Today, in spite of the weather, I drove to Washington D.C. to partake in the 37th annual March For Life and had an experience like no other. I saw an enthusiastic crowd in very large numbers totally devoted to the life cause, consisting largely of young, fresh faced people chanting, praying, laughing, and enjoying life to its fullest as they marched for their firmly held beliefs.
They came from Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and even from as far west as Kansas City, MO. They all came for the same reason, to convince our lawmakers and Supreme Court justices to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and make abortion a thing of the past. There were priests, bishops, lots of students, women who have had abortions and regretted them, Knights of Columbus, bloggers like myself, politicians, teachers, nurses, several nuns, and people from all walks of life, all who agree that abortion will go down in history along side American slavery and lynching of African-Americans as stains and blights on our nation.
There were some who disagreed, waiting for us on the other side of the Capitol Building, their numbers very few and kind of pathetic. They were treated civilly, but dealt with in short order. Their message was blocked by superior numbers, banners, logic, and reasoning.
After the March I headed over to the Senate office buildings to find Senators Specter and Casey. Senator Spector was not in today (no surprise being he is pro-abortion) to receive the many visitors who stopped by. I signed his guest book and left a not-so-friendly message, "Act like a man," in response to his treatment of Michelle Bachmann the other day.
When I stopped by Senator Casey's office I found he was not there either. But there was a sign saying he was available to meet with pro-life people from 2:00 to 2:30pm today. I found that amusing since the March started at 2pm and was in no way finished by 2:30. What a clown! I hope he isn't counting on being more than a one-term-wonder. My message for him wasn't much nicer, as I was both tired and foot-sore.
As I was searching for the exit I heard a familiar voice from around the corner. When I investigated I found Fox News' own Carl Cameron with his cameraman and equipment working on a news piece about Senator Mitch McConnell and campaign finance laws. I waited until they were done and then tried to sneak a picture of him. He noticed and said "hold on," as he set down his can of Red Bull, walked over to me and offered to have his cameraman take a picture of the two of us with my Sony. "We do this all the time," Cameron said reassuringly. And then several pictures were taken (See last photo below). What a generous guy. I rank him along side Ernie Banks and Bishop Rhoades when it comes to celebrity encounters.
All things considered, it was a very positive and productive day. I have the rest of the 159 pictures available now. Click on this---> Flickr.
All of the pictures above and below were taken by me and my Sony DSC-F828. And as usual, you can make each one larger by clicking on it. Enjoy!
All of the pictures above and below were taken by me and my Sony DSC-F828. And as usual, you can make each one larger by clicking on it. Enjoy!
10 comments:
Good for you! Wish I could have been there. My youngest daughter turned 18 today on this grim anniversary of Roe v. Wade. It is good and perhaps a bit ironic that she is even more staunchly pro-life than I am! :)
Well, please wish her a happy birthday from us all. And good for her to have her head on straight!
Great post and sounds like you and the others had a great time celebrating life on the day liberals set aside to celebrate death as they do.
Linked here from a post I did yesterday!! Have a great weekend all and nice job yesterday!
American Power tracked-back with, 'The March for Life 2010'.
I just returned to St. Louis from participating in the march for life for the first time. I am a relative new-comer to this movement, and I was astounded at the size of the pro-life crowd and the positive energy. The only thing I can compare it to was seeing Pope John Paul II on his visit to St. Louis times 100.
I expected there to be some show of resistance to the pro-lifers. To my complete surprise, I only saw a handful of pro-abortion signs right in front of the supreme court at the very end of the march (around 5:30pm) and there were not more than two dozen people in their camp.
To even mention them at all in the news coverage would be like mentioning the number of people wearing prosthetic legs at the super-bowl: totally irrelevant.
To my further surprise, this is one of the only websites I've come up with on google that even mentioned crowd size estimates. This is the first time I've ever encountered this blog. I am no estimator of crowd size, but I can assure you that I've never been involved in anything even close to the scale of that event. Out of curiosity, I wanted to know whether it was a million people or only 300,000.
It's very bizarre to have been at an event so monumental and iconic (filling almost the ENTIRE National mall as we emptied out onto Constitution Avenue to swarm the Supreme Court building) only to return to the internet and find almost nothing about it... what's the deal?
Does anyone know of any reliable news estimates? What about aerial photos? I'd love to see those.
I too went for my first March for Life this year, but I live just outside of DC.
When there have been Anti-war protests, we hear on the radio, "There's an Anti-war protest on K street marching to the White House." But in recent years, the March for life has been relegated to "There's an event." or "There is a March" that disrrupts your commute on such and such street, with no mention of what is actually taking place.
The mentions have gotten thinner and thinner as the years have passed and I've been listening to the coverage just outside the beltway for 14 years.
Sherry Tex, that is a horribly sad commentary on what has become of our American culture as far as the media is concerned.
How can an event that large not attract national media coverage, let alone local D.C. coverage?
It saddens me that too many people have given in to the culture of death that is so pervasive nowadays.
It is heartening to hear that, regardless of the media's focused inattention, there are still more than a quarter million people that thought enough of this issue to march! Praise God and all those that support unborn life that He created!
Great pictures of the March! Thanks for sharing. My favorite is the first one with the group of pro-life youth in slightly wacky poses. The March For Life is obviously where the cool kids are!
Very spiriting to see such enthusiastic youth at a rally like this!
Thanks for dropping by my blog, Matt. Come back anytime -- and just to let you know, I added several links to other blogs that have more photos of the March. Hope you find yourself somewhere in there :-D
And thank you again for blogging about the March and for posting the pictures. It's only through blogs like yours -- and what has come to be called "citizen journalism" -- that crucial matters related to pro-life advocacy are given the space and objective coverage it deserves! The mainstream media is unreliable when it comes to this, as the others here realize too.
Kraus, I'm also waiting for the official count as regards the crowd at the March in DC. So far what I've read are estimates from 200,000 to 400,000 people. However, it's notable that in different parts of the US (San Francisco, parts of Arizona, Texas, Denver, Hawaii and many others, similar marches and rallies for the cause of life were held either on the same day or a few days before/after the 22nd. It's marvelous!!
So edifying to see solidarity in this fight for life.
Post a Comment