is roundly rejected in multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The cases I read deal with membership in Communist organizations.
To illustrate his opinion, Judge Winner gave an example. If a group enters a store, he said outside of the hearing of the jury, and one of the members of the group robs the store, then all the members were guilty. How silly. So, if one of the members of the group slips a pack of chewing gum into his pocket and none of the other members knew of it, and none of the others heard about it later, then they all are guilty? The judge himself, after giving the example, quietly muttered about how this did not apply to us, but he did not supply another example.
The jury is always told to follow the judge’s instruction regardless of what they think about it. Juries of course can completely disregard the judge if they wish, but the general population is so devoid of independent thinkers, that in our case a guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. Interestingly, the only person brought up to the jury who might have helped us had been dismissed from duty by the prosecution. He was a Warren Wilson College professor! I had been concerned about a professorfrom such a liberal school, but after the judge’s instructions, he might have been able to lead the jury in a more intelligent direction.
We, our attorney and us, could have done a better job of showing separation between us and the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. For example, when I heard that the Survivors were coming to this area, I asked Kortney, their Director, if they had a written Code of Conduct. My position was that we would only participate with the group if they abided by a code similar to what we use with the Genocide Awareness Project. Kortney had assured me that they were completely peaceful in their approach. We did not bring this out to the jury and I think we dropped the ball. But we only had the lunch hour yesterday to think.
During sentencing Judge Winner embarrassed me by making several references to his familiarity with my work, to his personal acquaintance with me, and to my outspoken nature when it comes to abortion. (Winner had been a NC State Senator.) He said, “It’s been 20 years, hasn’t it? He [Mr. Hunt} has not aged that much.” I could not speak without an invitation from the judge, so I just nodded and grinned stupidly. [I don't want to rub it in too much, but the judge said that he once taught Constitutional Law classes or a class at UNC-A, but he said he couldn't remember anything from it.]
Anna, Arthur, and I were sentenced to 10 days in jail, suspended. We were given one year unsupervised probation and told that we could not go onto the campus of AB-Tech except for standard educational purposes. In addition, each of us must pay court costs, which is $200 per person, I think. Anna and Arthur were not given this penalty, but I was also fined $200.
After the trial, the judge said to our attorney that his instructions to the jury, “had done it.”
We are thinking of appealing our conviction, the judge’s instructions on “the law,” and his denial of our motion to dismiss based on constitutional grounds (on AB Tech’s written policy on it’s face and as applied to us) to the NC Court of Appeals. This is the very court that issued the opinion we asked the judge to give to the jury as instructions on the law regarding trespass on public property.
However, Judge Winner’s instructions were that if any members of the “group” that were protesting engaged in improper conduct, then ALL members were guilty.
A female security guard (an obese one who could not in court conceal her emotion toward us for bringing the images of aborted babies to her campus) testified that one of the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust gave her a belly/chest bump. Since Anna, Arthur and I had not seen this at the time, and had not even heard of it until she testified yesterday (she was not present in the other trials), and since we had no part in it, we could not contradict her testimony. And yet, despite no evidence whatsoever that we three had done anything to justify our arrest, according to the judge we were guilty. This is basically what the judge said to the jury!
I told a reporter for the Mountain Xpress that to the judge, we were guilty by association. The concept of guilt by association is roundly rejected in multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The cases I read deal with membership in Communist organizations.
To illustrate his opinion, Judge Winner gave an example. If a group enters a store, he said outside of the hearing of the jury, and one of the members of the group robs the store, then all the members were guilty. How silly. So, if one of the members of the group slips a pack of chewing gum into his pocket and none of the other members knew of it, and none of the others heard about it later, then they all are guilty? The judge himself, after giving the example, quietly muttered about how this did not apply to us, but he did not supply another example.
The jury is always told to follow the judge’s instruction regardless of what they think about it. Juries of course can completely disregard the judge if they wish, but the general population is so devoid of independent thinkers, that in our case a guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. Interestingly, the only person brought up to the jury who might have helped us had been dismissed from duty by the prosecution. He was a Warren Wilson College professor! I had been concerned about a professorfrom such a liberal school, but after the judge’s instructions, he might have been able to lead the jury in a more intelligent direction.
We, our attorney and us, could have done a better job of showing separation between us and the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. For example, when I heard that the Survivors were coming to this area, I asked Kortney, their Director, if they had a written Code of Conduct. My position was that we would only participate with the group if they abided by a code similar to what we use with the Genocide Awareness Project. Kortney had assured me that they were completely peaceful in their approach. We did not bring this out to the jury and I think we dropped the ball. But we only had the lunch hour yesterday to think.
During sentencing Judge Winner embarrassed me by making several references to his familiarity with my work, to his personal acquaintance with me, and to my outspoken nature when it comes to abortion. (Winner had been a NC State Senator.) He said, “It’s been 20 years, hasn’t it? He [Mr. Hunt} has not aged that much.” I could not speak without an invitation from the judge, so I just nodded and grinned stupidly. [I don't want to rub it in too much, but the judge said that he once taught Constitutional Law classes or a class at UNC-A, but he said he couldn't remember anything from it.]
Anna, Arthur, and I were sentenced to 10 days in jail, suspended. We were given one year unsupervised probation and told that we could not go onto the campus of AB-Tech except for standard educational purposes. In addition, each of us must pay court costs, which is $200 per person, I think. Anna and Arthur were not given this penalty, but I was also fined $200.
After the trial, the judge said to our attorney that his instructions to the jury, “had done it.”
We are thinking of appealing our conviction, the judge’s instructions on “the law,” and his denial of our motion to dismiss based on constitutional grounds (on AB Tech’s written policy on it’s face and as applied to us) to the NC Court of Appeals. This is the very court that issued the opinion we asked the judge to give to the jury as instructions on the law regarding trespass on public property.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Showing the Truth. Barack Obama & Abortion. First-hand Observations of the Obama Rally, Asheville, North Carolina, October 5,2008
[Note: this article has not been edited or proofread.]
My wife and children and several family friends made apple cider this day—about 20 gallons, from the family orchard. I wanted to do this myself, but thought it important to make the sacrifice. Having a strong family as a foundation gives me strength, even when we are apart. Some family members would have joined me except that the cider making had already been arranged before we knew of the Obama rally.
Before I left home, I altered the two Choice signs that I had planned to take. These approximately 3.5’ by 5’ signs have the word “CHOICE” across the top in white letters on black. Below that is a large color (mostly red) photo of an aborted baby at 10 weeks of age. I printed off the letters ANG and with them covered up OIC, which of course then spelled out the theme word of Barack Obama. The signs are mounted on thick light-weight (blue) insulation board purchased at Lowe’s.
[See the Choice signs at www.abortionNo.org ]
I had originally planned to stand on the corner of Victoria and Biltmore to be at a busy intersection and away from crowds, but when I arrived at about 11:30 am, there was no car traffic, so I turned onto Victoria and drove past the Asheville High Stadium and through the campus of AB Tech. There I saw lines and line of people walking to the rally. On the other side of campus I drove up a hill to a nearly vacant parking lot. I gathered up my stuff and walked down to lines of people. The lines where incredibly long and slow moving. I set up the signs along the road in a grassy spot and stood behind the signs. I had not been there more than two minutes when someone who looked like a campaign representative approached and said to me, “You're a fxxxing freak!” I asked him if Obama approved of his language.
That’s how it went. People flinging one line zingers at me, and I usually answering a one liner back. I seldom spoke to anyone unless they spoke to me first. Here are a few samples.
“It’s inappropriate to have those signs when children are here.”
My responses: “People have brought children to a political rally, abortion is a political issue and this is the truth about abortion. Is it appropriate to bring children and make them stand six hours in the hot sun?” (There’s much more to be said about this having graphic photos where children are or may be. I had about a dozen extended conversations on this subject, one with a very irate mom. Another with a self pro-claimed “Christian pro-lifer” who used the f-word countless times in describing me and my activity.)
“Those pictures are disgusting.”
My responses: “Obama’s support for legal abortion is disgusting. What’s worse, a picture, or the reality?”
“It doesn’t even look human!”
My response, “That’s what [little] humans look like when they get chewed up.”
[The middle finger.]
My response, “Is that Obama’s International sign?” A better answer would be, “Does that mean Obama is Number One?”
“Why didn’t you bring pictures of dead Iraqi children?”
My response: “Why didn’t YOU bring them?”
“Sarah Palin gave her daughter the choice on abortion.”
My response: “Show me your documentation.”
“Do you believe in foster care?”
My response: “Yes.”
“Have you kept foster children?”
My response: “No, but my son’s finance’s family has kept about 23 foster children.”
“Well, if only you all kept 23 foster children!”
She didn’t wait for me and walked away while I said, “And one of the foster children is a crack-baby who was born very premature.”
"Those pictures are fake. They're photo-shopped. They [the babies] aren't that developed at that stage."
My response: "Look in any medical textbook. Watch the video at abortionNo.org ."
By in large the crowd was quiet and left me alone except for looking. I think some of the more radical ones were restrained by the presence of so many others. In another situation I would have been concerned about getting beat up or my signs destroyed. A lot of people took my photograph and some thought their camera was an intimidating weapon.
Obama campaign volunteers worked the lines of people, making sure that they had contact information from every person. They had some kind of “ticket” with a tear off stub that one was supposed to fill out and turn in. One campaign worker loudly encouraged everyone to “Vote Early” so as to leave more room for the throngs of voters on election day. One campaign worker approached and said, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here. The Obama people have rented the entire campus of AB Tech.” I made sure he knew that I was recording him. He left and we heard nothing about this again.
Conversations are the most interesting part of being a sign holder. One young woman came up to me and looked over one of the posters. She told me then that she had given birth to a baby but it died at five weeks (after the birth) of SID’s. She said that the doctors had done an exhaustive autopsy and could not find a reason for the baby dying. I told her that this was very sad. She said that all of her female friends had gotten pregnant at about the same time and all of them but her had aborted. She said that she was glad that she gave birth, and was a mom, though the outcome was a bitter irony. I told her that at least she had a clear conscience. Later on she approached me to ask about illegal abortion.
One woman in her late 40’s came up to talk about war and peace. She said she was against all violence. She was not angry at me or hateful as many peaceniks were that day, but we talked about many things, including the poetry of Wendell Berry.
A close relative of the publisher of a large national news magazine came up to talk. At that moment a woman passed and said, “What about dead babies in Iraq?” After she had moved on the relative said that his/her own spouse was in Iraq at the moment covering news. He/she told me that discussion in the lines waiting to go into the rally was all about the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court in this election.
A woman with a homemade “Patriot for Obama” sign stood next to me for a few minutes. A guy with a “JoeSixPack for Obama” passed by in the line.
“It’s a baby. When they don’t want it, they kill it.” -African-American Grandma to three young children.
It was amazing to hear the difference in reaction between “blacks” and “whites”. Blacks were pretty matter-of-fact about abortion and didn’t say rude things to me. Two black men came up once and the younger took some pictures of me. He said, “This is great” and he wasn’t sarcastic. I noticed joy and quiet confidence in him, not cockiness, and I asked, “Are you a preacher?” He said he was and his father with him, the older man, was too. Many blacks support Obama because he is mixed race, but they differ with him on abortion.
Many people with children passed by and most of the children did not notice the signs, and if they did, some asked, “What’s that?” One African-American parent said to me, “You tell them.” And I answered. “An aborted baby. It’s sad.”
“People didn’t come here to support Obama. They came because they love him.” -A 30-some woman to her companions.
This plays into the messianic/worship quality of his support. It was a little creepy hearing the large crowd yell and scream for him. It reminded me some of the film, “Triumph of the Will,” the Nazi propaganda film of Hitler speaking at a Nuremburg rally in the 1930’s
“I’ll kick your political butt.” This guy was the only redneck Obama supporter I saw.
The dominant response. Quiet shock. The second most common response: Verbalized shock.
One of the Obama merchandise hawkers confronted me aggressively with this question. “Have you ever adopted any children?”
I answered, “About 15 thousand.”
“No really, how many children have you adopted?”
“15 thousand.”
“No. Be serious.”
“Seriously, 15 thousand, except their parents aborted them. Have you ever killed a child?”
“No.”
“Then…”
The guy wouldn’t listen at this point and loudly talked over me as I said, “If you haven’t killed any children, then you have no credibility representing a pro-choice position.” That's a mirror image of the pro-choice ad hominem argument that says our pro-life position is invalidated if we personally have not adopted children.”
Well, this Obama button hawker had a different spin. He yelled, “If you are holding those pictures and you have not adopted children, then YOU ARE A SATANIST!!!” And then he stormed away. He never gave me a chance to explain how in the past 20 years, approximately 15,000 pre-born children passed me as they were carried into an abortion building. In a spiritual sense, I had adopted them as I plead for their lives to be spared.
I was amazed at how many hawkers and Obama merchandise dealers there were. Some walked around with large cards, others pulled wagons, some had set up tents. I was grateful that some had water for sale and I bought two bottles and was given a third by Eddie. I told the vendors, “Water is the best thing you have for sale here.” Apparently, the sellers follow Obama’s campaign appearances and sell bumperstickers, T-shirts, buttons, caps and so on. Clearly, Obama has star quality. I asked one vendor if he was with the Obama campaign or if he was only a private entrepreneur. He said that he and a couple of his buddies take stuff around the country to sell and they all search the internet to see where Obama will be next. Kind of like the String Cheese band groupies. I wonder if you could buy Obama gear at Wal-Mart? One vendor was near me and the signs and politely asked me to move because, “Those pictures are killing my business. I’m just trying to provide for my family.” I moved away. It didn’t cost me anything.
When the crowds thinned away, I left. I walked to my van, put the signs away and sat in the shade until the road was clear.
Closing reflections. If the presence of two signs “killed” the vendor’s Obama merchandise business, just think of what 200 such signs would do to an Obama rally. One passing person commented to me that I was “raining on our parade.” To use a Sarah Palin expression, “You’re darn right.” People came to the Obama rally for fun and sunshine, and to see a celebrity. Well, this is politics and politics is a dirty business, especially when their candidate supports the legal killing of children in the womb. These pictures of an aborted baby are not my pictures. They are, in essence, the pictures of our abortionist friend from Virginia and the Democratic Party and Barack Obama. It is true what many critics said at the rally that John McCain and Sarah Palin will do little about abortion. Except that little is something and it’s better than ensuring that abortion remains legal forever, as is Obama’s intention. I look forward to seeing the Palin family live out their pro-life values before the world, with her as Vice-President and later as the elected President of the United States, if that is to be.
My wife and children and several family friends made apple cider this day—about 20 gallons, from the family orchard. I wanted to do this myself, but thought it important to make the sacrifice. Having a strong family as a foundation gives me strength, even when we are apart. Some family members would have joined me except that the cider making had already been arranged before we knew of the Obama rally.
Before I left home, I altered the two Choice signs that I had planned to take. These approximately 3.5’ by 5’ signs have the word “CHOICE” across the top in white letters on black. Below that is a large color (mostly red) photo of an aborted baby at 10 weeks of age. I printed off the letters ANG and with them covered up OIC, which of course then spelled out the theme word of Barack Obama. The signs are mounted on thick light-weight (blue) insulation board purchased at Lowe’s.
[See the Choice signs at www.abortionNo.org ]
I had originally planned to stand on the corner of Victoria and Biltmore to be at a busy intersection and away from crowds, but when I arrived at about 11:30 am, there was no car traffic, so I turned onto Victoria and drove past the Asheville High Stadium and through the campus of AB Tech. There I saw lines and line of people walking to the rally. On the other side of campus I drove up a hill to a nearly vacant parking lot. I gathered up my stuff and walked down to lines of people. The lines where incredibly long and slow moving. I set up the signs along the road in a grassy spot and stood behind the signs. I had not been there more than two minutes when someone who looked like a campaign representative approached and said to me, “You're a fxxxing freak!” I asked him if Obama approved of his language.
That’s how it went. People flinging one line zingers at me, and I usually answering a one liner back. I seldom spoke to anyone unless they spoke to me first. Here are a few samples.
“It’s inappropriate to have those signs when children are here.”
My responses: “People have brought children to a political rally, abortion is a political issue and this is the truth about abortion. Is it appropriate to bring children and make them stand six hours in the hot sun?” (There’s much more to be said about this having graphic photos where children are or may be. I had about a dozen extended conversations on this subject, one with a very irate mom. Another with a self pro-claimed “Christian pro-lifer” who used the f-word countless times in describing me and my activity.)
“Those pictures are disgusting.”
My responses: “Obama’s support for legal abortion is disgusting. What’s worse, a picture, or the reality?”
“It doesn’t even look human!”
My response, “That’s what [little] humans look like when they get chewed up.”
[The middle finger.]
My response, “Is that Obama’s International sign?” A better answer would be, “Does that mean Obama is Number One?”
“Why didn’t you bring pictures of dead Iraqi children?”
My response: “Why didn’t YOU bring them?”
“Sarah Palin gave her daughter the choice on abortion.”
My response: “Show me your documentation.”
“Do you believe in foster care?”
My response: “Yes.”
“Have you kept foster children?”
My response: “No, but my son’s finance’s family has kept about 23 foster children.”
“Well, if only you all kept 23 foster children!”
She didn’t wait for me and walked away while I said, “And one of the foster children is a crack-baby who was born very premature.”
"Those pictures are fake. They're photo-shopped. They [the babies] aren't that developed at that stage."
My response: "Look in any medical textbook. Watch the video at abortionNo.org ."
By in large the crowd was quiet and left me alone except for looking. I think some of the more radical ones were restrained by the presence of so many others. In another situation I would have been concerned about getting beat up or my signs destroyed. A lot of people took my photograph and some thought their camera was an intimidating weapon.
Obama campaign volunteers worked the lines of people, making sure that they had contact information from every person. They had some kind of “ticket” with a tear off stub that one was supposed to fill out and turn in. One campaign worker loudly encouraged everyone to “Vote Early” so as to leave more room for the throngs of voters on election day. One campaign worker approached and said, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here. The Obama people have rented the entire campus of AB Tech.” I made sure he knew that I was recording him. He left and we heard nothing about this again.
Conversations are the most interesting part of being a sign holder. One young woman came up to me and looked over one of the posters. She told me then that she had given birth to a baby but it died at five weeks (after the birth) of SID’s. She said that the doctors had done an exhaustive autopsy and could not find a reason for the baby dying. I told her that this was very sad. She said that all of her female friends had gotten pregnant at about the same time and all of them but her had aborted. She said that she was glad that she gave birth, and was a mom, though the outcome was a bitter irony. I told her that at least she had a clear conscience. Later on she approached me to ask about illegal abortion.
One woman in her late 40’s came up to talk about war and peace. She said she was against all violence. She was not angry at me or hateful as many peaceniks were that day, but we talked about many things, including the poetry of Wendell Berry.
A close relative of the publisher of a large national news magazine came up to talk. At that moment a woman passed and said, “What about dead babies in Iraq?” After she had moved on the relative said that his/her own spouse was in Iraq at the moment covering news. He/she told me that discussion in the lines waiting to go into the rally was all about the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court in this election.
A woman with a homemade “Patriot for Obama” sign stood next to me for a few minutes. A guy with a “JoeSixPack for Obama” passed by in the line.
A mom brought her middle-school aged boy up to me to show off his nursery song with words the names of U.S. Presidents in order. I knew where he was headed--BO to be number 44.
One couple in their 60’s came up and they were smart alecky and belligerent in a mild way. People who were comfortable in the lives and confident, but not terribly bright. The woman trotted out the top 10 abortion-choice slogans as arguments and the man didn’t want me to take any time to give a thoughtful answer to his questions. (He took my slow pace for not having an answer at all.) Eventually, I was able to talk with the man alone and he was more reasonable. For him it came down to reducing the numbers of abortion because he was against “unnecessary surgery.” I pressed him on this, and he was not totally comfortable with that position and insisted that I was putting words into his mouth. Then he admitted that the surgery was “nasty” and I asked him to tell me why it was nasty, but he wouldn’t, so I said, “You won’t say it, but it’s nasty because it kills a baby.” Astonishingly, he then admitted then that it does kill a baby, but he said that in some circumstances that the baby was better off dead. He then launched into a heartbreaking narrative about how it would have been better if he had been aborted because his father was so abusive. The man spoke as if it had happened yesterday—his father saying that he wished he never had had any children.” I told the man, “That’s sad. But I disagree with you. I’m glad you were born.” About then he walked off, maybe tearful, exclaiming how death was better than life when life is unloved. Those are my words, not his, but his meaning.
The police didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t notice any Secret Service agents, but I wasn’t looking too hard.
Local Republican activist Eric Gorny and his daughter came by and held the signs for me while I took a break and made some photographs. (To be posted here later.) I noticed on WLOS that maybe 100 Republicans lined up along McDowell with a few McCain-Palin signs. There wasn’t much traffic. They should have come up to Victoria where I was and where all the people were. When the line at the AB Tech parking lot diminished, I moved further to the front of the line until it filed away, and then I moved close to the stadium and stayed there until after the rally.
Joe Sam Queen passed by and I called out his name to him. He nodded. He's a Democrat in the NC Legislature. I've seen his commercials
One lonely guy walked up and down with a McCain-Palin yard sign draped over his shoulder and another guy held a sign that said, “How can Obama be for Peace and Abortion?” Something like that. His sign also bore a Mercedes-Benz symbol, not a peace symbol. They’re similar. I talked with him while. His name was Eddie. He told me that a female African-American police officer said that he couldn’t talk to anybody or she would arrest him. I told him that was B.S. As we stood there (and I had my signs on their sides with the images in the middle facing each other) a man in his 60’s approached and asked if either of us were medical people. Eddie said, “No,” and they guy said that he was a doctor and couldn’t tell us how many lives of women he had saved because he “performed” an abortion for them. I’m not sure if he had done abortion because the women’s lives were in danger from pregnancy or if he spared women going to a back-alley. I wish I had taken more time to ask, but I don’t think he really wanted to talk that much. I asked the doc/abortionist his name, and he said, “That’s none of your concern.” I glanced at his cap and read the small print and asked, “Where are you from, Virginia?” He said something, a brush-off, and then I said, “I was wondering, when you abort, does the baby look like this?” and at that point I spread the posters and showed him the aborted babies. He got really hostile instantly and said, “Better that than the woman dying!” and he hustled away.“It’s a baby. When they don’t want it, they kill it.” -African-American Grandma to three young children.
It was amazing to hear the difference in reaction between “blacks” and “whites”. Blacks were pretty matter-of-fact about abortion and didn’t say rude things to me. Two black men came up once and the younger took some pictures of me. He said, “This is great” and he wasn’t sarcastic. I noticed joy and quiet confidence in him, not cockiness, and I asked, “Are you a preacher?” He said he was and his father with him, the older man, was too. Many blacks support Obama because he is mixed race, but they differ with him on abortion.
Many people with children passed by and most of the children did not notice the signs, and if they did, some asked, “What’s that?” One African-American parent said to me, “You tell them.” And I answered. “An aborted baby. It’s sad.”
“People didn’t come here to support Obama. They came because they love him.” -A 30-some woman to her companions.
This plays into the messianic/worship quality of his support. It was a little creepy hearing the large crowd yell and scream for him. It reminded me some of the film, “Triumph of the Will,” the Nazi propaganda film of Hitler speaking at a Nuremburg rally in the 1930’s
“I’ll kick your political butt.” This guy was the only redneck Obama supporter I saw.
The dominant response. Quiet shock. The second most common response: Verbalized shock.
One of the Obama merchandise hawkers confronted me aggressively with this question. “Have you ever adopted any children?”
I answered, “About 15 thousand.”
“No really, how many children have you adopted?”
“15 thousand.”
“No. Be serious.”
“Seriously, 15 thousand, except their parents aborted them. Have you ever killed a child?”
“No.”
“Then…”
The guy wouldn’t listen at this point and loudly talked over me as I said, “If you haven’t killed any children, then you have no credibility representing a pro-choice position.” That's a mirror image of the pro-choice ad hominem argument that says our pro-life position is invalidated if we personally have not adopted children.”
Well, this Obama button hawker had a different spin. He yelled, “If you are holding those pictures and you have not adopted children, then YOU ARE A SATANIST!!!” And then he stormed away. He never gave me a chance to explain how in the past 20 years, approximately 15,000 pre-born children passed me as they were carried into an abortion building. In a spiritual sense, I had adopted them as I plead for their lives to be spared.
I was amazed at how many hawkers and Obama merchandise dealers there were. Some walked around with large cards, others pulled wagons, some had set up tents. I was grateful that some had water for sale and I bought two bottles and was given a third by Eddie. I told the vendors, “Water is the best thing you have for sale here.” Apparently, the sellers follow Obama’s campaign appearances and sell bumperstickers, T-shirts, buttons, caps and so on. Clearly, Obama has star quality. I asked one vendor if he was with the Obama campaign or if he was only a private entrepreneur. He said that he and a couple of his buddies take stuff around the country to sell and they all search the internet to see where Obama will be next. Kind of like the String Cheese band groupies. I wonder if you could buy Obama gear at Wal-Mart? One vendor was near me and the signs and politely asked me to move because, “Those pictures are killing my business. I’m just trying to provide for my family.” I moved away. It didn’t cost me anything.
When the crowds thinned away, I left. I walked to my van, put the signs away and sat in the shade until the road was clear.
Closing reflections. If the presence of two signs “killed” the vendor’s Obama merchandise business, just think of what 200 such signs would do to an Obama rally. One passing person commented to me that I was “raining on our parade.” To use a Sarah Palin expression, “You’re darn right.” People came to the Obama rally for fun and sunshine, and to see a celebrity. Well, this is politics and politics is a dirty business, especially when their candidate supports the legal killing of children in the womb. These pictures of an aborted baby are not my pictures. They are, in essence, the pictures of our abortionist friend from Virginia and the Democratic Party and Barack Obama. It is true what many critics said at the rally that John McCain and Sarah Palin will do little about abortion. Except that little is something and it’s better than ensuring that abortion remains legal forever, as is Obama’s intention. I look forward to seeing the Palin family live out their pro-life values before the world, with her as Vice-President and later as the elected President of the United States, if that is to be.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Genocide Awareness Project @ Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, April 23 & 24, 2008
At some point the pro abortion-choice protestors dropped their signs and began engaging in debate. It does look messy, however.
When the pro abortion-choice protestors moved away from where they had been standing here... we found our sign slashed with a knife.
We were there during Earth Week. Yea! While in high school I participated in the first two Earth Days. I helped organize the second one at our school. That was '70 and '71.
Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
I don't think they were serious.
Everyone here seems quite serious, however. The blonde fellow in the foreground, left of the above photo, is a professor who brought out several of his classes. I debated him for a couple minutes. I just noticed that he also is in the lower photo, watching. Maybe the crowd IS his class.
This crowd held forth for a whole afternoons. Our pro-life students did admirably under the intense heat of opposition. Aahh, the prof is in this photo too. I will say that he started off mischaracterizing us to his first class, which is what prompted my public discussion with him.
Appalachian State University
This is one of my favorite photos. At ASU the second day, in the morning when we arrived, we found no less than FOUR locks extra on the barricades. (Normally we only have one, ours.) Apparently, some students thought they could prevent us from setting up by not giving us keys or combinations. A police officer said that the black one was expensive. What a waste.
Fletcher Armstrong, SE Director of CBR is conversing in the midst of this crowd.
I have no idea what this climber's idea was.
My lovely wife, Edie, gesturing with her hands.
A Final Set of ASU Photos
These students wanted to be sure that everyone knew what a real genocide was. After learning about the film, "The Devil Came On Horseback" from them, I watched it free on Netflix. 
Above, a view from steps. 
My wife, Edie (above) wearing a skirt, talks with a student. 
Well, this stuff on this flyer is simple to refute. Click on the photo to make it larger.
So many students paused to look. It wasn't just partisans.Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Letter to the Editor, Asheville Citizen-Times: Sarah Palin, the Heir of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, by M.E. Hunt
Liberal Democrats for years have sold the idea that women in elected office can best represent women, never mind a candidate’s or official’s positions. Of course, the women that liberal Democrats champion are pro abortion-choice and now that John McCain selected Sarah Palin as a running mate, liberal Democrats are scrambling to un-sell their idea. They are desperate to remind us that Palin opposes legal abortion, as if this were a bad thing. And yet, contrary to the insistence of abortion-choice advocates, abortion not only kills a child in the womb, it hurts women. Because of this, unlike Obama, Biden, and Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin truly represents the best for women. She is the heir of the legacy of social reformers and early women’s suffragettes like Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) and Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902), who in their periodic journal titled “Revolution,” and elsewhere, strongly opposed abortion. Stanton believed that abortion is infanticide. In Sarah Palin, mother of five children, governor of Alaska and candidate for the Vice President of the United States, women’s true rights fighters Anthony and Stanton would find their hopes fulfilled.
[Check out the PBS documentary by Ken Burns titled, “Not for Ourselves Alone” on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/ . Click on the left hand half of the page to begin an audio/slide version of the film.]
[Check out the PBS documentary by Ken Burns titled, “Not for Ourselves Alone” on Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at www.pbs.org/stantonanthony/ . Click on the left hand half of the page to begin an audio/slide version of the film.]
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Donald Miller & Barack Obama
Donald Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” and “Searching for God Knows What” apparently has endorsed Barack Obama. What follows are two entries that I posted on Miller’s official blogsite at http://donmilleris.com/ .
Entry One
When I heard that an evangelical [writer] named Donald Miller supported Barack Obama for president, I thought I had seen that name before and, sure enough, a well-worn book titled, “Searching for God Knows What” sat on my wife’s bedside table with a bookmark tucked in the middle. So, I checked to confirm the Obama story and found this blog. In the past few minutes I have leafed through the book, which up until now, had only been a familiar cover. What I have seen so far… supporting Barack Obama, who supports the legal killing of children in the womb, says that Donald Miller is at a minimum, a greatly confused man, and because of his extensive influence, a harmful man. He seems to represent an over-introspective, self-absorptive, emasculated Christianity. Quite likely I will be chucking the book into the trash. I can only think of two other books that have been on our home that merited this treatment: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Lolita was simply pornographic. Jude portrays simply unremitting despair. And Donald Miller represents, simply, longstanding accommodation, to evil, an accommodation bred from de-sensitation to killing in the womb and the decline of our culture. And since I wrote the above, I have learned that Miller gave a benediction at the Democratic National Convention and he is on some kind of faith tour with Obama which suggests that, even worse, he engages in foolish collaboration.
Note: I am not a Republican.
Entry Two
Donald Miller is greatly confused about politics and especially about the politics of abortion, and being so he actually joined forces with those who are maintaining the legality of abortion! He doesn’t realize that the idea of “reducing the number of abortions” is a propaganda ploy to suck in the gullible. The “information” that abortion somehow decreased under Clinton and increased under Bush is, as he said, only a slice of the pie, if it is true, which I doubt, since I have heard committed pro abortion-choice people say the same thing. In the long-term, there are multiple policies which influence whether or not people kill their offspring, and Republican ideas, generally, conform to the most important policy, or rather principle, that human life begins at fertilization and that human beings bear the image of the Creator. Also, it is does not follow logically that because McCain/Palin (or Republicans) will not, supposedly, reduce abortion, that one must support Obama who, supposedly, will reduce abortion. A wiser man than Donald Miller would at least not become a pawn of the Democrats. Or, if he were uncertain about the Republicans, he would abstain from politics. The liberal Democrat and abortion-choice strategy is to foster an impression that they will reduce abortion (and the “need” for abortion) while making certain that abortion remains an absolutely fixed component of our culture forever. Democrats like Obama will ensure through the courts (by judicial appointments) that our laws will never change. Politics is messy, but truth is clear. The truth is that Barack Obama, because of his support for the killing of children in the womb is disqualified to be President of the United States. But, perhaps Mr. Miller can support Obama because he does not really understand abortion. Look at the website www.abortionNo.org before you vote.
Miller is not so much a problem in himself. He is a product and an expression of a Church that has accommodated the killing of abortion for so long that it has adjusted its theology to make Christians feel comfortable. Rather than pay the price required to end the killing and transform our culture, we have just changed our perspective to “do what’s possible.” Our nation knew the price it would take to save civilization back in the 1940’s when we put an end to Nazi ambitions to conquer the world and annihilate all Jewish people. We defeated the Germans. People gave their lives. Behind the lines, people rescued Jews. Miller himself, in the one short passage I have (today) read in one of his books, "Searching for God..." said that he would participate in effort to kill Hitler. Many other people feel/felt the same way. One was a German officer who, when he was on the eastern front, saw lines of naked Jewish people lined up a the edge of a pit to be shot. (I saw this story on a PBS special.) He was so angry that he wanted to grab a machine gun and begin shooting his fellow soldiers, but he realized that he would only be killed immediately and not save anyone. But that’s when he joined a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, which as we know, failed. Years later, that German officer realized that there was a higher way in the face of such evil as the Holocaust. He realized that the only human way to respond to the horrible slaughter that he saw in Russia or Poland was to take off his clothes and get into the line. That is Christ’s way, and of course, practically no one is doing this now regarding abortion. No wonder the Republicans can do little in the political realm—they lack the example in the spiritual/human realm. The Democrat Party and Barack Obama are so far out of line on the murdering of children in the womb, that the only Christian political response to them is to consign them to defeat.
Entry One
When I heard that an evangelical [writer] named Donald Miller supported Barack Obama for president, I thought I had seen that name before and, sure enough, a well-worn book titled, “Searching for God Knows What” sat on my wife’s bedside table with a bookmark tucked in the middle. So, I checked to confirm the Obama story and found this blog. In the past few minutes I have leafed through the book, which up until now, had only been a familiar cover. What I have seen so far… supporting Barack Obama, who supports the legal killing of children in the womb, says that Donald Miller is at a minimum, a greatly confused man, and because of his extensive influence, a harmful man. He seems to represent an over-introspective, self-absorptive, emasculated Christianity. Quite likely I will be chucking the book into the trash. I can only think of two other books that have been on our home that merited this treatment: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Lolita was simply pornographic. Jude portrays simply unremitting despair. And Donald Miller represents, simply, longstanding accommodation, to evil, an accommodation bred from de-sensitation to killing in the womb and the decline of our culture. And since I wrote the above, I have learned that Miller gave a benediction at the Democratic National Convention and he is on some kind of faith tour with Obama which suggests that, even worse, he engages in foolish collaboration.
Note: I am not a Republican.
Entry Two
Donald Miller is greatly confused about politics and especially about the politics of abortion, and being so he actually joined forces with those who are maintaining the legality of abortion! He doesn’t realize that the idea of “reducing the number of abortions” is a propaganda ploy to suck in the gullible. The “information” that abortion somehow decreased under Clinton and increased under Bush is, as he said, only a slice of the pie, if it is true, which I doubt, since I have heard committed pro abortion-choice people say the same thing. In the long-term, there are multiple policies which influence whether or not people kill their offspring, and Republican ideas, generally, conform to the most important policy, or rather principle, that human life begins at fertilization and that human beings bear the image of the Creator. Also, it is does not follow logically that because McCain/Palin (or Republicans) will not, supposedly, reduce abortion, that one must support Obama who, supposedly, will reduce abortion. A wiser man than Donald Miller would at least not become a pawn of the Democrats. Or, if he were uncertain about the Republicans, he would abstain from politics. The liberal Democrat and abortion-choice strategy is to foster an impression that they will reduce abortion (and the “need” for abortion) while making certain that abortion remains an absolutely fixed component of our culture forever. Democrats like Obama will ensure through the courts (by judicial appointments) that our laws will never change. Politics is messy, but truth is clear. The truth is that Barack Obama, because of his support for the killing of children in the womb is disqualified to be President of the United States. But, perhaps Mr. Miller can support Obama because he does not really understand abortion. Look at the website www.abortionNo.org before you vote.
Miller is not so much a problem in himself. He is a product and an expression of a Church that has accommodated the killing of abortion for so long that it has adjusted its theology to make Christians feel comfortable. Rather than pay the price required to end the killing and transform our culture, we have just changed our perspective to “do what’s possible.” Our nation knew the price it would take to save civilization back in the 1940’s when we put an end to Nazi ambitions to conquer the world and annihilate all Jewish people. We defeated the Germans. People gave their lives. Behind the lines, people rescued Jews. Miller himself, in the one short passage I have (today) read in one of his books, "Searching for God..." said that he would participate in effort to kill Hitler. Many other people feel/felt the same way. One was a German officer who, when he was on the eastern front, saw lines of naked Jewish people lined up a the edge of a pit to be shot. (I saw this story on a PBS special.) He was so angry that he wanted to grab a machine gun and begin shooting his fellow soldiers, but he realized that he would only be killed immediately and not save anyone. But that’s when he joined a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, which as we know, failed. Years later, that German officer realized that there was a higher way in the face of such evil as the Holocaust. He realized that the only human way to respond to the horrible slaughter that he saw in Russia or Poland was to take off his clothes and get into the line. That is Christ’s way, and of course, practically no one is doing this now regarding abortion. No wonder the Republicans can do little in the political realm—they lack the example in the spiritual/human realm. The Democrat Party and Barack Obama are so far out of line on the murdering of children in the womb, that the only Christian political response to them is to consign them to defeat.
Monday, September 22, 2008
The Genocide Awareness Project @ Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, April 4, 2008
These TU students set up their educational notification early and soon afterwards, wind and rain took the brown paper banners down.
Dr. Fletcher Armstrong, SE Director of the Center for Bio-ethical Reform, talks with a TU student.Notes on TU GAP of April 4, 2008
Transylvania University ( TU) is the first private campus I have been on . Since we were there by the indulgence of the U and not necessarily under the First Amendment, we took pains to be on our best behavior.
That week was wet much of the time and the one day, a Friday, on TU was no exception. The day was warm and not terribly rainy, but windy. Due to the smallness of the campus and weather conditions, we set up eight signs instead of the full compliment of 17. This did not compromise our effectiveness.
Some TU students organized an impromptu protest. I photographed them before the wind took its toll. A small gathering formed about midday, and by the end of the day, most individuals in it had moved to the display to observe and discuss. Frequently, students and some profs gathered to debate with us. The discussion was often intense and on a relatively sophisticated level.
Three Conversations: Early after the display set-up was complete, two professors appeared nearly at once. Professor One is “Chair, Division of Social Sciences; Professor Of History.” Initially, without words from me, he began bellowing as loudly as possible a foot from my face that our display was an outrage. He was extremely loud, and I do not wish to understate this, except that it lasted only a few seconds. I remained calm and asked him if any of his relatives had died in the Holocaust. He said, “Maybe” in a way that suggested that he did not know, or that maybe he did not wish to tell me. At some point he said that he taught a course on the Holocaust and I asked him for a course outline. He said that I couldn’t possibly understand what he was telling me, because I was “a blank wall.”
Professor Two said she taught in the Psychology Department. She insisted that no medical textbook said that an individual human life began at fertilization. I asked her to bring me a medical text, and she returned with a Developmental Psychology book that referred to the entity soon after fertilization as an “organism” I asked, what kind of organism? “Not a plant or animal, but human,” I said. I said that her text did not deny that human life began at fertilization, but was simply unclear. And then I showed her the text we carry with GAP, the page with a chart headed “prenatal human development” that indicates fertilization as the beginning. Somehow she did not understand this and did not really know what “prenatal” meant and said that she was “disappointed” that I could not discuss “responsibly.”
The History professor returned later with his course outline and we talked further. His main point then was that he questioned whether or not the victims of the Holocaust and the other atrocities would support the use of their photographs. To show him I wasn't’ a blank wall, I said, “When Schindler’s List came out, I read the book before the release of the film. And whenever I heard the music from the film, I cried.” He said quickly, as if he were sarcastic, “I’m touched.” When I told him that I could learn from him, he said that I would misuse the learning. When I returned home after GAP I sent him an e-mail. (See post below. Note that the prof never answered my e-mail.)
Conversation Three was with a Philosophy/History student. This was challenging because of the intelligence of the student, my fatigue at the end of the day at the end of the week, and because we spoke fast and furious, though civil. The student was more open minded than the profs and we were able to interject some humor, except he gave me a fake e-mail address after saying it was real, which leads me to doubt his sincerity. His main point was that an act is evil solely to the degree it inflicts suffering. I said that an act can be evil even if no one suffers, for example, abortion is evil because it robs a human being of life, though no evident suffering occurs.
That week was wet much of the time and the one day, a Friday, on TU was no exception. The day was warm and not terribly rainy, but windy. Due to the smallness of the campus and weather conditions, we set up eight signs instead of the full compliment of 17. This did not compromise our effectiveness.
Some TU students organized an impromptu protest. I photographed them before the wind took its toll. A small gathering formed about midday, and by the end of the day, most individuals in it had moved to the display to observe and discuss. Frequently, students and some profs gathered to debate with us. The discussion was often intense and on a relatively sophisticated level.
Three Conversations: Early after the display set-up was complete, two professors appeared nearly at once. Professor One is “Chair, Division of Social Sciences; Professor Of History.” Initially, without words from me, he began bellowing as loudly as possible a foot from my face that our display was an outrage. He was extremely loud, and I do not wish to understate this, except that it lasted only a few seconds. I remained calm and asked him if any of his relatives had died in the Holocaust. He said, “Maybe” in a way that suggested that he did not know, or that maybe he did not wish to tell me. At some point he said that he taught a course on the Holocaust and I asked him for a course outline. He said that I couldn’t possibly understand what he was telling me, because I was “a blank wall.”
Professor Two said she taught in the Psychology Department. She insisted that no medical textbook said that an individual human life began at fertilization. I asked her to bring me a medical text, and she returned with a Developmental Psychology book that referred to the entity soon after fertilization as an “organism” I asked, what kind of organism? “Not a plant or animal, but human,” I said. I said that her text did not deny that human life began at fertilization, but was simply unclear. And then I showed her the text we carry with GAP, the page with a chart headed “prenatal human development” that indicates fertilization as the beginning. Somehow she did not understand this and did not really know what “prenatal” meant and said that she was “disappointed” that I could not discuss “responsibly.”
The History professor returned later with his course outline and we talked further. His main point then was that he questioned whether or not the victims of the Holocaust and the other atrocities would support the use of their photographs. To show him I wasn't’ a blank wall, I said, “When Schindler’s List came out, I read the book before the release of the film. And whenever I heard the music from the film, I cried.” He said quickly, as if he were sarcastic, “I’m touched.” When I told him that I could learn from him, he said that I would misuse the learning. When I returned home after GAP I sent him an e-mail. (See post below. Note that the prof never answered my e-mail.)
Conversation Three was with a Philosophy/History student. This was challenging because of the intelligence of the student, my fatigue at the end of the day at the end of the week, and because we spoke fast and furious, though civil. The student was more open minded than the profs and we were able to interject some humor, except he gave me a fake e-mail address after saying it was real, which leads me to doubt his sincerity. His main point was that an act is evil solely to the degree it inflicts suffering. I said that an act can be evil even if no one suffers, for example, abortion is evil because it robs a human being of life, though no evident suffering occurs.
The e-mail to a Transy Professor
Dear Dr. S... ,
Thank you again for the course outline you gave me on Friday. Some of the books and films are new to me and I will add them to my To Do list. One of my recent interests in Holocaust study is the partisans of Vilna.
I noted your work on Soviet guerillas of World War II. This is a subject I've never thought of before and it seems that Stalin’s treatment of them fits a familiar pattern—though not as extreme as how the Soviets regarded Red Army POW’s. My most recent venture into Soviet History was reading Anne Applebaum’s book, Gulag. A more or less hero of mine is Natan Shcharansky.
In conversation with you, I mentioned the PBS documentary “Memory of the Camps.” It’s an amazing film created from footage taken by allied forces during the liberation of the death camps. A script was composed for the film after the war but the project was never completed until 1985. Here’s a link to the site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/ . Perhaps it can be a resource for your students.
I will hazard here to quote the concluding words of this documentary as an explanation for the use of the images in our Genocide Awareness Project.
“The dead have been buried; it remains for us to care for these, the living. It remains for us to hope that Germans may help to mend what they have broken, and cleanse what they have befouled. Thousands of German people were made to see for themselves, to bury the dead, to file past the victims. This was the end of the journey they had so confidently begun in 1933. Twelve years? No, in terms of barbarity and brutality they had traveled backwards for 12 thousand years. Unless the world learns the lesson these pictures teach, night will fall, but by God’s grace, we who live, will learn.”
Sincerely,
Meredith Eugene Hunt
Asheville, North Carolina
828-545-2284
April 7, 2008
Thank you again for the course outline you gave me on Friday. Some of the books and films are new to me and I will add them to my To Do list. One of my recent interests in Holocaust study is the partisans of Vilna.
I noted your work on Soviet guerillas of World War II. This is a subject I've never thought of before and it seems that Stalin’s treatment of them fits a familiar pattern—though not as extreme as how the Soviets regarded Red Army POW’s. My most recent venture into Soviet History was reading Anne Applebaum’s book, Gulag. A more or less hero of mine is Natan Shcharansky.
In conversation with you, I mentioned the PBS documentary “Memory of the Camps.” It’s an amazing film created from footage taken by allied forces during the liberation of the death camps. A script was composed for the film after the war but the project was never completed until 1985. Here’s a link to the site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/camp/ . Perhaps it can be a resource for your students.
I will hazard here to quote the concluding words of this documentary as an explanation for the use of the images in our Genocide Awareness Project.
“The dead have been buried; it remains for us to care for these, the living. It remains for us to hope that Germans may help to mend what they have broken, and cleanse what they have befouled. Thousands of German people were made to see for themselves, to bury the dead, to file past the victims. This was the end of the journey they had so confidently begun in 1933. Twelve years? No, in terms of barbarity and brutality they had traveled backwards for 12 thousand years. Unless the world learns the lesson these pictures teach, night will fall, but by God’s grace, we who live, will learn.”
Sincerely,
Meredith Eugene Hunt
Asheville, North Carolina
828-545-2284
April 7, 2008
More GAP at TU Photos
These Transylvania University Students, above, discuss the Genocide Awareness Project among themselves. Below, another group talks with CBR-SE Director, Dr. Fletcher Armstrong (in the red cap).
Rebecca, a CBR volunteer from Nebraska, and other CBR volunteers, talk at length with TU students.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Pro-Choice @ U of K
The girl in red is proudly pro-choice, though that attitute seems grotesquely out of place in front of the images of aborted children. After this student did her interveiw for these media students, I followed with an interview.
Rain at U of K GAP
The student on the right in the above photo engaged us in loud debate for quite some time, and then when he left the scene, he tipped over a set of our auxillary signs--one a warning sign and the other giving a Post Abortion counseling telephone number. When I called out to him he turned around, and I said, "Come back and set these up!" He replied, "I don't want to!"
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