October 2013

Dear Girls on the Run Contact,

Girls on the Run is a non-profit running program for girls.  It’s an international effort based in Charlotte and active in western North Carolina.  Its website lists your school as a program site.

On Thursday, September 5 this year, a radical pro-abortion-choice “doula” organization hosted a fundraiser for “Femcare,” an abortion business on Orange Street in Asheville. The fundraiser, called “Labor By Choice,” was held at Asheville Pizza and Brewing’s “Millroom” on Ashland Avenue.  The host group’s name is the Open Umbrella Collective.  Femcare made news in August when it was temporarily closed by the NC Department of Health and Human Services for more than 20 health and safety violations.  Femcare’s website says “Surgical abortions are provided until the 12th week of pregnancy (. . . from the first day of the last menstrual period)”, which would be approximately the 10th week of a baby’s life.

Amy Renigar is the Executive Director of Girls on the Run of Western North Carolina.  To the left [above] is a photograph of her attending the “Labor By Choice” fundraiser for Femcare. 

A number of political figures also attended the fundraiser, including Patsy Keever, Cecil Bothwell, Gordon Smith, and Susan Fisher.

Anna Pfaff, shown to the right, a member of the Board of Directors of Girls on the Run, lists herself at Linkedin as a Health Care Professional.  Her listing also says that she currently is a “Full Spectrum Doula at Open Umbrella Collective”, the radical group that hosted the fundraiser for the abortion business.

Included with this mailing is a photo of a baby aborted at 10 weeks, which is within the age range of the children killed at Femcare.

Do you want people who directly give public support for abortion running a program that plays such an important role in the lives of young girls, the students in your care?

Meredith Eugene Hunt

Life Advocates
PO Box 19205
Asheville, NC   28815   828-575-7300  

lifeadvocates@earthlink.net

FemKill Fundraiser Part One

Yesterday evening, fourteen of us stood in front of the entrance of the Millroom to greet financial donors of the Asheville business that aborts prenatal children on Orange Street.

Our friends Chris and Mary Beth (holding their new baby) talking with a UNCA student, an Anthropology major.  Mary Beth said, "Keever came up to me and did the "awww baby...how old?" routine telling me of her own grand baby. I asked her how she could support this fundraiser and she said, "very easily." I told her [my daughter] was merely three months out of the womb."

Not related to a photo, but PARC, People Advocating Real Conservancy, enthusiastically supported the fundraiser.  See their Facebook Event, Femcare Fundraiser: Labor by Choice.

Here on the right is Amy Renigar, Executive Director of Girls on the Run of WNC. Their website says, "Amy Renigar joined the GOTR team in June 2012 because of her interest public health and passion for creating a world where all girls (and women) are empowered to become their best selves."  Ann Pfaff, an outspoken abortion supporter, is on their Board of Directors. This organization runs programs in elementary schools all over the region, including at Veritas Christian Academy.  Go to it's website to learn of its numerous local sponsors, many of whom would not wish to be connected with the violent deaths of prenatal children.  Groups such as Rotary Club of Asheville, Earth Fare, Diamond Brand Outdoors, and so on.

City Councilman Gordon Smith on the left.  At one point towards the end of the evening, he passed by me with an acknowledgement, "How are you, Meredith?"  I nodded.  Then he turned back and said with a grin, "You have raised so much money for them in there."  Something like that...  Money.  This got me thinking.  The people at this event were pretty committed and not likely to be influenced.  But not everyone is this way.  Many people still have a functioning conscience when it comes to abortion.   Or at least they can have a normal reaction.  When we were winding down, I took Eric and Starla with me around the block to the other side of the building...

...which is the front of Asheville Pizza and Brewing, the business that owns the Millroom, which was either rented to the Open Umbrella Collective or donated.  Asheville Pizza has an outdoor dining patio that is right next to the sidewalk and last night it was full of people eating.  We had faced the large posters of a mangled, bloody 10 week pre-born child toward the customers no more than two or three seconds before we had a diner in our face, confronting us.   None of the Femcare supporters acted like this.  People are more upset over an impediment to their appetite then they are about children being slaughtered and about a fundraiser for such atrocities in the same building in which they are filling their stomachs.  They demand that we behave decently when this horrible outrage goes on day after day, year after year.  (Out of sight, out of mind.)  But at least they react. One of the managers called the police and when an officer came we chatted a few minutes. 

I wonder how much money we could raise for Asheville Pizza and Brewing.  It  would be a new twist to "Brew and View."

Of course, notorious celebrity, Cecil Bothwell (below), whose contribution to dialog was to practically shout that one of the protestors should "repent of your self righteousness!"  I wonder if he can explain "self-righteous" in a way that doesn't include his own attitude?  This accusation dodges talking about what's really right or wrong.

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.