Inauguration Day!

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.

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

[Note: this article has not been edited or proofread.]

My wife and children and several family friends made apple cider this day—about 20 gallons, from the family orchard. I wanted to do this myself, but thought it important to make the sacrifice. Having a strong family as a foundation gives me strength, even when we are apart. Some family members would have joined me except that the cider making had already been arranged before we knew of the Obama rally.

Before I left home, I altered the two Choice signs that I had planned to take. These approximately 3.5’ by 5’ signs have the word “CHOICE” across the top in white letters on black. Below that is a large color (mostly red) photo of an aborted baby at 10 weeks of age. I printed off the letters ANG and with them covered up OIC, which of course then spelled out the theme word of Barack Obama. The signs are mounted on thick light-weight (blue) insulation board purchased at Lowe’s.

[See the Choice signs at www.abortionNo.org ]

I had originally planned to stand on the corner of Victoria and Biltmore to be at a busy intersection and away from crowds, but when I arrived at about 11:30 am, there was no car traffic, so I turned onto Victoria and drove past the Asheville High Stadium and through the campus of AB Tech. There I saw lines and line of people walking to the rally. On the other side of campus I drove up a hill to a nearly vacant parking lot. I gathered up my stuff and walked down to lines of people. The lines where incredibly long and slow moving. I set up the signs along the road in a grassy spot and stood behind the signs. I had not been there more than two minutes when someone who looked like a campaign representative approached and said to me, “You're a fxxxing freak!” I asked him if Obama approved of his language.

That’s how it went. People flinging one line zingers at me, and I usually answering a one liner back. I seldom spoke to anyone unless they spoke to me first. Here are a few samples.

“It’s inappropriate to have those signs when children are here.”
My responses: “People have brought children to a political rally, abortion is a political issue and this is the truth about abortion. Is it appropriate to bring children and make them stand six hours in the hot sun?” (There’s much more to be said about this having graphic photos where children are or may be. I had about a dozen extended conversations on this subject, one with a very irate mom. Another with a self pro-claimed “Christian pro-lifer” who used the f-word countless times in describing me and my activity.)

“Those pictures are disgusting.”
My responses: “Obama’s support for legal abortion is disgusting. What’s worse, a picture, or the reality?”

“It doesn’t even look human!”
My response, “That’s what [little] humans look like when they get chewed up.”

[The middle finger.]
My response, “Is that Obama’s International sign?” A better answer would be, “Does that mean Obama is Number One?”

“Why didn’t you bring pictures of dead Iraqi children?”
My response: “Why didn’t YOU bring them?”

“Sarah Palin gave her daughter the choice on abortion.”
My response: “Show me your documentation.”

“Do you believe in foster care?”
My response: “Yes.”
“Have you kept foster children?”
My response: “No, but my son’s finance’s family has kept about 23 foster children.”
“Well, if only you all kept 23 foster children!”
She didn’t wait for me and walked away while I said, “And one of the foster children is a crack-baby who was born very premature.”

"Those pictures are fake. They're photo-shopped. They [the babies] aren't that developed at that stage."
My response: "Look in any medical textbook. Watch the video at abortionNo.org ."

By in large the crowd was quiet and left me alone except for looking. I think some of the more radical ones were restrained by the presence of so many others. In another situation I would have been concerned about getting beat up or my signs destroyed. A lot of people took my photograph and some thought their camera was an intimidating weapon.

Obama campaign volunteers worked the lines of people, making sure that they had contact information from every person. They had some kind of “ticket” with a tear off stub that one was supposed to fill out and turn in. One campaign worker loudly encouraged everyone to “Vote Early” so as to leave more room for the throngs of voters on election day. One campaign worker approached and said, “I don’t think you’re supposed to be here. The Obama people have rented the entire campus of AB Tech.” I made sure he knew that I was recording him. He left and we heard nothing about this again.

Conversations are the most interesting part of being a sign holder. One young woman came up to me and looked over one of the posters. She told me then that she had given birth to a baby but it died at five weeks (after the birth) of SID’s. She said that the doctors had done an exhaustive autopsy and could not find a reason for the baby dying. I told her that this was very sad. She said that all of her female friends had gotten pregnant at about the same time and all of them but her had aborted. She said that she was glad that she gave birth, and was a mom, though the outcome was a bitter irony. I told her that at least she had a clear conscience. Later on she approached me to ask about illegal abortion.

One woman in her late 40’s came up to talk about war and peace. She said she was against all violence. She was not angry at me or hateful as many peaceniks were that day, but we talked about many things, including the poetry of Wendell Berry.

A close relative of the publisher of a large national news magazine came up to talk. At that moment a woman passed and said, “What about dead babies in Iraq?” After she had moved on the relative said that his/her own spouse was in Iraq at the moment covering news. He/she told me that discussion in the lines waiting to go into the rally was all about the importance of the U.S. Supreme Court in this election.

A woman with a homemade “Patriot for Obama” sign stood next to me for a few minutes. A guy with a “JoeSixPack for Obama” passed by in the line.

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.

Donald Miller & Barack Obama

Donald Miller, author of “Blue Like Jazz” and “Searching for God Knows What” apparently has endorsed Barack Obama. What follows are two entries that I posted on Miller’s official blogsite at http://donmilleris.com/ .

Entry One
When I heard that an evangelical [writer] named Donald Miller supported Barack Obama for president, I thought I had seen that name before and, sure enough, a well-worn book titled, “Searching for God Knows What” sat on my wife’s bedside table with a bookmark tucked in the middle. So, I checked to confirm the Obama story and found this blog. In the past few minutes I have leafed through the book, which up until now, had only been a familiar cover. What I have seen so far… supporting Barack Obama, who supports the legal killing of children in the womb, says that Donald Miller is at a minimum, a greatly confused man, and because of his extensive influence, a harmful man. He seems to represent an over-introspective, self-absorptive, emasculated Christianity. Quite likely I will be chucking the book into the trash. I can only think of two other books that have been on our home that merited this treatment: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Lolita was simply pornographic. Jude portrays simply unremitting despair. And Donald Miller represents, simply, longstanding accommodation, to evil, an accommodation bred from de-sensitation to killing in the womb and the decline of our culture. And since I wrote the above, I have learned that Miller gave a benediction at the Democratic National Convention and he is on some kind of faith tour with Obama which suggests that, even worse, he engages in foolish collaboration.

Note: I am not a Republican.


Entry Two
Donald Miller is greatly confused about politics and especially about the politics of abortion, and being so he actually joined forces with those who are maintaining the legality of abortion! He doesn’t realize that the idea of “reducing the number of abortions” is a propaganda ploy to suck in the gullible. The “information” that abortion somehow decreased under Clinton and increased under Bush is, as he said, only a slice of the pie, if it is true, which I doubt, since I have heard committed pro abortion-choice people say the same thing. In the long-term, there are multiple policies which influence whether or not people kill their offspring, and Republican ideas, generally, conform to the most important policy, or rather principle, that human life begins at fertilization and that human beings bear the image of the Creator. Also, it is does not follow logically that because McCain/Palin (or Republicans) will not, supposedly, reduce abortion, that one must support Obama who, supposedly, will reduce abortion. A wiser man than Donald Miller would at least not become a pawn of the Democrats. Or, if he were uncertain about the Republicans, he would abstain from politics. The liberal Democrat and abortion-choice strategy is to foster an impression that they will reduce abortion (and the “need” for abortion) while making certain that abortion remains an absolutely fixed component of our culture forever. Democrats like Obama will ensure through the courts (by judicial appointments) that our laws will never change. Politics is messy, but truth is clear. The truth is that Barack Obama, because of his support for the killing of children in the womb is disqualified to be President of the United States. But, perhaps Mr. Miller can support Obama because he does not really understand abortion. Look at the website www.abortionNo.org before you vote.

Miller is not so much a problem in himself. He is a product and an expression of a Church that has accommodated the killing of abortion for so long that it has adjusted its theology to make Christians feel comfortable. Rather than pay the price required to end the killing and transform our culture, we have just changed our perspective to “do what’s possible.” Our nation knew the price it would take to save civilization back in the 1940’s when we put an end to Nazi ambitions to conquer the world and annihilate all Jewish people. We defeated the Germans. People gave their lives. Behind the lines, people rescued Jews. Miller himself, in the one short passage I have (today) read in one of his books, "Searching for God..." said that he would participate in effort to kill Hitler. Many other people feel/felt the same way. One was a German officer who, when he was on the eastern front, saw lines of naked Jewish people lined up a the edge of a pit to be shot. (I saw this story on a PBS special.) He was so angry that he wanted to grab a machine gun and begin shooting his fellow soldiers, but he realized that he would only be killed immediately and not save anyone. But that’s when he joined a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler, which as we know, failed. Years later, that German officer realized that there was a higher way in the face of such evil as the Holocaust. He realized that the only human way to respond to the horrible slaughter that he saw in Russia or Poland was to take off his clothes and get into the line. That is Christ’s way, and of course, practically no one is doing this now regarding abortion. No wonder the Republicans can do little in the political realm—they lack the example in the spiritual/human realm. The Democrat Party and Barack Obama are so far out of line on the murdering of children in the womb, that the only Christian political response to them is to consign them to defeat.