Never Give In

Today is meaningful as a fulfillment of my life's work, of 30-some years.  It's not a final victory, by any means. But reversing Roe v. Wade was a goal, a marker.  Not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning, as Winston Churchill said.  And giving a check to whatever joy and relief may be found, is remembering the thousands of pre-natal children ever the years, children whose mothers dismissed or ignored my pleas to let them live and my offers of help so that the mothers may more easily do so.  All that happening as they passed me by at the abortion sites in Asheville. As of today, the battle has changed, but the killing will continue into the foreseeable future.Now that Roe is no more, after a brief tantrum, pro-abortion activists and politicians will quickly shift to the new fronts.  And, they believe they have their issue for the upcoming November elections.  I have spoken and written thousands and thousands of words on this subject.  At this point, I have said all that must be said.

Wandering Lost in the Wilderness

 

Over the past couple years I been thinking about our status in the mission to protect pre-natal children.  When I say “our” I mean those people who are anti-abortion.   My thoughts could be summarized by a few simple statements, but until the fall season of 2019, I didn’t have any sort of figure, metaphor, or illustration to explain them.  

Preachers, in my experience, often don’t give apt contemporary examples of Bible stories, and in this case, I was able to do it myself in a way that seems perfect.  Our pastor had been preaching a series on the life of Moses, and the section on this particular Sunday covered Numbers 13 and 14, the story of the Lord commanding Moses to send leaders of the Israelites to scout out the promised land, the land of Canaan. 

Moses asked them to investigate the strength of the people who lived there, the fertility of the soil, and the fortifications, if any, of the cities.  He asked them to bring back some of the fruits of the land.  As you may remember, the scouts came back and said the land truly flowed with “milk and honey,” but the people were powerful and the cities large and well fortified.  Then Caleb “silenced the people” and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”  At this the other leaders, other than Joshua, complained that they couldn’t attack the Canaanites who were far too strong for them. They even began spreading false reports about the land itself, and said that it was occupied by giants, the Nephilim, who made them feel as small as grasshoppers.   That night all the people complained and wept aloud that they wished they had died in Egypt.  They wanted to appoint a new leader and return there.  When Joshua and Caleb warned them about rebelling against the Lord, and again repeated that they should not be afraid of the Canaanites and could move into this rich land, the whole assembly wanted to stone them.

As a result of this rebellion, and their grumbling, the Lord said that the Israelites would wander in the wilderness for 40 years, one year for every day they scouted the promised land, and furthermore, every person 20 years or older, those who had seen his miracles, like the parting of the Red Sea and the pillars of cloud and fire, would die in the wilderness.  The very thing the people feared that might result from trying to take the land would happen to them, and in contrast the children who the people feared would be taken as plunder would be who entered the land God had promised.  Only Caleb and Joshua were excepted, because they had remained faithful.

So, here’s my contemporary application:   In our early Life Advocates newsletters from the late 1980s, we stated as our purpose the transformation of our culture to value the sanctity of human life.  Practically speaking, our goal was to change the laws, beginning with a reversal of Roe v. Wade, so that pre-natal children would be given the same protection as born people have, but not only that, but through education and ministry, this transformation would be peaceful.  Over time, as people learned the truth about human life in the womb, attitudes and beliefs would change.  I believed that this change was attainable within my lifetime.  I don’t recall the exact year, (it would have been in the early 1990s) but, immediately prior to the announcement of the Casey Supreme Court decision, we had scheduled a press conference at Asheville City Hall to respond.  We didn’t know how the decision would go, so we had prepared two statements, one to celebrate the reversal of Roe, and the other to express our disappointment at the failure of the court to reverse it.  We were, as history shows, to be disappointed. After all these years, it is hard to believe we thought we were anywhere close, but the reality of our societal direction and the infection of death was much starker and more grim than we imagined.

The real opportunity for change came during the movement under the banner of Operation Rescue.  This amounted to nearly a decade when thousands of people across the country peacefully interposed their bodies between the likely victims of abortion and the professional killers.  A friend of mine was one of the leaders of Operation Rescue. I can’t verify this without doing a lot of research, but he said that more people were arrested to trying to save pre-natal children, than were arrested during the entire Civil Rights movement.  The principal of rescue, and usually its practice, unlike picketing, protesting, education, lobbying, etc, and even ministry to pregnant women, directly addressed the immediate situation of people about to be murdered.  I remember those days well. The showdown between life and death was in play. Christians and others were putting their lives and livelihoods on the line.  I remember Dr. James Dobson calling people to Atlanta, where Randal Terry was taking a stand. Momentum was building, and if the rescue moment continued, it would have in time inspired and compelled the transformation for which we had hoped.  

But it failed.  Because of my acquaintance with one of the leaders of Operation Rescue, I know some of the inside story of this failure. I won’t go into that right now.  In the public realm however, Christian leaders failed to support the rescue movement.  They either disagreed with “breaking the law” or they remained silent and uninvolved. Their motives, I can only guess at from this distance. Was it that they felt they could do more good not being in jail? Where they afraid? That’s how I felt, though I supported Rescue. Without the widespread support of the church, those people who actually risked arrest, fines, and jail, became discouraged, disillusioned, and demoralized. And no one emerged who was willing to become a life-long martyr.  Despite several people carrying the name of Rescue for some time, the Rescue Movement was effectively dead. At this point, the bombers and shooters moved in.  That is a whole different chapter that I will not go into now.  You can read my novel, Universal Man for further exploration of all this.

As for the biblical analogy: transforming our culture to hold to the sanctity of human life was the promised land.  Our own nation, the United States and western culture changed (the adjective of “changed,” not the verb), was the promised land.  We scouted the land, and the Christian leaders, most of them rebelled and grumbled, and then said that land wasn’t so great after all, and worse, that it was held by giants, political, financial, the places of prestige, and the town criers, the media.  They all wanted to stone (defame, undermine, dismiss, ignore) the few faithful ones who said we could occupy the land.

Our status therefore is, we are now wandering in the wilderness. Look what has happened since them.  Unthinkable terrorism, drug epidemics, the “legalization” of homosexual marriage, etc.  And more recently, the ongoing world-wide corona virus epidemic, the resulting economic suppression, and even now riots, burning buildings, and looting in cities everywhere. 

As far as I can see, the apparent leaders of the anti-abortion movement now have no coherent vision of what we should be as a nation and a culture, let alone how to achieve or reach for that vision.  There are sporadic, uncoordinated attempts to tinker around the edges of the law, with varying success. To expect an additional Trump nominee to change the “balance” of the Supreme so that a reversal of Roe is possible, is naïve.  (There always has been who we think is a reliable vote that suddenly evolves.  Take some of the strange opinions of Chief Justice Roberts, for example.

The most active front of the anti-abortion efforts now calls itself the Abortion Abolition Movement.  I am very familiar with its ideas and people who identify themselves this way.  Their idea, as best I understand it, is that we must call for a complete ban on abortion.  I have heard some of them express that mother’s who abort should be charged criminally for murder.  There seems to be an underlying belief that what we called the “pro-life” movement is evil and actually has prolonged the existence of legal abortion.  Another aspect is the belief that only through preaching the gospel will individuals and our society will change.  Few “abolitionists” seem to understand rescue.  They don’t have a developed picture of what our society would actually look like having abolished abortion, or what it would take practically and policy-wise to reach this goal. Without going into a detailed critique, I will say that they are partly right and party wrong about all of this.  The hardest part for me personally, is the attitude that somehow they have something new that’s never been tried before. The confusion and overly narrow perspective of their viewpoint is part of wandering in the wilderness.  As least they are still active and out there confronting abortion.

We all are, in fact, wandering lost in the wilderness, myself included.  All of us are compromised to one degree or another.  None of us possesses a full comprehension of the reality of abortion that includes the full spectrum of responses.  All of us have devised spiritual, emotional, and psychological barriers to allow us to live more or less normal lives that accommodate the killing and allow it to continue without being any more than mildly troubled. This is the result of long term exposure and relative inaction, at least in proportion to the true urgency of the immediate life and death situation.  I myself suffer from compassion burnout.  I’ve reached a point where, on an emotional level, I just don’t care anymore.

Many, in fact most, “pro-life” antiabortion people participate occasionally in an ineffective or partly effective campaign or project related to abortion.  Or they vote and think that fulfills their duty. Some pro-life preachers will deliver a sermon on the subject once a year.  Some pro-life preachers will not preach a whole sermon, but will mention the subject in passing once or twice a year.  Some pro-life churches immerse themselves in and feel called to concentrate their efforts on other needs, such as hunger or homelessness, while simply effectively ignoring the slaughter that takes place a few miles from where they meet.  Many pro-life people and churches were once active and now are not.  This is all part of wandering lost in the wilderness. 

Roe v. Wade dropped on us coming on to 47 years ago.  The abortion of children in the womb was “legalized” six years before that in North Carolina. By comparison, 40 years lost and wandering in a wilderness doesn’t seem so long.  My point is, if the Biblical story applies here at all, it will only be a completely new generation that enters the promised land where human life is held important and valuable at every stage.  I don’t think I will ever see it. We seem to be headed in the opposite direction.  In fact our wilderness may be much, much longer than 40 years.  Maybe another, related Bible story applies.  The Israelites were captive in Egypt for some 400 years.

So, what do we do?  The short answer is, I don’t know.  I also don’t know if we can draw an exact parallel between the Numbers narrative and our present circumstances, especially the epilogue.  When those men who are responsible for spreading a bad report about the promised land were struck down and died of a plague, all the surviving Israelites “mourned bitterly”, admitted they had sinned and attempted to enter the promised land.  But Moses said this now was disobeying the Lord’s command, and the inhabitants of the land attacked and beat them down.  In other words, it was too late to avoid the 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

A longer answer, then, is that we must endure whatever comes and be faithful when and to what we can in the areas of being present where children are being killed, of seeking to change the law and educating and reasoning with our neighbors, in creating powerful artistic expressions, and in serving women and men who face difficulties with pregnancy and raising children.  We also must admit that we are wandering and not pretend that our schemes and strategies will make much of a difference on the culture, or that they will significantly change the death count.  My prediction for the future is that true Christians will suffer persecution and be forced to endure hardships, and this is part of the purification process.*  How long or short this term of wandering will be, I have no idea.  Whatever happens in this coming election and afterwards, the results will be alarming. 

-Meredith Eugene Hunt

 

*While I can’t say I know exactly what to do as an individual, I have some ideas of what could and should happen.  I didn’t want this commentary to be about my novel, but I did put these ideas in its story. Since nobody is really reading it, it doesn’t matter if I give spoilers.  The main title, Universal Man, is a statement that I wrote the main character, who, though flawed as any human being is, represents the Church.  He wanders for a time in the wilderness of the North Cascade Mountains as he hides from the government in power that is hunting for him.  The novel depicts these ideas better than they can be explained, because they are an example (admittedly fictional) of someone applying them in life, rather than a bare treatise.  This present essay, the novel, my short stories, and numerous articles written over the years are about all I have to say.  Sure, I could continue to offer rational, creative critiques of both current and past pro-life projects and pro-abortion rhetoric, but at this point in history, it is only so much spinning of words.

 

 

Make Way for Ducklings

Photo by Laura

On a Saturday in June, Laura was near the intersections of McDowell and Choctaw in Asheville when she found several wild ducklings that had fallen down through a sewer grate along the curb of McDowell.  They were deep in the hole and couldn’t possibly get out on their own. The mother duck was nearby, quacking, and aggressively hissing at anyone who came near.  The grate was too heavy for Laura to lift, and besides she was busy with something else important, so she “couldn’t leave her post” she said.  She called 911 for help.

Police and firemen promptly responded and managed traffic on the busy four lane road while they rescued the ducklings, six of them. The mother duck went a short distance away.  One of the ducklings was so deep in the hole, they couldn’t reach it.  Sadly, the firemen had to leave it behind.  When the fire truck left, the mother duck returned, gathered her family and led them across the road toward the creek westward as cars and trucks stopped to let them safely pass. 

This incident is so much like the illustrated children’s book Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey.  This is a book, first published in 1941, that I remember from my childhood and we read it to our children and now read it to our grandchildren.  It is a recipient of the Caldecott Award.  The story has a mother duck and ducklings parading all over town and people stopping to watch.  It even has a policeman named Michael holding up traffic so the ducks can cross the road. 

The rescue of the ducklings in Asheville is a cute and charming story.  It is impressive that police officers and firemen would value the lives of ducks enough to ride to the scene in their expensive equipment and use their training and authority to save them.  But this story is not really charming and heartwarming.  It is dark and depressing by contrast, because at the corner of McDowell and Choctaw, a block away from the duck rescue, is a place called Planned Parenthood, where small, dependent human children are killed by a “doctor” hired by the children’s mothers and fathers.   And if we called 911 for police and firemen to rescue them, they might come, but refuse to intervene, and we’d be arrested.  If they did intervene, they’d lose their jobs or worse.

As for Laura, she was present at Planned Parenthood to try to persuade parents not to kill their children.  For the most part, the parents ignore her and the other anti-abortion people at the site.  So, the anti-abortion/pro-life people are not usually successful at saving children, but their heart is revealed when they show their love and care for ducklings.

They do what they can.   

Letter: Abortion Protestors Should Go Home

The Mountain Xpress published a letter to the editor on June 5, 2019 that they headlined. “Abortion Protestors Should Go Home,”  referring to us who go to Planned Parenthood on Saturday mornings. The letter writer, Mark Wonnacott made several claims. 1.We pro-lifers believe that abortion is murder. 2.We mostly only go out on warm, sunny days and go home when it starts drizzling. 3.We are very careful to stay within the confines of the law.  4.We obstruct the bus stop.   He bases his claims on observations made from his vehicle at the traffic stop light.  His conclusion is that we are either “moral cowards of the highest order”, or that we “use an imagined sense of moral superiority, an artfully constructed victim narrative and a position of incredibly social power to bully women… or both.”  I guess the victim narrative would be about pre-natal children.  Anyway, he recommends that we should “Stop it. Go home. Pay your taxes. Hug your children. Trust women.”

The letter generated over 104 comments so far and 3.3k reads, many of the comments from me.  At some point the original letter writer joined the discussion.  He’s trying to make the argument that unless I protest 24 hours a day, I don’t allow pregnant women the same choices I allow myself.  It takes some contortions to reach that conclusion, and besides, his whole argument is an ad hominem that says nothing about abortion and the life of a human being in the womb.

Find the letter and comments HERE.  I think you will find it all interesting.

Perspective

Three young Jewish women converse at a mass demonstration in Hyde Park 

to protest against the Nazi persecution of German Jewry.* 1933  USHMM

I've been thinking about the hatred and rage we experience when we are on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood.  Sure, lots of people give friendly honks and thumbs-up.  I appreciate those, even if the support is weak.  (It would mean more if people actually joined us.) The opposition on the other hand is emotionally fierce, and it sticks with you.

The other evening Edie and I watched the Martin Scorsese film “Silence”, based on the novel by Shusaku Endo.  I read the book years ago after seeing it on Marvin Olasky’s (editor of World News Group) essential reading list.  The story is about the horrific persecution of Christians in 15^th Century Japan.  What we go through in front of Planned Parenthood is laughable compared to what Christians endured then, and in other times and places around the world.   Still, we have time on the sidewalk to reflect on the daily bellowed “f___ yous” and up-thrusted middle fingers from passersby.  It’s not hard to interpret these as intended to be meant literally.  The ugly, vile, violent reference to what our Creator intended for human procreation is entirely consistent with the ugly, vile, violent response to the unwanted result of human procreation.  You almost view those people who do this to us as being of the same spirit of the inquisitors in medieval Japan.  I believe that if unrestrained by the law and encouraged, some of those bird flippers and shouters would attack us physically.  You see that sort of thing with the present so-called Antifa, or antifascist movement, who themselves use fascist tactics.

I don’t want to leave the impression that we are at great risk out there.  It is tense, but so far actual threats are almost non-existent.  We are able to focus on our purpose, which is reaching out to abortion bound people.

*The photograph has been cleaned up from the original, to remove specks. And cropped a little.To see the original and the documentation, go to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  I considered using this photo in my novel, but getting permission to use a high resolution image was burdensome. The photo is in the public domain.

Video: "Making the BEST Anti-Abortion, Pro-Life Signs Workshop"

This video will show you how to make the BEST pro-life, anti-abortion signs.  Includes a materials and tools list, and it shows an example of the WORST pro-life sign.  Watch HERE, and leave a comment.

Video: "Women's March on Asheville"

This is a video of the so-called "Women's March on Asheville" from our location at Spruce and College, and from our point of view.  Part One.

GRACEFUL RUNNER Available TODAY!

The link to the Amazon page is HERE.

A Novel for Roe v. Wade

Part one of my contemplative thriller, Universal Man will be released in a second edition for the upcoming anniversary of the abominable Roe v. Wade. It will be available on Amazon.com on Sunday, January 22.  Graceful Runner features a preface and a handful of original black & white location photographs. The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest. Part two, The Chinook Assembly will be available on March 1, 2017 for Lent, and part three, Then a Soldier will be available for next Easter.


To read the heart of the back cover of Graceful Runner, go to the page link on the right. The first, earlier edition of the book may be found HERE at the Barnes & Noble Nook store in an electronic version.

In Business, Friday

The escort is determined to show she's not afraid to have a photo made. 

Click to enlarge the photos.

Workman.  Add the the company "Harrison" to the boycott list.

This Lincoln Navigator was here before.  Maybe it's the abortionist's.

A male escort inside.  Supposedly he's won some local awards.

A couple going inside, maybe for abortion.  He went in first.

Of the Party of Killers

Beverly-Grant, INC. -voluntary builders of the Planned Parenthood charnel house on McDowell.

The builders are right next to ABC Pediatrics of Asheville.

The "Murky Pit Cafe" hosting a Planned Parenthood fundraiser on February 2, 2015.

A New Sign

4'x8'. It's big. Two people, a man and a woman, separately, screamed, bellowed, raged, and cursed at us today.  The woman also stopped to "inform" Planned Parenthood of our presence on the public sidewalk.  She told us that abortion was "an amendment to the Constitution" and said we were ignorant.  The man passed first one way and then other, riding a red motor scooter on his trip to the next-door allergy shot clinic.  I gave them both the V peace sign.

The Essence of “Pro-Choice” Rhetoric: Misdirection (Part 2)

by Mick Hunt

In Part I, I wrote about how abortion clinic escorts use misdirection and distraction, which are among the tools of stage illusionists as a way of controlling the audience’s attention.  These same tools are also at the heart of “pro-choice” rhetoric.

Ad-hominem attacks against pro-lifers are obvious, and a trained debater won’t be sidetracked by them, but virtually every women-centered question or statement is also misdirection.  The real issue is not whether we should care about women.  Everyone knows we should.  The real issue is about caring for pre-natal children.

My answer to many questions is, “We should treat pre-natal children the same as we should treat born children.”  Or, “Whatever problem you pose with a pregnancy and a pre-natal child, we should find a solution that is, in principle, no different than if the child were born.”

To a large extent, even the scientific debate over when human life begins is misdirection and distraction.  My philosopher-carpenter friend, John S., wrote recently in a letter to a state official, “Questions like ‘when does life begin’ or ‘what is a person’ are exercises in playing dumb.  We know when life begins—it begins at conception (fertilization).  We know what a person is—it’s a human being.”

The answer then is not so much in talking about abortion, but in acting as if abortion is murder.  The Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) is a powerful appropriate indirect response to the gravity of abortion.  It’s really not debate, but a presentation of facts through imagery.  GAP is a statement of the obvious to people who are distracted.  Any contribution to debate we make has more to do with interpreting the images for people who are confused.
GAP creates problems for abortion-choice supporters. In the face of evidence of the gruesome violence, “pro-choice” rhetorical engagement is a losing proposition.  GAP compels either acquiescence, active resistance, or a dilution of our effort.  Since the activists don’t intend to quit, they must issue propaganda and organize protests.  They spread propaganda through social media and campus publications.

We see resistance in most schools, but I’d like to focus for now on the campus of the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, and at North Carolina State University (NCSU) in Raleigh.

At Chapel Hill, abortion supporting students lined up in front of the GAP display with signs and helium balloons.  A couple of masked male students tapped on snare drums for endless hours.  A Planned Parenthood representative stood on a wall overlooking the scene and shouted meaningless patter about condoms and filing complaints with the Dean of Students.  At NC State, the abortion “counter protest” took a further step by attempting to block the view of the GAP display and form a complete wall of bodies and signs.

The portrayal of the victims of abortion through GAP helps distracted and misdirected people attend to the real issue of abortion.  And if GAP is so effective that abortion supporters must turn out in force to distract people from seeing the images, then shouldn’t we do GAP even more often?

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.

Appalachian State University

This is one of my favorite photos. At ASU the second day, in the morning when we arrived, we found no less than FOUR locks extra on the barricades. (Normally we only have one, ours.) Apparently, some students thought they could prevent us from setting up by not giving us keys or combinations. A police officer said that the black one was expensive. What a waste.

Fletcher Armstrong, SE Director of CBR is conversing in the midst of this crowd.

I have no idea what this climber's idea was.

My lovely wife, Edie, gesturing with her hands.

ASU Again

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

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

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

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

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