Universal Man @ Barnes & Noble

All three volumes of the novel are now available at Barnes & Noble as e-books that you can download and read on your computer or other device.  The price is $.99 each, which is the cheapest B&N allows.  These new editions feature a number of color photographs.  Click on the text Above to order.

40 Sorrowful Years

I sent this in to the Asheville Citizen-Times yesterday.
It should come out on the 21st or 22nd.

Guest Editorial by Meredith Eugene Hunt

40 years represents a mere turning of a clock—the earth moving around the sun.

      Time magazine’s January 14th cover story proclaimed, “Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They've been losing ever since.”  This statement is wrong on the only scale that matters. 40 years after Roe, prenatal children are still being aborted “legally” in our country. 

      While abortion seems entrenched into our culture, in the realm of reasoned argument, the abortion-choice movement has lost the game entirely.  With the advances in observing the life of children in the womb, the work to educate university students on the true nature of abortion, and the logical arguments that demonstrate the humanity and personhood even of an embryo, abortion-choice rhetoric shows itself to be empty.  It’s strong on absurdities, non sequiturs, false history, and demonizing characterizations of pro-lifers.  If you add to our intellectual victory the network of non-profit agencies that serve women in a crisis pregnancy and confirm the compassionate heart of pro-life ideas, the defeat of the abortion choice “position” is total.

      The problems is, legal abortion isn’t dependent on sound jurisprudence or moral reasoning.  It never was.  “Pro-choice” efforts in those directions have been no more than gauze over the power to kill.  They’re an illusion to make the terrible seem less terrible—to comfort people so they can do what they want, and to mislead the desperate. 

      If so, then only a power in the opposing direction can counteract it.  I mean the power to save.  Am I talking about violence?  No.   We are entering an era for artists who communicate when people become deaf to reason, and martyrs who give themselves to saving the lives of others.

      We saw a shadow of the power to save in the Rescue Movement in the early 90’s when 34,000 people were arrested for peacefully blocking doors of abortion centers.  I see some hope now from young people who are impatient.  They’re behind personhood amendments in various states and they understand the principles of rescue, of intervening in a way that validates their belief that each abortion takes the life of a child. 

      On January 11 this year the Alabama Supreme Court recognized that “unborn children are persons with rights that should be protected by law.”  This ruling sets up yet another conflict between powers, one that someday will explode when a state refuses to back down, and instead decides to actually protect all people within its jurisdiction.

      Meanwhile, at a minimum, we need to maintain a prayerful witness outside the places where prenatal children are aborted, the same as we should if born children were being killed under the forceful shelter of government.

Featured Author at Wayman Publishing

My brother treated me to eight days in Rome, Italy a few years ago.  We stayed at a private apartment half a mile from the Vatican and walked everywhere.  Imagine, he a “liberal” from Berkeley and me, a “conservative” from North Carolina, wandering the streets of that city museum of civilization together, napping in the Pantheon, climbing above the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, savoring chocolate gelato as a street-side lunch.   The talks we had!

Much could be said about that marvelous trip, but for our purposes here, the most important part was barbecue sauce.  Stubb’s barbecue sauce.

At a certain alimentaria (Italian grocery) in Rome, I was amazed to discover bottles of Stubb’s on the shelf, and all the way from West Texas.  Stubb’s was once the favorite at the dinner table with me, my wife, and six children, and it seemed so out of place in Italy.  I guess Stubb’s gets around.

And it’s tasty enough you could slop some on roast possum and enjoy.  Possibly I exaggerate.

A picture of Mr. Stubblefield is printed on every bottle. He’s a handsome older man in a cowboy hat.   We share a lot in common.  His most famous quote is “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a cook” and   his second most famous quote is “My life is in these bottles.”  I like those quotes.  They’re inspirational.  So, following Mr. Stubb’s example, I will simply say “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m a writer and my life is in these stories.”

Therefore, open up a bottle.  Read one of my stories, either true-to-life or speculative.  What they all contain, I hope, is fun entertainment that offers intriguing, maybe even unsettling perspectives.

Find me at www.chaoticterrain.com.  Then, go to Short Stories.


The orginal posting of this article can be found at Wayman Publishing.  The feature is regarding my story "The Gingerbread Puppet Boy", which will appear in Wayman's anthology, Open Doors: Fractured Fairy Tales, to be released on the first of December.

Protestors Outside Romney Rally

Image by Matt Johnson

Protestors gathered outside the Asheville Civic Center on Thursday, October 11 when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romeny came to town.   I am standing in their midst holding a sign that says, ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN.  We are facing a mass of people thronging inside the center.  Before this, I and several other people handed out about 1,200 flyers promoting the work of Life Advocates and the Ministry of Presence at abortion places.  The media and Romeny organizers estimated that 10,000 people attended the rally.

Here is a link to the video that contained the image above: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVHWBIzBgok

Arrested at Biden Event



Photo by John Fletcher, Asheville Citizen-Times




By M. Hunt

On Tuesday, October 2 my wife Edie and I went to the campus of UNCA with a sign that said, “Abortion Hurts Women.”  VP Joe Biden was scheduled to campaign at the Justice Athletic Center.   My purpose in going was simply to take a stand against abortion with a truth that is difficult to rebut, one that should be a concern of politically liberal people

When we arrived on campus we drove around trying to decide where to be.  Edie dropped me off in front of the cafeteria so I could talk with the six or eight Romney supporters and anti-Obama/Biden protestors.  The area there is a longstanding “free speech zone.”  The protestors were not happy about being so far away from the event—the Justice Center was about three blocks away.  I decided to go down there to see if I could persuade police to let me stay and, if so, I’d call the other protestors to join me.  I noted the phone number of one of the protestors, a Romney supporter and also a student at UNCA.

Edie then dropped me near the Justice Center with my sign.  I stood on the sidewalk near the UNCA Bulldog mascot statue and the media trucks.  I was there a few seconds only when I noticed a man who appeared to be Secret Service walk down next to me and beckon to a police officer across the road with his finger.

My argument to the police was that the press and I both were present under the auspices of the First Amendment.  I did not prevail in convincing them that I had a right to be there on the sidewalk of a public university.   I did say, “If a Secret Service agent tells me to move, I will move.”  No Secret Service agent did so.  The one person who appeared to be Secret Service refused to identify himself as such, saying, “We’re not discussing any security arrangements we may or may not have.”

The police told me that where I was standing was a “secure area.”  I replied that they should allow the protestors to be there.  I offered to be searched.  Video from the Asheville Citizen-Times that I found later shows the Biden motorcade passing right by the location and moving toward the parking spaces that had been taped off.

The campus police chief arrived, talked with me, and then consulted with someone on the phone, probably an administrator.  He came back to me to say that it was University policy not to allow me to stand there with a sign.  When I respectfully declined to move to the designated free speech area, I was arrested, handcuffed, taken to jail, and charged with second degree trespassing.    After two hours of processing and waiting, I was fingerprinted and released on a signature bond.  First court appearance is set for December 4.

I hope people realize that my sign and its message probably had little to do with why I was told to move and why I was arrested.  I think anyone with any sign would have received the same treatment.  It’s likely that in those minutes prior to the motorcade arriving, the police would have prevented any non-law enforcement people from being there.  There also is the issue of trespassing on public property.  Yes, it was public property and yes it was a sidewalk, but it was on a college campus and the law for this kind of public property is somewhat different than it is in the rest of Asheville.  The difference is that the priority of the campus is serving students and university programs and not the public at large.  The general public does have access to the university, but the university is within its legal rights to limit or prohibit access that interferes with or disrupts university functions.

The problem is when the university suppresses free speech activity that does not interfere or disrupt university functions.   This unjustified suppression is common on campuses and not only of the general public but of a university’s own students.  Keeping students within a small artificial “zone” is a prime example.  The zone has an upside for non-university people in that they can just show up without notice, and by the way, without alarming campus police.  But it has a downside because it implies that the rest of the campus, the outdoor spaces, is off limits.

I have been engaged in free speech activity on perhaps 50 campuses across the eastern United States and as far west as Oklahoma and South Dakota.  I have seen numerous loud and raucous protests—against the display I helped bring.  Protest members are students and faculty as well as non-university people.   In each of these cases, the university allowed the protests to proceed, deciding that they did not interfere with the functions of the university, in fact they understood that the protests augmented them!  They encouraged debate and the interchange of ideas.  They encouraged social activism.

Last year at a major university in Virginia we set up our large prolife display (eighteen 4 x 8 panels) at a busy foot traffic intersection.  The university gave two spots for counterdemonstrations, one on each side of us—a gay rights group fairly close, and a Planned Parenthood group about a block away.   The police kept the PP group at a distance so to minimize conflict, as they thought.  We have enough experience to know that protestors near the display only increase the attention it gets, so we never encourage the university to keep protestors away, unless, of course, they put up large sheets so others cannot see  our signs. It has happened. By the second day, most of the PP and pro-abortion-choice students were in right in front of our display engaged in multiple, long and sometimes intense conversation.

In short, universities limit educational opportunities when they unnecessarily suppress free speech as does UNCA and also, by the way, AB-Tech.

One thing I told the campus police.  I had as much right to stand on the sidewalk in that location with my sign as Vice President Joe Biden had to campaign for himself and President Obama inside the Justice Center.  We both were using public university facilities for private purposes.  One difference is that Biden did disturb university functions.

Biden and the general public were going inside and the university should have made provision for me and the general public to express our opposition to Biden and his agenda, express it directly to those who support him.  There is no legitimate reason why they could not have set up a secure protest area in proximity to the Justice Center.

My stand that lead to the arrest represents a simple concept--that I as a citizen of the United States have certain rights.  I have a fundamental right of free speech.  I have a right to be on public property if I have not done anything that revokes that right.  I did not disrupt any university function.  I was not a security risk to anyone.   Consider this, what does it say about our nation when a person, even in the special circumstances at UNCA, is arrested for simply holding a sign on a sidewalk?

Oh, and by the way, abortion hurts women.  What does that say about our nation?

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

When Earth Whispers

Short story.  An earthquake centered in Lynchville, California sets off a series of horrible, strange events.  A paranormal investigator who hosts a nationally syndicated radio program and a local Presbyterian pastor attempt to solve the mystery.  This is a story NO ONE would dare publish.

Go to "When Earth Whispers" at Chaotic Terrain Press.

Arrangements

Life is too short to face rejection after rejection, while your story collects digital dust and its freshness fades. Therefore, today I have published my first short story in years. It's about a widower who arranges flowers and something far more important. 

Go to "Arrangements" at Chaotic Terrain Press.

Julie's Story

Watch this short video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEtLrMp6EVc&noredirect=1

It's of a nursing student this week at the Genocide Awareness Project at the Unversity of North Florida. She tells how the project changed her life for the better when it first came to her campus three years ago. I was glad to be part of the GAP team there then. And more glad now that I've seen this. We too infrequently hear how GAP turned people around about abortion, and sometimes the story doesn't come to us until years later. A story like Julie's makes a person realize again how important and necessary this work is. We must keep going, no matter how hateful people are, or how dehumanizing they treat us.

40 Days for Life Kickoff, Asheville

About 100 people attended the Spring 40 Days for Life kickoff in Asheville on Tuesday afternoon, February 21. If you would like to participate, please call us at 828-545-2284.

40 Days for Life Asheville Kickoff, Second Group

This vehicle from Quest Diagnostics arrived. A couple weeks ago the driver, an older gentleman, told me, "I'm with you" meaning that he was prolife. On the way out I said he was serving the abortionist. He said he was not, but his company was. I disagreed and said that he could refuse to come. He insisted the company would fire him. I asked if it was worth having blood on his hands. He said he didn't and was sorry I felt that way. As he drove away I said that the place was open because of people like him and urged that he repent. This time, when I took his picture, he had raised his arm to block a clear image.

For the Record

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

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

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'

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

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."

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

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

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

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

Cecil Bothwell

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

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

One moment in the busy foot traffic passing the display.

Representative Susan Fisher: "Overkill"

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

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

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

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

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.)

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"

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

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?

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

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

GAP and I go to the Chicago Public Library

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

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

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.

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