Life Advocates

For the Record

2012-01-18T21:02:00.003-05:00

Here is a link to a TOPIX discussion that I participated in following up on an Asheville Citizen-Times editorial or letter to the editor back in mid 2007. The original article is no longer available.

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/asheville-nc/TAFP8TU52GKLMM8CP

GAP at URI

2011-11-17T20:14:00.002-05:00

Marie is a freshman at the University of Rhode Island where we set up the Genocide Awareness Project on November 7 & 8. Her shirt says "Rape Victim Pro-Life."
I also was on the GAP team at the James Madison University in Virgina during the previous week.

The Last Three Weeks

2011-09-16T18:12:00.005-04:00

During the last three weeks I've been with the Genocide Awareness Project at Liberty University, Radford University, the U of TN in Chattanooga, and the U of TN in Knoxville. The photo is from Radford. The girls left and middle are sisters from Haiti. At Liberty, GAP was modified, as we were not actually on campus but on the perimeter. Debbie, on the right, is a volunteer for the Center for Bioethical Reform that puts on GAP.

Hunt's Press Statements Reacting to the Helpful Newly Enacted 'Woman's Right to Know Act'

2011-07-28T15:48:00.008-04:00

Primary Statement
Abortion destroys an unborn child, a unique, individual human life, and this is what makes abortion difficult for women. Many pregnant women feel pressure into aborting a child by their circumstances, by parents, by the father of the baby, or by their own needs and goals They are nudged along by deceptive and incomplete counseling at the abortion centers, which stand to profit though abortion. The new law gives women every opportunity to know all the facts about abortion and how they can let their babies live. It will inform them about how they can find a better solution to their situations, even if they already have made a decision—because even after a woman walks into the clinic door, it’s not too late for her to change her mind.

Analysis
Most arguments against the Act are arguments for abortion, especially in the hard cases. If you believe abortion only eliminates a ball of cells or if the “fetus” is not fully human or not a person, you would think it bad to add “burdens” to a “simple, safe medical procedure.” But really, the bill is pro-choice. Why do “pro-choice” people oppose the bill? Maybe they’re not being honest—pro-choice may only be a useful slogan that they do not mean sincerely. Maybe the political pro-choice viewpoint really is pro-abortion. The Act occupies a morally absurd place where the State of North Carolina will make it easier for a pregnant woman to know that abortion destroys an unborn child at same time she retains the choice to destroy her unborn child, legally.

Overall Social Effect
The WRTK Act represents a transition from “abortion on demand” to “abortion under advisement” which is what some countries in Europe now have. Germany, for example, requires a three day waiting period after government specified counseling—far more intensive than the WRTK Act. Because of its past record on human rights, Germany understands the interest and role of government in protecting human life.

Arguments and Counter Arguments

There is the factor that the free standing abortion clinics in North Carolina do not provide an ordinary long-term relationship with a doctor. In Asheville, for example, at the abortion place on Orange Street, a woman does not get her own appointment. She arrives at the same time as a half dozen other women, and people are escorted inside the waiting room only after a security check. She stays four hours and leaves, maybe coming back for a checkup at a later time. Many people drive from out of town, even from out of state. An abortionist is not usually a woman’s personal doctor.

Planned Parenthood has four abortion centers in NC and all the other PP centers in NC do abortion referral. The other day, I looked at the website of PP of Central NC and when I checked to see what information it offered on abortion, it had a link to the PP Federation of America. I was amazed to see how much PPFA fudged the truth about the risks of abortion and the facts about pre-natal human development.

For example: PP says on its website, “The ball of cells develops into an embryo at the start of the sixth week.” That’s entirely misleading because the embryonic stage begins at fertilization, and a human embryo at six weeks is far more developed than a ball of cells.

Planned Parenthood’s assertions about the medical and emotional risks of abortion range from oversimplified to untrue.

This is why we need the Woman’s Right to Know Act: to protect women from the unethical, deceptive practices of Planned Parenthood and other abortion businesses in North Carolina.

A Planned Parenthood advertisement that said it aborts children up through the 20th week in three of its North Carolina clinics. The 20th week! It's murder.

One abortion place in Asheville that closed in 1998 was at the outskirts of Biltmore Village. This place was the pits. It was surrounded by RR tracks. The waiting room was a bridge over a dirty creek. It had peeling roofing material for siding. Had bars and broken windows in the back. The abortionists drove up from Tennessee or South Carolina. I remember catching Dr. James Oliver sneaking down the RR tracks to let himself in by the back gate. He was wearing a U.S. Customs hat and pretended to be RR security. He worked at a Catholic hospital in South Carolina where he had pledged to give up abortion. They had no admitting privileges in a local hospital. The local abortion doctors at “Femcare” tried to close this place down because they were seeing women in the emergency room who had been hurt there. Some of the abortion places in NC are of the same sleazy type.

It’s true that certain basic information is required to be offered, but that in no way prohibits a doctor from presenting it in ways that are appropriate to the hearer, and addressing the woman about her own personal situation.

The Woman’s Right to Know Act requires the use of all of appropriate medically accurate information and likely will reduce the “need” for abortion as women better understand their unborn children and all the resources available to them.

For (pro-abortion-choice) information on the requirements of other states, see: www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_MWPA.pdf
and www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_RFU.pdf

Americans United for Life's Investigative Report on Planned Parenthood

2011-07-20T13:48:00.003-04:00

Go to:

http://www.aul.org/aul-special-report-the-case-for-investigating-planned-parenthood/

One item from the report's Executive Summary:
"Willingness to provide women with inaccurate and misleading information. Some Planned Parenthood affiliates continually demonstrate a disregard for women’s health and safety through their willingness to provide inaccurate and misleading information regarding fetal development and about abortion’s inherent health risks."

To a Student at Shanghai American School on "Abortion as Genocide."

2011-07-20T11:56:00.004-04:00

This letter is a continuation of our correspondence. The student is writing as part of an AP Language class. It began with an essay of hers in response to one of mine and one of Cathleen Kaveny, professor of law and theology at Notre Dame.

Dear Emily,

I appreciate the tone of your discussion. You might be interested to know that one of my sons, who was 18 at the time, spent last spring semester at the City University of Hong Kong and also traveled some on the mainland of China while he was there.

The original context of the [my] essay that appeared in the Opposing Viewpoints Series was a university student newspaper where I was answering specific criticisms, which limited the scope of the points I made.

A fundamental issue surrounding abortion is personhood. One similarity between abortion and more recognized atrocities such as genocide is the denial of personhood status to human beings. I think that you will find it almost universally accepted in the scientific/medical world that an individual human life begins at fertilization. The controversy centers on the philosophical/political question of when a human being becomes a person. “Pro-life” people say that a human being at whatever stage of development is a person, while “pro-choice” people make a variety of claims but generally say that a human being does not become a full person with a legal right to life until “viabilty” or birth.

Citing possible positive outcomes does not solve the ethical issues of personhood because one could also find such outcomes for the Holocaust, as an example. The creation of the State of Israel as a sanctuary for Jewish survivors was one positive result, and as morally absurd as it sounds, the Holocaust reduced the overall instance of crime among the Jewish populations, which had a net effect on crime.

(In any case, the positive outcomes you referenced, and the research are certainly contested. See, for example, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Impact_of_Legalized_Abortion_on_Crime . )

I would like to address the other specifics that you mentioned, but time is limited, so I offer a referral to two books that represent the best pro-life apologetics I know, both by Francis J. Beckwith, a professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University. The books are: Politically Correct Death: Answering Arguments for Abortion Rights and Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice.

Both books, and editorial summaries and reviews, can be found at http://www.amazon.com/ . One item Beckwith raises is a difference between artifactual and biological development. An artifact, like a clock or a rocket, is put together piece by piece and is not functional as such until it is complete. A living being, however, begins all at once and in time its self-directed development shows us what it has been all along.

A final comment: I don’t think any word is adequate now to describe all that abortion is. “Foeticide” has as weakness the common use of the word “fetus” to dehumanize pre-natal human life. Fetus does not specifically apply to human beings, but to any mammalian species. Maybe we will just have to wait for someone like Raphel Lemkin, someone with a passionate intellectual interest in the law and in words combined with an overwhelming personal interest in the terribleness of the Holocaust, since most of his relatives were murdered. And perhaps we will have to wait for more of a consensus against abortion, since it’s not the words themselves that have power, but the weight we give to them.

WRTK Summary

2011-07-12T15:26:00.001-04:00

The NC General Assembly may soon attempt to override Governor Perdue's veto of the Woman's Right to Know Act (WRTK), HB 854. The GA needs only one additional vote in both the House and Senate. Basically, WRTK requires a 24 hour waiting period and the informed consent of a woman before “an abortion can be performed.”

Except in a medical emergency, the information that must be made available by phone or in person 24 hours in advance are:

-The name of the physician.
-Medical risks of abortion.
-Gestational age of the unborn child.
-Medical risks of carrying the child to term.
-Ultrasound images or sound of the heartbeat are available.
-If the physician has malpractice insurance.
-The location of the hospital within 30 miles that offers OB/GYN care and at which the physician has clinical privileges. If he does not, that must be made known.
-Medical assistance benefits for pre-natal care, childbirth, and neonatal care
-Public assistance benefits
-The father is liable for child support payments even if he offered to pay for abortion
-The woman has alternatives to abortion available, including adoption and keeping the baby.
-The woman has a right to view printed materials or information online that describe the unborn child and list agencies that provide alternatives to abortion.
-The woman has the right to withdraw her consent at any time before or during the abortion without the losing the right of future care and state or federal benefits.

The other significant requirement is that an ultrasound scan of the baby must be made at least four hours prior to abortion and the woman can look at the images and listen to the fetal heart tone as well as listen to a simultaneous description of the baby, if she wishes.

This is a link to the text of the ratified bill (HB 854): www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2011/Bills/House/PDF/H854v5.pdf

2011-07-02T09:10:00.001-04:00

Saturday, July 2, 2011 on Orange Street. 8:00 AM. The abortion site was closed for the 4th holiday. These flowers are next door at Catholic Social Services.

Harry Blackmun

2011-05-11T10:18:00.004-04:00

The back side of Harry Blackmun's gravestone says,
"Humility Integrity Compassion Courage." Photo taken May 2, 2011 at Arlington National Cemetary.

Cecil Bothwell

2011-05-10T19:34:00.009-04:00

Bothwell is an escort at the abortion site Femcare in Asheville. We say,
"deathscort" and "femkill." He posed for this photograph, taken in April, 2011.

GAP at Kennesaw State, November 8 & 9, 2010

2011-04-28T14:15:00.006-04:00

Some of the foot and pedal traffic.

The girl in the green jacket.

Some kind of officers.

One half of a conversation.

GAP at UTK, November 16 & 17, 2010

2011-04-28T14:01:00.003-04:00

One moment in the busy foot traffic passing the display.

Representative Susan Fisher: "Overkill"

2011-04-22T11:01:00.012-04:00

Interview with NC Representative Susan Fisher of Buncombe County

On The Morning Report with Jerri Jamison of WWNC, April 22, 2011
http://www.wwnc.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?podcast=jerriJameson

The relative section on HB 215, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, begins at about 6 minutes and 07 seconds.

Jamison: "The unborn violence act has been through both chambers, it’s now waiting for the governor’s signature. Any thought on whether or not she’s gunna sign it. Do you know?"

Fisher: “I really don’t know. Ah, but, ah . . . I just want to say that, ah, I think that is a case where we are looking at, ah, a bit of, if you will, overkill. Ah, we know that if someone is murdered by another person and you can prove that, that they’re going to be punished, and, ah, they’re gunna likely to have a very, ah, a very, stiff sentence . . . death, possibly. And this, just sort of compounds that and I think it also opens the door to looking at questions of, ah, women’s choice. I think we have to look at that in light of this legislation.”

Representative Fisher, who voted against the measure,* demonstrates how extreme the classic “pro-choice” position is. If a pregnant woman is against abortion, if she believes that what is in her womb is a person, a child, and if she is attacked either with intent to destroy the child or not, that child, from the “pro-choice” perspective, should not have a right to life, should not have a right to protection under the law. In the “pro-choice” universe, that wanted and loved child—that possibly named child, that pre-born child who can inherit property under North Carolina law—should have no legal protection whatsoever.

Fisher says that if a woman is murdered, there will be a stiff sentence, but what if the woman is only punched hard and the baby dies?

Overkill? She said overkill? Abortion is overkill. “Pro-choice” is overkill.

For the text of the ratified bill, HB 215, go to: http://www.ncleg.net/Sessions/2011/Bills/House/PDF/H215v5.pdf

*Final passage in the NC House came at a vote of 77-40. In the NC Senate it was 45-4 with our own Martin Nesbitt voting “nay” with the other three. Patsy Keever of Buncombe County also voted against the measure as did Phillip Haire of Jackson, Macon, Swain, and Haywood counties. (Do the people in those counties know this about Haire?)

The Genocide Awareness Project, University of Kentucky, April 6 & 7, 2011

2011-04-20T10:34:00.013-04:00

Notice how the students are looking, and they are probably thinking also.

Class change. Note how all heads are turned in the distant group of students on the left. (Click on any photo if you want to see a larger image.)

My role at GAP is Onsite Manager. Also, when the opportunity arises, I enjoy philosphical discussions as well as talking about the relationships between abortion and genocide. Taking photographs . . . I do that as well.

I'm not sure if this medical student understands the full message of the visuals, her with the images behind.

Another photo of traffic in this location during class changes. The images are an ongoing argument that people will remember. We are criticized, sometimes with exuberant emotion, for using "pathos" rather than reason. As those critics illustrate, emotion is important--really it is essential--for decision making. I myself first opposed abortion only after seeing gruesome images at the Clark County fair (WA State) in 1972. Later I developed a rational framework for the position and only much later I became active. The purpose of GAP is to move people a step toward being more pro-life, wherever they may be on the spectrum. Be sure to see the next two blog postings for more photos of GAP at UK.

Conversations at UK GAP

2011-04-20T09:39:00.013-04:00

Two observers who . . .

. . . came closer to talk.

This fellow walked around the display several times one afternoon. His sign said, "Quit using abortion as an insurance policy for your irresponsibility." He was not connected with the Genocide Awareness Project.

Fletcher Armstrong, SE Director of the Center for Bioethical Reform is speaking to a class.

Below: Sean, President of UK Students for Life.

PP at UK GAP

2011-04-20T08:58:00.011-04:00

Planned Parenthood had a table both days not far from the GAP display.

Also, PP and the Gay/Straight Alliance held a rally outside of the Student Center on the second day. Their crowd wasn't this large the whole time. One of their participants was a large fellow who had bellowed and cackled madly at us at the GAP display. He also bellowed and roared at the open air preacher. I suggested to the GSA girl that they try to talk him down.

Here is the open air preacher right next to the PP rally. He and the rally people often dueled with their loudspeakers. The girl with the GSA sign told us three times that she appreciated the quiet respectful tone of GAP. I pretty much agreed with everything the preacher said, but I felt that he was not communicating with his audience. On a college campus I think it is better to explain rather than proclaim.

Traffic passing the PP rally AND one of our 3x4 handheld "Choice" signs.

A Blast from the Past, As They Say

2011-04-19T10:10:00.006-04:00

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/03/13/national/main38705.shtml

Just as stories like this about the failed bomb in Asheville will never have not existed, the children who have been killed at "Femcare" over the many years will always have existed.

"Let's Call a Truce" (That is, You lose.)

2011-04-18T21:49:00.019-04:00

In response to a 4/14/11 editorial "Abortion debate is a stalemate" in the Eastern Progress, the newspaper of Eastern Kentucky University, I posted the following comment: nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn 'Neutrality between neutrality and non-neutrality is impossible. This editorial is a work of art. It begins with an appearance of neutrality, of impartially, of reasonableness, and then step by little step ends in the classic pro-abortion choice position! It's a work of art, but as a work of philosophy and rational thought, it's . . . well, it's not elegant at all. If abortion is a moral grey area; if the discussion/debate can never be settled; if we never can know when an individual human being begins, and if we as a society are not willing to live with knowingly allowing women to abort children who they consider to be unwelcome occupants of their womb, then wouldn't it be morally required to error on the side of humanity and prohibit abortion? Is it morally acceptable for a contractor to level a building if there is any chance a child is in that building? Is it enough for a workman to say, "Well, its grey . . . dark inside and I looked around, but I couldn't see too good. Some of us say there's a child inside and some say not. Let's stop bickering and bring her down. After all, the owner is the only one who can make that decision and he wants it done. The company ought to make a contribution to some historical preservation society so we don't have to blow up so many buildings." No. That would not be morally (or legally) acceptable. The demolition company must have absolute certainty that there are no children, or any people, in the building. So, if abortion indeed is grey and uncertain, shouldn't we prohibit it and take care of women another way until we know better? Because if the anti-legal-abortion people are right, if we are not just crazy, extreme kooks with a need to control women, if an individual human being (a person) begins at fertilization, then we as a society have already blown up millions upon millions of children.' nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
We were at EKU with the Genocide Awareness Project on April 4 & 5. To see the editorial, go to: http://media.www.easternprogress.com/media/storage/paper419/news/2011/04/14/Perspective/Abortion.Debate.Is.A.Stalemate-3992930.shtml

"You Are the Definition of a Sadist"

2011-03-28T11:40:00.006-04:00

An anonymous person online wrote the following about me recently: "You are a delightful example of the doublethink/doublespeak. Do you want smaller government, less oversight, more personal responsibility or do you want more legislation, more laws, larger government to enforce your personal beliefs? Which is it? What you want is an America shaped in your image and yours alone. You do not care how contradictory it is, you do not care what the population wants, you do not care what science has proven. Just admit it and recognize that your vision of America is not the only one. Roe v. Wade is the law. If you do not like abortion, I suggest you avoid it. But, claiming you want smaller government and at the same time want to make sure every pregnancy comes to term is ridiculous. It will require a hugely increased government and budget to educate, hose, feed, provide medical and help these unwanted children, not to mention the pain, suffering, sadness, hunger, abuse and desperation they will experience because of your naivety. You are the definition of a sadist, deriving personal pleasure from cruelty imposed upon others."

Submitted Today as a Letter to the Editor to the Asheville Citizen-Times

2011-03-25T14:10:00.003-04:00

French President Nicolas Sarkozy recently said:

"With our partners, especially our Arab partners, we will move to protect the civilian population from the murderous folly of a regime that, by killing its own people, has lost all legitimacy. We are intervening to allow the Libyan people to themselves choose their destiny. They cannot be deprived of their rights through violence and terror."

Our own nation is killing its own people by abortion, violence that kills pre-born children. Our government—local, state, and federal—protects the killing through police force, issues permits to kill as medical licensure, recognizes the killing to be a “constitutional right,” and supplements the funding of the largest killer in the nation, Planned Parenthood.

If Sarkozy’s moral reasoning is correct, has not our regime lost all legitimacy?

Focus on the Family & Common Ground?

2011-02-14T15:21:00.008-05:00

Submitted to the Focus FB page: Thanks for this (2/11/11) broadcast that I heard online today. However, I was disturbed by the idea of “sitting down” with pro-legal-abortion people to save what children we can this year. This is a very murky notion ethically/spiritually and should not be undertaken without careful counsel. I myself have been at the outside edge of such conversation with abortion practitioners, one that was featured in a 2007 Time magazine cover story (See www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1590444,00.html) From my perspective, there was some good that resulted from seeking “common ground,” but at terrible costs in the long run, one effect being, essentially, an abandonment by the pro-life participants of their efforts to eliminate legal abortion altogether. And they (some of them) stopped their support of those of us engaged in sidewalk counseling and prayer presence at abortion places. Our best course rather is to save those children we can, and let the abortionists and abortion supporters join us if they will.

The Chinook Assembly is Available Now

2010-12-15T10:48:00.002-05:00

Go to http://www.chaoticterrain.com/ to order.

GAP and I go to the Chicago Public Library

2010-12-13T21:49:00.009-05:00

Sort of . . .
On Saturday I was poking around the internet and found my name listed on a table of contents in several places. A table of contents, alone. That was strange. Looking further I found the reason for the listing. Greenhaven Press and several related imprints publish educational resources for schools on a wide variety of science and social issues. Unknown to me, they used an article of mine in their book, Abortion, in their Opposing Issues Series. The book was published in February, 2010. Apparently the publisher reprinted an September 2007 editorial I wrote for the Sidelines, the student newspaper of Middle Tennessee State University. My article in the book was titled, “Abortion is a Form of Genocide.” The opposing side was taken by a law professor at Notre Dame. Except for mine, the essays were written by what I might call minor luminaries, like conservative commentator Armstrong Williams, or Michael New, an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute.
While the book may be found in five branches of the Chicago Public Library, and in libraries and schools around the country, unfortunately, it does not have photos of aborted children. And it does not contain my best and most elegant arguments, which are based on etymology of gens in Latin and genos in Greek. (i.e. Fetus means offspring, progeny means offspring. Abortion is progeny-cide.) Nor does it explain that our use of photographs of aborted babies serves the same educational purpose as using pictures from the Holocaust. The book is available at www.gale.cengage.com/greenhaven/, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. $39.70, hardbound. $27.50, paper. I will ask the publisher for a complimentary copy!

Urban GAP, Market Square, Knoxville TN Friday, July 16, 2010

2010-10-25T17:18:00.011-04:00

You can see the display reflected in the window of the Tomato Head restaurant above, which by the way, held a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood a few weeks prior to our event. (Double click on a photo to make it bigger.)

A long view down the square.

Again, the display is reflected in the window.

This young man studied the display as they passed by. Several young women, not much older than this fellow, stopped to tell us that they would never abort and intended to remain virgins until marriage.

More from Urban GAP in Knoxville

2010-10-25T16:58:00.008-04:00

Three people who stopped to talk and listen.

These bricks above, including the one from the pro-abortion NOW, were near a bronze monument of three women holding picket signs advocating woman’s rights, specifically the right to vote. You might think they were protesting us, but you would be mistaken. Attached to this monument, which was not 50 yards from our display, was a plaque bearing these words: “Thanks be to God that in giving Woman the crown of motherhood He made her the giver not the taker of life. Woman has no greater claim to the rights of the ballot than that she is the producer not a destroyer of life.”
—Lizzie Crozier French (1851-1926), founder of the Knoxville Equal Suffrage Association

Some of the flowers in the square. It was sooo hot that day.

Chaotic Terrain Press

2010-09-15T22:40:00.006-04:00

Check out my new website

Chaotic Terrain Press

at www.chaoticterrain.com

2010-09-13T11:57:00.009-04:00

Help me to print Unversal Man/2. The Chinook Assembly. Thanks!

To Purchase Graceful Runner . . .

2010-09-13T11:42:00.003-04:00

If you wish to purchase, Unversal Man/1. Graceful Runner, and you are a current financial donor to Life Advocates, you may pick up a copy at my office or at the abortion site in Asheville for $5, or I can mail you a copy for $8.12. Make your check out to Life Advocates and any amount above those figures will be counted as a contribution. Thanks!

2010-08-17T11:57:00.005-04:00

Graceful Runner, the first part of my novel Universal Man will be available on the first of September. Current donors to Life Advocates will be able to purchase copies at cost plus shipping. Part two, The Chinook Assembly, will be published in November and part three, Then, A Soldier, in January. The book will not be released to the general public until all three installments are ready. More information to come!

Lorraine Cummings

2010-02-16T12:03:00.004-05:00

Pray for this person.

Hunt Family, Christmas 2009

2010-01-11T14:36:00.001-05:00

New and improved!

Excerpt from "Universal Man," a Novel

2010-01-11T14:24:00.001-05:00

Introduction

As I was lying in bed one morning, I thought about what special item I could share with you for Christmas. There are always encouraging “snippets” from sidewalk counseling and the Pregnancy Helpline, but I don’t have a big story from them to tell right now. And then it occurred to me—I have a story already. So, I decided to give you an except from my book, Universal Man. What I include here is not an exciting, action-filled scene, nor is it brilliantly crafted dialog, nor an exposition of the dramatic, world shattering plot. Instead, it is a humble, poignant letter written in the midst of all those things from a young woman, Sarah, to her brother, Stan Timmons. The story is like a Christmas story—joy and redemption within an environment of sorrow and pain, if you think of Herod’s slaughter of the innocents.

When he receives Sarah’s letter, Stan is secretly staying overnight at the home of his pastor, Fr. Murray Schmidt in Vancouver, Washington. Stan had been hiding on a Hutterite Colony near Spokane for about a year, and he has not seen his children, Maxwell and Chrysanthe, or heard any news of them, ever since a horrific government-inflicted “disaster” at the Mollicoat Estate. The Estate was the location of a retreat center in NW Oregon, and the second home of the Sterne family and home of many other people, including Stan’s parents. Stan’s wife, Mindy, is dead, but that is a whole different tale. (Her maiden name is Sterne.) As he reads Sarah’s letter, written a year earlier and kept by Fr. Schmidt, Stan has just left the friends he made on the Hutterite Colony, and he is poised to embark upon a noble and lonely mission that likely will cost him his life.

Sarah had been taking a break from packing for the Sterne family’s permanent move from their Columbia River house to the Mollicoat Estate when the disaster occurred. With her were Stan’s children; her young son, Guthrie, who Sarah conceived through rape before she was married; Kiyohira and Mutsumi, children of her husband, who had been widowed; and Stan’s youngest brothers-in-law. Luther Sterne was 14. Sarah’s husband, Bennett Uchida, had just been murdered in the disaster. As Sarah wrote, she and all the children were on their way to Newport Bay, Oregon where she expected to board a fishing boat, which was to meet a Coast Guard Cutter, which was to rendezvous with a submarine, which was to take them to a safe country. Fr. Schmidt was driving them in a church van.

[excerpt below]

news of Stan's children

2010-01-11T14:13:00.005-05:00

"August 28, 2017

Dear Stan,

I am writing as we are driving to the beach. With me are Kiyohira, Mutsumi, and Guthrie, and your Maxwell and Chrysanthe, and Luther and Mallory. Seven children, all my responsibility. They are listening to a story recording right now. They are all fine and brave. Maxwell said he is looking forward to the boat ride. When things happened here, we had to leave in a hurry. Because I know he was at home, I am certain my beloved Bennett is gone, as are many we have known, and our friends. Mom and Dad are gone, too, because they were at their apartment in the morning. I had just spoken with Mom on the phone before I left to go shopping and to the park. She had planned with Dad to plant some new tulips and daffodils today in a bed on campus for next spring.

There has been no time to grieve. That will have to wait until we can rest and let down. We will be traveling for two weeks or longer until we reach our destination. I know that I should be sorrowful, but it has not impacted me yet. My mind cannot grasp what has happened. I felt the explosion through the ground and saw the huge smoke plume rising in the southwest, and thought, ‘not a good direction’ but it did not occur to me that it actually could be what it was. The evacuation message—a total stranger walked up and gave me a note—confirmed a disaster. Later on, Murray told me his guess. I suppose he told you that when we received the warning, I started back to the Sternes’ Columbia River house right away, but I felt afraid and stopped and turned back before I got there. I remembered our evacuation training, which emphasized we should run immediately to the designated place. It is just as well, because Murray said the house was burning. I tried to call you, but my phone had stopped working.

I am doing my best to remain calm for the children and so I can make good decisions. It is not hard, and I am able to focus on each little problem as it arises. Those problems have so far been ordinary—tying shoes and feeding the children… and answering their questions. Luther has been saying that he wants to stay and join his brother Bernard, who is caving somewhere, or if he cannot find him, to fight. He wants to be a man, but this would be foolish, and I told him that he could not leave us. We do not have any extra clothes, but Murray knows a second-hand store on the coast that we can run into for a few minutes. We have ample food. I trust the people who will be helping us, and if something goes wrong, I’ll take it as it comes. I am carried on the wings of eagles.

Whatever happens, Stan, do not worry. I am afraid, but fear is only the surface of my emotions. Deep inside, I am confident. It will be hardest for you, my brother, because you might be alone. I have good company, and hope you, too, will find people that you can trust and who will help you. We have lost so much, but much remains to live for. I will take care of your dear children as if they were my own, and I will give my life for them, if necessary. They are out of your hands, so you should not worry. Maybe someday we will see each other again. I will try mailing you a postcard at Murray’s address after we are settled, if it seems wise. Thank you, Stan, for all your support and love. May the Lord protect and bless you. I will pray for you every day.

Love, Sarah

p.s. I would like to write more, but we are now outside the thrift store. I am scribbling fast so I hope you can read this. Don’t do anything your children will be ashamed of, Stan. It is important what happens to you. You are their father, and someday they will want to know how you lived and how, if it is God’s will, how you died—that you lived and died fighting for what is right. Don’t ever give up hope. There is one thing more. I said I have seven children in my care, but there are eight, because I learned a week ago… I am with child. Bennett and I have been trying ever since we were married. Now he is gone, but we have this small life we made together. It seems I am destined to not have a normal family, but I will hold up. If it is a boy, I will name him Stanley Bennett Uchida. If a girl, after your wonderful wife, Mindy. She was my best friend, and I miss her terribly. Thinking about Guthrie… Until today, how he came to be was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but he is the best blessing that I ever could have. The best from the worst. Someday we may see the murder of my husband, our parents, and friends in this light. The world means it for evil, but God intends it for good.

p.p.s. Oh, Stan, we have been frantic! Luther waited in the van while we all went into the thrift store, and when we came back out, he was gone. He left a note saying that we shouldn’t worry, because he is in God’s hands. We drove around looking for him as long as we could, but we had to leave him behind. It’s almost more than I can bear.”

from, Universal Man,
Chapter 25, “Shadows of Death,”
by Meredith Eugene Hunt, copyright 2010

Harp for Sale

2009-12-01T12:43:00.008-05:00

Call 828-298-6163 if you would like to learn more about this Dusty Strings FH-26 Maple harp.

Another GAP at UTK, October 12 & 13, 2009

2009-11-09T17:22:00.007-05:00

Kate, wearing the blue cap, is handing out GAP literature to students passing in front of the display.

Students writing their thoughts on the Free Speech Board that we put out. This is the first time we used this device and it worked well in engaging students in thinking about the display and giving us an opportunity to interact.

The Free Speech Board drew a crowd of those who wanted to talk and debate.

You can see Jane Bullington's hand as she speaks in the middle of a group of students. Jane is with the Center for Bioethical Reform, SE.

More GAP at UTK

2009-11-09T16:56:00.010-05:00

Gabrielle is the president of the pro-life student group at UTK.

Students and others (above) study the Free Speech Board.

This masked pirate above was the sole "protestor." He apparently believed that the GAP display is absurd and only an (obscene) aburdity is the appropriate response.

A red-tailed hawk carrying a live squirrel landed next to the display and cried in its piercing voice, receiving everyone's attention.

Roma, Italiana, August 15-23, 2009

2009-08-27T22:05:00.004-04:00

My brother from Berkeley treated me to a week with him in Rome.

From Hotel Leonardo Da Vinci and Neighborhood of Where We Stayed

2009-08-27T18:02:00.008-04:00

In the distance, St. Peter's Basilica. From the hotel room window.

This dome above is not St. Peter's, but of a church a couple blocks away from our apartment and later our hotel room.

Inside the Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano, Roma, Repubblica Italiana

2009-08-27T17:44:00.003-04:00

More Inside Basilica Papale di San Pietro

2009-08-27T17:19:00.006-04:00

The woman in the sculpture is giving birth. One can see the baby's happy face in a later episode.

Detail of Bernini's Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in the Piazza Navona

2009-08-27T16:59:00.004-04:00

We walked for miles morning through late night, and there was something amazing everywhere.

From Where We Stayed Most of the Week

2009-08-27T16:47:00.006-04:00

We stayed in a private apartment for all but one night. The lady who lived in the apartment was in the country with family. Our quarters were comfortable, and air conditioned, but showers were cold for some reason. We ate at restaurants and cafes.

Roman Scenes

2009-08-27T16:35:00.005-04:00

More Roman Scenes

2009-08-27T16:25:00.011-04:00

The Spanish Steps. I wish I had gotten more photos of people--close ups.

The scene overlooks the Piazza del Popolo, where massive demonstrations and protests sometimes take place. Behind me is the Villa Borghese.

From Piazza San Pietro

2009-08-27T16:01:00.002-04:00

From the Roof & Dome of Basilica Papale di San Pietro in Vaticano

2009-08-27T15:37:00.007-04:00

The Pantheon, one of my favorite places in Rome, is out there--the wide dome at lower, central right. I bought Italian perfumes for my wife and daughters one block away from the Pantheon at an herbal medicine shop. Rome is a gritty, fantastic city, and in the summer, as hot as blazes, except in the large churches and at night. At night people turn out in droves, and when the automobile and scooter traffic thins, they stroll down the middle of the streets.

This is inside the walls of the dome at St. Peter's. The camera is aligned straight up. The walls curve.

Cappella Sistina

2009-08-27T15:19:00.007-04:00

My photos from inside the Vatican Museum, including in the Sistine Chapel, were destroyed by X-ray. An Italian security officer at the airport compelled me to send my unprocessed film though the machine, and there were a lot of blanks in the negatives.

Amphitheatrum Flavium

2009-08-27T14:59:00.003-04:00

Echos of... The Gladiator.

Perspective

2009-07-28T16:00:00.001-04:00

Dozens of tourists exited the green or brown buses at the Eielson Visitor Center 66 miles deep into Denali National Park in Alaska. A group of women paused to photograph a ground squirrel that ran around on the outside sidewalks darting here and there quite close to people. Actually, the women were charmed by the squirrel, and excited. A young man walked around the Visitor Center with his camera, stalking the squirrels, possibly hoping for the perfect cute picture.

On one of the park buses rolling down the road, a tourist bellowed MOOSE, MOOSE, MOOSE upon seeing a fine bull specimen. This bus stopped at every caribou on the tundra or white specks of Dall sheep on cliffs. Another time, a dozen people on a bus jumped up and shouted WOLF! WOLF! preventing anyone else from seeing the creature cross the road and vanish into the willows. On rare instances tourists would see wolves or brown bear chasing a moose with a calf.

Another bus paused now and then for the passengers to view grizzly/brown bears—sows accompanied by a cub or cubs. One cub was digging frenetically and didn’t notice when mama moved away, and then the cub scampered after her. At the Savage River checkpoint, a lynx trotted out in view of four or five buses.

Only a tiny fraction of the thousands of visitors to Denali National Park walk far enough from the safety of a bus or a vehicle accessible campground to be on equal footing with moose, caribou, wolves, bear, wild sheep, or lynx, but you see, when security is gone, self reflection occurs.

When the lynx trots by as you rest on the ground, when you find huge fresh wolf tracks on the braided river bar, when the caribou feed during the bright summer night near your tent, when the grizzly is bearing down on your children as they filter water along a noisy stream, when there is no protection between you and the moose, when hordes of mosquitoes swarm around you, when you stand where Dall sheep stand, when the rain beats down and the wind threatens to tear your tent into shreds, and when you rise up from a green tundra bed at 2:AM to see the highest mountain in North America 25 miles away blazing clear in golden sunlight, then you can better reflect upon your purpose and position in the world. Or, you can afterwards.

And in Denali National Park some people have even more intense experiences as they ski cross country or dogsled in a 20-40 minus degree F. winter, or as they attempt to summit the mountain.

One does not necessarily need actual wilderness immersion to prompt self-reflection. Wilderness really is more time apart from routine occupations and customary comforts. Wilderness removes barriers between you and the Creator, and other experiences also can supply this condition, like fasts, true retreats, and or even tent camping and early morning walks at the beach. Civilization is a tool, but it can also be an impediment. We can be so busy maintaining our stuff, and flying around to all the fun or “necessary“ social functions, or responding to the crisis of the moment, that we have little left for reflection.
Wilderness forces reflection. Jesus spent time in the wilderness. John the Baptist was a voice crying in the wilderness.

So, what exactly can be gained or learned from “the wild” when it comes to our role in the impediment to the killing of pre-born children and its continued imbedding into our culture?

Preparation. Train for anticipated challenges, study the conditions you will meet and expect to learn as you go.

Discipline and Planning. Too much gear will hold you back. Learn to leave behind what is not needed and take only the essentials. Extra food and clothing is essential (and bug nets).

Trust. If God can take care of the amazing tundra flowers that can survive bitter winters, He will take care of you.

Focus. Accept the reality around you and deal with it. Do not indulge in denial about your situation. Be alert to needs and dangers.

Calm. When you yell at the bear, chances are it will run away. Know what to do next if it does not run away. In the wilderness, you assume certain risks.

Courage. Continue walking and your path will emerge step by step.

Humility. The universe is bigger than you feel it to be, and natural order rules. We are weaker than we feel we are.

Joy. The world is far more beautiful than anything we humans can make, and more so than we can imagine.

Perspective. We can not live long in the wilderness—it is a place only to visit. But without it, we can not live at all.

APPLICATIONS: Every so often I read the daily headlines from Lifenews.com . The stories are much the same as they have been for years, except for names and dates. With Obama in the White House we seem to be settled in for a time of little progress, and perhaps not a little regress. Unless there is an earthshaking event, I expect for no improvement in the big picture for years to come. As I scan the political horizon, there seems to be no human deliverer on the way—no one to provide the leadership we need. Yes, someone will point to Mr. Y or Ms. X who is full of promise. How many of these great people have fallen away or have not measured up? Of course, lives are in the balance every day. This is where we can focus and be fruitful. —These likely are the realities we must accept. We must continue in the routine of what is helpful and also we must wait upon new, daring, creative ideas and projects, not fearful to embark upon them when the Lord calls. Those ideas can grow out of our wilderness experience—from new perspective and courage developed by trials. Remember the proverb that says, “He who continuously stiffens his neck will suddenly be broken beyond healing.” We have seen many nations in history suffer such a fate, and ours appears to be becoming one of them. Let’s become prepared and prepare our children for great struggles. Challenge yourself by accepting new and difficult tasks that reach to the heart of the matter, but also allow time for rest and healthy, vigorous recreation.

Waiting for the Bus

2009-07-09T11:24:00.005-04:00

Wilderness

2009-07-08T20:22:00.002-04:00

The photos below are representative of our month of June, 2009 in Alaska. "Our" being of my wife Edie and boys Peter and Christopher, and me. In the July Life Advocates newsletter I will reflect upon wilderness as it relates to our work in trying to stop the killing of preborn children.

Eklutna State Park

2009-07-08T20:08:00.003-04:00

Our first and last hikes in Alaska were here in Eklutna State Park, on opposite sides of the valley.

Seward, Exit Glacier, Harding Ice Field, Miniature Dogwoods

2009-07-08T19:58:00.002-04:00

Our First Visit to Denali Park.

2009-07-08T19:01:00.005-04:00

Our best images of Denali National Park are in memory only, since we neglected to take extra camera batteries into Backcountry Unit 18, along the Muldrow Glacier and upper Glacier Creek up to a wet tundra covered mount called Green Point. Above is a camp along the gravel road at Igloo Creek. The building is a SST, or Sweet Smelling Toilet. The photo Below is of AK huskies relaxing after the sled dog demonstration.

Fairbanks. Museum of the North

2009-07-08T18:59:00.000-04:00

Our Second Visit to Denali Park

2009-07-08T18:50:00.000-04:00

Life with Four People and a Subaru Forester

2009-07-08T18:33:00.000-04:00

From Denali, to Glennallen, to Chitina

2009-07-08T17:19:00.003-04:00

Chitina, then west on the Glenn Highway

2009-07-08T17:11:00.001-04:00

Palmer, AK

2009-07-08T16:50:00.002-04:00

Final Hike

2009-07-08T16:45:00.002-04:00

Farewell to Alaska

2009-07-08T16:26:00.000-04:00

Grandchildren are a Blessing

2009-05-13T14:18:00.007-04:00

Parents of Eleanor Grace, born May 5, 2009: Arthur and Briana Hunt.

Eleanor being held in the hospital by Grandma Hunt. Briana in the background.

Uncle Christopher holding the baby at the parent's home.

Aunt Priscilla, all smiles, the same.

Beautiful child asleep.

Two Days at UNC-Charlotte

2009-05-07T14:34:00.007-04:00

A handful of us went to the University of NC-Charlotte on April 20 and 21, 2009 with images of an aborted pre-born child. Our purpose was to educate University people (students, faculty and staff) on the missing element of abortion. Also, we hoped to recruit students who will start a pro-life organization on campus.

This, Above, is a replica of a Congo-ese hut. On our first day some students were promoting Congo Awareness Day nearby. Apparently six million people have been murdered there in recent years. A young woman in a colorful African dress spit up stage blood and cried, "My baby! My baby!"

We stood around the Belk Tower facing oncoming traffic.

This, Above, represents some of the traffic.

On our first day eight people total helped on our team. On the second day we had only three, so we doubled up on signs. This, Above, is Jane Bullington of the Center for Bioethical Reform, SE Region. Their office is in Knoxville, TN.

Peggy from Atlanta talking with an interested student. April 21 was international Holocaust Remembrance Day. On the trip home from Charlotte I listened to a radio program from Davidson College (Performance Today) featuring symphonic composers who were killed in Nazi death camps. One of those was Marcel Tyberg. His music is just now being performed.

April Tulips at Our House

2009-04-24T13:54:00.002-04:00

GAP at the University of North Florida, March 25 & 26, 2009

2009-04-02T21:52:00.004-04:00

Large images of aborted children are out of focus in the distance behind this budding spring rose on the campus of the University of North Florida. Scroll down to see and read more.

University of North Florida

2009-04-02T21:09:00.014-04:00

A view from a next door building. Here we used a canopy at a GAP for the first time.

Dr. Fletcher Armstrong of the Center for Bioethical Reform spoke to a Media Literacy class the professor of which brought out to observe and write about the display.

This skateboarder took immense interest. When I was talking with a graduate biology student at length and a couple other young men, this girl approached and interupted to say that we needed a woman's perspective. We invited her to join us, but she skedaddled. The biology student said his grandparents were Holocaust survivors who knew Jacob Gens and Yitzhak Wittenberg whom I wrote about on this blog: "Resistance v. Collaboration" on August 2, 2007.

The display caught the eyes of observers, above, from a distance and those up close, below.

UNF Continued

2009-04-02T20:22:00.011-04:00

A few nuns and their friends came out to the display for a few hours. Click on any image to make it bigger.

These two (above) were the only two abortion choicers who made their thoughts known publicly. They came out for a couple hours the second day and did not have much support from other students, as far as I could observe. Note the matching colors and shapes, signs and their holders. These ladies were very concerned about me getting their faces on film. I have wondered why that just about everywhere we go, the abortionatics fear having their pictures taken.

The abortion-choice ladies stood in front of this part of the display, which explains about everything, I guess.

The Green was a gathering place for students and a few classes. As I walked by it seemed that the professor was missing an interesting educational opportunity.

Closing Shot of UNF

2009-04-02T20:01:00.005-04:00

This girl from an African nation and a graduate student in Communications was sympathetic to our pro-life display because of atrocities she knew of and had seen in her own land.

Inauguration Day!

2009-01-20T18:19:00.005-05:00

January 20, 2009 was an historic day.

What history will say about today, no one knows yet. But, if we can take Barrack Obama at his word, it will be bad. And while so much of the world celebrated, and laughed, screamed, cried for joy and danced today, I wished to register protest, even if it was a small effort. Asheville Pizza and Brewing (APB) threw an inauguration party at both of its locations, showing the events in Washington live, and outside on the public sidewalk I stood with two CHANGE signs along with a friend, Deborah. A CHANGE sign is a CHOICE sign, but changed, a few letters changed. Below the word CHANGE is a large gruesome color image of an aborted baby, which reflects Obama’s policy on abortion.

We showed up just before 11:00 AM. The parking lot was full and not long after a representative of APB, a young man, came out to tell us that we can’t stand in front of his restaurant, that we would have to leave. Can’t? I asked him more or less what strength there was in that word. We were standing on a public sidewalk. Next another man came out saying that he was the owner of APB. He took a similar approach saying that we Couldn’t stand out there. I became impatient with this and said simply, Call the police. He said that the police would make us leave and I told him I had been through this sort of thing 50 times. When I later told one of my daughters this, she said, “More like 200.”

Until the time when the police arrived the two men berated us and tried to block our signs. I held mine high in the air, so that it could be seen. The owner said that I showed a bloody picture because I was incapable of rational discourse. It is interesting that the owner said that he did not support Obama and the young man said that he was opposed to abortion, really opposed and not just Pro-Choice-Opposed. They said that they would have thrown a party if McCain had won. I said in reply to this that they were making money from Obama enthusiasm and the free publicity they received in the news. They berated us for being hypocrites who were insensitive to children. “Would Jesus hold up a picture of a bloody fetus?” the owner asked, however he did not seem to wish to dialog and to hear my persistent answer that Jesus was the bloody picture, only it seemed that he wished to argue us into leaving. He admitted that he was concerned about his business, that revenues were down 60%.

When a police officer arrived, he did not make us leave or arrest as the APB guys promised. I knew the officer wouldn’t, of course. He just told us to be nice. When the officer was there, someone with what appeared to be a commercial television camera took some pictures. It might have been WLOS. The owner told us officially not to trespass by stepping onto his pavement. I asked him if we could step backwards occasionally to clear the view so drivers could exit his parking lot safely and he said No. I then said that if there was an accident resulting, it would be his responsibility. He denied this and said it would be our fault.

Well, we gave and took verbal jabs for awhile. The owner made a deal about his incomplete understanding (based on a false premise-it‘s complicated) about whether or not or when we would show these pictures to people in our churches. He said that he went to St Eugene Catholic and that he had called to priest there to ask him to come down to talk with us.. I asked the owner if he had ever come with other Catholics to the abortion place to pray, a place six blocks from his business where they slaughtered children. (He hadn’t) He called me a false prophet and likened us to people who protest at military funerals and claim that the soldiers died because homosexual acting people serve in the military.

Another issue was that some of the people driving out of the APB parking lot had to look around us to see if the coast was clear. Deborah and I were trying to get into a routine of moving the signs into a position to allow a clearer view. But this was hard because the men were distracting us by their belligerent conversation. A car was leaving and I told Deborah. In the process of moving her sign back, she stepped back one foot onto the asphalt parking surface. Immediately the owner said that he would charge her with trespassing. Said that he and his buddy both were witnesses. But, he said, he wouldn’t charge her if “you” left. I was a bit angry at this, but I was protective of Deborah and said that she should leave if she wished. The owner said that we BOTH had to leave. I said, “You can forget that.” He said that he would have her arrested anyway, if I didn’t leave. I told him that he’d have to swear out a warrant, since Deborah was leaving and then he followed Deborah as she walked away and I now held the two signs, as they rested on the ground. I called out to the owner and said that if he pressed trespass charges we would “be out there a lot” with the pictures in front of APB, AND in front of St. Eugene Catholic Church on a Sunday morning. Then I told the APB young man that he would have to prove that he owned the one foot of pavement next to the sidewalk since the right of way may extend into the lot. He said that he had “blueprints.”

What happened next was sort of funny, as in unexpected. I saw Deborah kneeling on the sidewalk about 50 feet away, praying. I assumed that she was scared of being charged with trespass, but as it turned out this wasn’t the case. She had simply left the sidewalk in front of APB. The owner was kneeling in front of her with his hand on her shoulder. He appeared to be praying too. After awhile they both came back and he said that she could hold the sign now and that they wouldn’t press charges. The owner said that he sort of admired us. He said that his main worry was his business, that so many restaurants in Asheville were closing down. I told him that my kids watched movies there a lot and that we (adults) enjoyed a big jug of his beer during Christmas. Then they left. We stayed until 12:30 PM , another half hour, and then left as we had planned.

I don’t really know why the APB guys left as they did. Maybe they were just playing games with us, to try to make us leave, or maybe they were over-reacting and it took a while for them to calm down. Maybe they were afraid of more picketing. (After talking with Deborah later, I thought that it could have been that the owner was moved by her prayer and tears. The younger man brought her hot coffee. It was very cold and breezy.) I felt a little bad for trying to engage in give and take with them. Normally when someone is so hostile and unfair, I prefer to be silent.

This above will be my memory of this supposed historic day. I’m writing this as the Inauguration March is being broadcasted over the TV beside me. If it becomes a day of regret for our nation remains to be seen. It could be the beginning of a terrible catastrophe.

Post Script: I just watched the WLOS coverage of the party at APB and they interviewed a bunch of children at the Coxe Avenue restaurant. Then they showed a clip of us in front of the Merrimon Avenue place. Originally I had scheduled to be at Coxe Avenue, but I changed it at the last moment partly so we wouldn’t be confronting children (as they were out of school today) when they walked in. Merrimon was a drive-in location. WLOS censored-by-scrambling the image of the aborted baby. They did have me holding up the sign facing away while on the back the words “Stop War Against Pre-born Children!” were quite visible. So many people at the inauguration said that they were pleased to be there on this historic day. I am glad that we were "there" raising a small voice of objection.

A Blessed Christmas Season to You!

2008-12-10T16:10:00.004-05:00

The Hunt family, all ten of us, on Sunday morning, December 7, 2008. You can't tell, but it was very cold and windy! We ate a big breakfast after the picture was taken.

GAP at UT, Chattanooga

2008-11-18T20:10:00.003-05:00

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.

Fall Snow at the Hunt Home

2008-11-18T20:02:00.000-05:00

lifeadvocates@earthlink.net

2008-11-08T14:53:00.001-05:00

Universal Man

2008-11-06T15:59:00.015-05:00

by Meredith Eugene Hunt

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

lifeadvocates@earthlink.net

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.

Welcome to Obama for America

2008-10-30T16:18:00.008-04:00

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.

Verdict: Guilty by Association

2008-10-16T10:42:00.003-04:00

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.

Showing the Truth. Barack Obama & Abortion. First-hand Observations of the Obama Rally, Asheville, North Carolina, October 5,2008

2008-10-06T11:15:00.017-04:00

[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.

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.

The Genocide Awareness Project @ Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, April 23 & 24, 2008

2008-10-01T16:56:00.004-04:00

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

2008-10-01T16:27:00.005-04:00

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

2008-10-01T15:51:00.003-04:00

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.

ASU Again

2008-10-01T15:07:00.003-04:00

Lines of students going to classes. The GAP display is to the left.

A Final Set of ASU Photos

2008-10-01T14:19:00.007-04:00

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.

Letter to the Editor, Asheville Citizen-Times: Sarah Palin, the Heir of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, by M.E. Hunt

2008-09-24T13:57:00.003-04:00

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.]

Donald Miller & Barack Obama

2008-09-23T14:46:00.000-04:00

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.

The Genocide Awareness Project @ Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, April 4, 2008

2008-09-22T13:51:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-22T13:39:00.001-04:00

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.

The e-mail to a Transy Professor

2008-09-22T13:25:00.003-04:00

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

More GAP at TU Photos

2008-09-22T12:10:00.004-04:00

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.

The Genocide Awareness Project at University of Kentucky in Lexington, April 2 & 3, 2008

2008-09-19T08:46:00.019-04:00

Pro-Choice @ U of K

2008-09-19T08:46:00.017-04:00

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

2008-09-19T08:46:00.012-04:00

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!"

The Final Pro-Choice Argument

2008-09-19T08:46:00.010-04:00

U of K GAP Umbrellas

2008-09-19T08:46:00.004-04:00

The Genocide Awareness Project @ the University of Louisville, Kentucky --March 31 & April 1, 2008

2008-09-18T06:23:00.041-04:00

Lisa, above, a volunteer from Oklahoma, talks with a young man in brown. Below, Rebecca, from Nebraska, discusses with the student in a backpack.

These students above are taking it all in. They stood and looked for quite a while.

GAP has a way of engaging people with the horrible truth of abortion.

GAP at University of Louisville

2008-09-18T06:23:00.037-04:00

This man talking with Lisa must be a professor. Most of them from other lands are pro-life. Most USA university professors seem unwilling to talk with us.

This large group of school children was headed toward the display, then they all suddenly stopped and diverted around.

Perhaps they noticed a warning sign, like the orange one here in the photo.

Tyler of the graffiti may be Ty Pennington the host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. One of the days at U of L, I noticed a student being pushed in a wheelchair and I recognized him as Patrick Henry Hughes, whose family was featured on that TV program on 2/17/08. It's a great story. Patrick has no eyes so he couldn't see the images.

This blonde girl knelt to take pictures of the GAP display. She looked rather shocked.

More Looks at U of Louisville GAP

2008-09-18T06:23:00.011-04:00

University campuses are often nicely landscaped. These flowers above likely are magnolia. You can see the GAP display out of focus in the background.

Passing crowds. The yellow tape was intended to set off a zone for abortion-choice protestors, but they never showed.

Tim in the red cap, a volunteer from Louisville discusses with the student all in black.

Inexpensive rubber boots in bright colors seemed to be the rain fashion of the day.

Clouds Fall to Earth-Glorious Sunset

2008-04-10T15:00:00.008-04:00

The phrase, "Clouds Fall to Earth" is the title of a new novel I am writing. This sunset occured late in winter, 2008. Our 95 year old neighbor, Mrs. Ingle, said about the sky, "I thought it was the end of the world!"

The futuristic story is about a people who have lived in the air, in dirigibles, for 1000 years.

People & Crowds at the Georgia State University GAP, Atlanta, November 12 & 13, 2007

2007-12-20T10:02:00.000-05:00

This girl helped man the pro-life students' table.
Studying the image.

Hundreds of students crept by the display--typical rush hour traffic in Atlanta.

The location was in a valley between buildings. People filled the space as they looked and conversed.

With city noise and all the talking in an enclosed space, the enviroment was intense, but everyone stayed peaceful. For a close-up of this (and any other) photo, click on the image. The Meat is Murder person with the green sign was anti-abortion too.

Protestors @ Georgia State GAP, November 13, 2007

2007-12-20T07:47:00.001-05:00

Good question. However, she/he is missing the point. We are in the midst of our own Rwanda.
Likely some of these protestors were not students.

The officer ordered this person to move his sheet. "This is not negotable," he said. The person did not move until the officer gathered up the sheet.

The "Dimes Kill Babies" guy. He shouted this absurd message for an hour or more and, naturally, lost his voice.
This, of course, is a lie. Not to mention, ignorant. We should sue them for libel.