"Random Act of Kindness of Some Basic Life Essentials"

From the November newsletter:

Last Friday during the long morning, I took a “bathroom break”.  A short block away from Planned Parenthood is some vacant, overgrown property that affords adequate privacy.  It’s the sort of place where homeless people sometimes pass by.  Hanging on a gate was a nice, green, nylon bag, obviously heavy with goods.  Pinned to the top of the bag was a note on white paper.  The note read, “Random act of kindness and useful necessities.  Take or share, if needed.”  My first thought was to take it—I’m an opportunist and our family economics often require us to take advantage of small gains, but then I realized how stupid this was.  I didn’t need what was in the bag and someone else might.  I walked away happy that other people were doing

what we prolifers are also attempting in an out-of-the-way and inconvenient place—offering random acts of kindness and useful necessities to try to save the lives of children.  The difference is when I returned later with a camera to take a photo of the bag, it was gone, but few people welcome the random acts we offer.

Thanks so much for your support. It is needed.  We can’t give up.

UPDATE: That was a week ago.  Last weekend I found another green bag in a new location, and this time I was able to get pictures.  I had mis-remembered the words of the note.  The headline of the blog post contains the right words.  This time I looked inside the bag to see if I might learn who is doing this project.  There was no identifying information. The bag contained a stocking hat, gloves, a scarf, some soap, wipes, a hand warmer, a few snacks, a couple other things, and a bottle of water.  I left the bag as I found it.

The last photo here is not of Planned Parenthood, but a little place called Biscuit Head along Biltmore Avenue that we see every time we leave PP.  There's always a long line.  It seems so strange in this out-of-the-way place.  People standing in line in a parking lot.  I spoke with a couple from Missouri that was eating biscuits from a box off the back of their car. They had driven all the way from western Kentucky to visit Asheville for the weekend. They said it was faster ordering food here by take out.  The wait was an hour, they said.  I told them where they could go for a nice nearby hike to some cliffs along the Blue Ridge Parkway.  

In the other side of this building is an office for TranzMission.  And we wonder why things seem to be changing so fast. They have money.  There's an organization. 

Become a Patron

[Note: I just moved this article from www.chaoticterrinpress.blogspot.com this morning.  The original posting was on 7/10/17.]

This below is what I posted on Patreon yesterday.  The idea is to invite a friendly audience of vehicular passersby to support us and my writing.

    You may have seen me “protesting” in front of Planned Parenthood’s abortion site on McDowell Street in Asheville, North Carolina. Maybe you gave a friendly honk and a thumbs up. (Thanks!)  Or maybe you flipped us the bird and shouted a degrading insult or obscenity. Or maybe you saw an advertisement somewhere for Chaotic Terrain Press. Whoever you are and however you got here, Welcome!

    My friends call me Mick and everyone else knows me as Meredith Eugene Hunt.

    The word “protest” doesn’t really capture what we are trying to do out there. Our signs that say “Let Your Baby Live, We Will Help” express the essence of our intention. Because we are in a public place, there is an element of protest, but that’s not at the heart of what we do. Our first audience is people who come for abortion. 

In nearly 30 years of anti-abortion work I’ve gone through a number of stages, including a decade of informally debating the subject of abortion on university campuses all over the southeast U.S. and elsewhere. At some point I got tired of debate. I won’t go into the why of it right now, except to say that debate has its limits because people erect barriers to reason. Everyone does. Logic breaks down into determined fallacy or else it’s built on weak, immutable presuppositions. Then there’s simply raw emotion. This is part of why I started writing stories in year 2000.

    I’ve published a three-part novel titled Universal Man (Graceful Runner, The Chinook Assembly and Then, a Soldier) and also I’ve published 26 short stories in a collection titled When Earth Whispers & Other Mostly Speculative Tales. I’ve written on my Chaotic Terrain Press blog what these stories and the novel are about. Abortion is a factor in several of them. The connection may seem to be obscure, but only when viewed on the surface. Look deeper. Think of the implications of, for example, physics running backward for your husband or wife and then read “Ships Passing in the Night: Romance and Marriage Between Lovers from Anti-synchronous Worlds” that I wrote for the Mad Scientist Journal. 

    You can read all 26 stories totally for free on my blog. Patreon is a way you can support my writing work. Or you can buy the books. And I need reviews: Good, bad, and even ugly. If the second and third option, expect a rebuttal, maybe. Or another story. Or silence. (Or a revision.) If you appreciate one of the short stories, try a long story—the novel. You can buy an electronic version cheap to read on your computer. I’ve taken almost all the photographs in the novel and those that accompany the short stories. The e-versions have the pictures in color.

    We endure a lot of verbal abuse on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood. It’s a fish bowl out there. We have a narrow sidewalk, dangerous, noisy traffic, and hostility on all sides. But, we have passersby who are friends, too. Once in a while someone will stop and give us a little cash money, and when that happened yesterday (7/7/2017), I thought maybe others would support us if it were easier and convenient. Hence, here we are on Patreon. The stories help you get to know me and us better. They are what I have to say. I hope they’re fun. They might lead you to think in a new way. They might even, perhaps, lead you to join us to a degree you haven’t before now.

    I’ve put together a plan for monthly Patreon patrons to receive various free books, and I’ll also post some special things here, like working chapters of a novel in progress. Or sketches from unfinished short stories. Or my frog fishing story from junior high. (About shipping books internationally, I can only do this when Amazon permits.)

    Patreon suggests accompanying this text with a video introduction. I have posted such a two minute video HERE, but it’s not what you might expect. Like everyone else, I want to think about what’s beautiful or just entertaining. Maybe after 30 years of thinking about death, blood, and baby body parts, I’m more escapist than most people. Check out my other videos on my YouTube channel, UniversalDirt, especially the monarch butterfly ones. There’s a connection to abortion there, too. But I’ll leave you to work it out for yourself.

Happy traveling!*

    (P.S. If you feel like arguing with me, first read the two pro-life apologetics books by Francis J. Beckwith, then perhaps we’ll talk. If you’re thinking of attacking me, then read a couple stories first. Try “Attack of the Gravid Amazons.” It’s thought provoking. Remember, anyone can read the short stories for free at the Chaotic Terrain Press blog.)

*A reference to my ascending "reward" tiers Friendly Passerby, Kindred Spirit, Fellow Traveler, Trail Runner, Through Hiker, Wilderness Trekker, and Himalayan Climber.
  

To become a patron, go HERE.  Thanks!

Perspective

Three young Jewish women converse at a mass demonstration in Hyde Park 

to protest against the Nazi persecution of German Jewry.* 1933  USHMM

I've been thinking about the hatred and rage we experience when we are on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood.  Sure, lots of people give friendly honks and thumbs-up.  I appreciate those, even if the support is weak.  (It would mean more if people actually joined us.) The opposition on the other hand is emotionally fierce, and it sticks with you.

The other evening Edie and I watched the Martin Scorsese film “Silence”, based on the novel by Shusaku Endo.  I read the book years ago after seeing it on Marvin Olasky’s (editor of World News Group) essential reading list.  The story is about the horrific persecution of Christians in 15^th Century Japan.  What we go through in front of Planned Parenthood is laughable compared to what Christians endured then, and in other times and places around the world.   Still, we have time on the sidewalk to reflect on the daily bellowed “f___ yous” and up-thrusted middle fingers from passersby.  It’s not hard to interpret these as intended to be meant literally.  The ugly, vile, violent reference to what our Creator intended for human procreation is entirely consistent with the ugly, vile, violent response to the unwanted result of human procreation.  You almost view those people who do this to us as being of the same spirit of the inquisitors in medieval Japan.  I believe that if unrestrained by the law and encouraged, some of those bird flippers and shouters would attack us physically.  You see that sort of thing with the present so-called Antifa, or antifascist movement, who themselves use fascist tactics.

I don’t want to leave the impression that we are at great risk out there.  It is tense, but so far actual threats are almost non-existent.  We are able to focus on our purpose, which is reaching out to abortion bound people.

*The photograph has been cleaned up from the original, to remove specks. And cropped a little.To see the original and the documentation, go to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  I considered using this photo in my novel, but getting permission to use a high resolution image was burdensome. The photo is in the public domain.

Planned Parenthood Protest, 2-11-17

It took a while for us to figure out why
 Planned Parenthood was closed,
but their parking lot was full.
Their people had gone
 to a rally in Raleigh.

Video: "Making the BEST Anti-Abortion, Pro-Life Signs Workshop"

This video will show you how to make the BEST pro-life, anti-abortion signs.  Includes a materials and tools list, and it shows an example of the WORST pro-life sign.  Watch HERE, and leave a comment.

Video: "Women's March on Asheville"

This is a video of the so-called "Women's March on Asheville" from our location at Spruce and College, and from our point of view.  Part One.

GRACEFUL RUNNER Available TODAY!

The link to the Amazon page is HERE.

A Novel for Roe v. Wade

Part one of my contemplative thriller, Universal Man will be released in a second edition for the upcoming anniversary of the abominable Roe v. Wade. It will be available on Amazon.com on Sunday, January 22.  Graceful Runner features a preface and a handful of original black & white location photographs. The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest. Part two, The Chinook Assembly will be available on March 1, 2017 for Lent, and part three, Then a Soldier will be available for next Easter.


To read the heart of the back cover of Graceful Runner, go to the page link on the right. The first, earlier edition of the book may be found HERE at the Barnes & Noble Nook store in an electronic version.