Become a Patron

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy traveling!*

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

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

To become a patron, go HERE.  Thanks!

What's Next?

We have hopes and plans.

The best way to stay up-to-date is to join the Life Advocates Facebook group.  HERE.

Also, we have ongoing conversations, updated information about the CME Planned Parenthood-Stem Express videos, and lots of photographs and cool video from the protest at our Facebook Event Page.  HERE.

If you are not on Facebook, great. Maybe you could follow this blog, and if I get more people, I'll be diligent to post essential information. 

Lastly, for now. Please consider joining in the national 40 Days for Life campaign of prayer, fasting, and witness, which in Asheville will take place at the local Planned Parenthood abortion site, 68 McDowell ST, 28801. The dates are September 23 - November 1, 2015. The campaign will begin with a kick-off rally, time and place to be announced later. For more information and to register at the official site, go HERE.

Welcome!

If you’re here now, you probably picked up a Life Advocates flyer at the Mitt Romney rally in Asheville on Thursday.

I’d like to give you a bit of introduction.  Life Advocates began in 1988 when a small group of people decided to organize a Pastors’ Protest Against Abortion in Asheville.  Two-hundred people rallied at what was then the City-County Plaza and afterwards we broke up to picket at four locations that performed abortion.  Fortunately, other than Mission hospital, we only have one abortion location now.  Two have closed.  Over the years we’ve had numerous rallies, pickets, and protests, including a Life Chain with 110 churches and 3800 people participating.

The flyer you received mentioned our Ministry of Presence efforts.  For 15 years we’ve had at least a minimal presence of one person at “Femcare” nearly every time people are coming for abortion.  When we offer help to women we call this Sidewalk Counseling.  We need more people to join us.  In addition to this outreach we maintain a 24 hour Pregnancy Helpline.  Visit our pregnancy care website, www.abortionAsheville.com.  For years we held an all night prayer vigil at the abortion site, with a number of churches participating.

Life Advocates has been involved in supporting legislation, both state and federal, that’s designed to protect women and children from abortion.

I as Director of Life Advocates engage in what I call, “literary activism” by writing fictional stories that depict characters who struggle with controversies of the day and the basic conditions of life.  Some of the stories are fantastical or speculative, that is, with the genre of Science Fiction or Horror.  My novel, Universal Man is a “contemplative thriller” that features people who carry their beliefs about abortion to their logical conclusions.  You can learn more about the novel at our website www.chaoticterrain.com.    Some of my short stories may be read free at www.chaoticterrainpress.blogspot.com.

Another focus has been reaching out to university students with the Genocide Awareness Project through the Center for Bioethical Reform (CBR).  GAP is a large mural containing images of aborted children juxtaposed with images of other historical atrocities.   I work with the CBR’s Knoxville office and have been on a team taking GAP to over 50 universities throughout the Southeast and elsewhere, including six of North Carolina’s major university campuses.  I’ve been as far west as South Dakota and as for Northeast as Rhode Island.  CBR’s national website is www.abortionNo.org.  Be forewarned.  The images are shocking.  The Knoxville office has a softer website at www.prolifeoncampus.com.

The rest of this blog contains articles and photographs from work of ours in the past few years.  I hope you will take a little time to look them over.  Even more, I hope that you will be moved to become involved in our Ministry of Presence and Sidewalk Counseling.  Politicians come and go.  Elections are won and lost.  But until our nation repents and we finally decide to protect children in the womb, this need will continue, week by week, month by month, and year by year.  We are committed for the long haul.  Will you join us? 

Thanks!

-Mick

lifeadvocates@earthlink.net
828-545-2284

Americans United for Life's Investigative Report on Planned Parenthood

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."

Verdict: Guilty by Association

Arthur, Anna (two of my children, both of whom are students at AB-Tech) and I endured our third full trial on the AB-Tech trespass charges yesterday. The results were not good. What sunk our ship was the incredible instructions to the jury from Judge Dennis Winner that virtually guaranteed a guilty verdict. Winner refused to give the jury the instructions on the law that Judge Baker gave them in our first State Superior Court trial earlier this year. Those instructions said that to be found guilty of trespass on public property we [as individuals] must have engaged in conduct that nullified the implied consent we had to be on the property.

However, Judge Winner’s instructions were that if any members of the “group” that were protesting engaged in improper conduct, then ALL members were guilty.

A female security guard (an obese one who could not in court conceal her emotion toward us for bringing the images of aborted babies to her campus) testified that one of the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust gave her a belly/chest bump. Since Anna, Arthur and I had not seen this at the time, and had not even heard of it until she testified yesterday (she was not present in the other trials), and since we had no part in it, we could not contradict her testimony. And yet, despite no evidence whatsoever that we three had done anything to justify our arrest, according to the judge we were guilty. This is basically what the judge said to the jury!

I told a reporter for the Mountain Xpress that to the judge, we were guilty by association. The concept of guilt by association is roundly rejected in multiple U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The cases I read deal with membership in Communist organizations.

To illustrate his opinion, Judge Winner gave an example. If a group enters a store, he said outside of the hearing of the jury, and one of the members of the group robs the store, then all the members were guilty. How silly. So, if one of the members of the group slips a pack of chewing gum into his pocket and none of the other members knew of it, and none of the others heard about it later, then they all are guilty? The judge himself, after giving the example, quietly muttered about how this did not apply to us, but he did not supply another example.

The jury is always told to follow the judge’s instruction regardless of what they think about it. Juries of course can completely disregard the judge if they wish, but the general population is so devoid of independent thinkers, that in our case a guilty verdict was a foregone conclusion. Interestingly, the only person brought up to the jury who might have helped us had been dismissed from duty by the prosecution. He was a Warren Wilson College professor! I had been concerned about a professorfrom such a liberal school, but after the judge’s instructions, he might have been able to lead the jury in a more intelligent direction.

We, our attorney and us, could have done a better job of showing separation between us and the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. For example, when I heard that the Survivors were coming to this area, I asked Kortney, their Director, if they had a written Code of Conduct. My position was that we would only participate with the group if they abided by a code similar to what we use with the Genocide Awareness Project. Kortney had assured me that they were completely peaceful in their approach. We did not bring this out to the jury and I think we dropped the ball. But we only had the lunch hour yesterday to think.

During sentencing Judge Winner embarrassed me by making several references to his familiarity with my work, to his personal acquaintance with me, and to my outspoken nature when it comes to abortion. (Winner had been a NC State Senator.) He said, “It’s been 20 years, hasn’t it? He [Mr. Hunt} has not aged that much.” I could not speak without an invitation from the judge, so I just nodded and grinned stupidly. [I don't want to rub it in too much, but the judge said that he once taught Constitutional Law classes or a class at UNC-A, but he said he couldn't remember anything from it.]

Anna, Arthur, and I were sentenced to 10 days in jail, suspended. We were given one year unsupervised probation and told that we could not go onto the campus of AB-Tech except for standard educational purposes. In addition, each of us must pay court costs, which is $200 per person, I think. Anna and Arthur were not given this penalty, but I was also fined $200.

After the trial, the judge said to our attorney that his instructions to the jury, “had done it.”

We are thinking of appealing our conviction, the judge’s instructions on “the law,” and his denial of our motion to dismiss based on constitutional grounds (on AB Tech’s written policy on it’s face and as applied to us) to the NC Court of Appeals. This is the very court that issued the opinion we asked the judge to give to the jury as instructions on the law regarding trespass on public property.