Monday, June 1, 2009

How Pro-Lifers Ruined My Weekend...

Stupid, stupid, stupid

I never wanted to write about this subject again. Those of you who read the Obama's Cake post have already been briefed on my thoughts on the pro-life movement.

...But then some jackass killed an abortion provider this weekend so I'll have to expand on previous thoughts.

I would like to think that all those reading this recognize the evil and stupidity behind the shooting of George Tiller yesterday: Evil because Mr. Tiller is a human being; Stupid because the murder of Mr. Tiller fills the mouths of pro-choice advocates hungry for rhetoric to spit in the eyes of the pro-life movement.

That sums that up. Except there is something far more significant in play...

The Guillotine

Pro-life leadership stinks.

Look, I have been to the March for Life in Washington, D.C. two years in a row. It's cool. 300,000+ people (mostly youth) gather to protest abortion. The event is full of energy and life.

But somebody, somewhere doesn't know a thing about event planning. It's a damn good thing that the March centers around an issue as controversial as abortion because otherwise nobody would show up.

Politics has the whole thing by the throat.

Everyone gathers around 12 for the rally. Ok cool, a rally... No, not cool, a rally... The 'rally' has been emceed since the beginning of time by Nellie Gray, the founder of the March. Don't get me wrong, Ms. Gray's dedication to the pro-life movement is second to none. However, given the average age of the event participants, a new emcee is in order.

But good-willed old people are fine; boring, but fine. The real problem is that for two and half hours, senator after senator, and representative after representative, fill the air with the same monotone, brow-beaten speech that they've given since they took up politics. Do some them care? Yes. But I'm sure if we could see some of their day-books, the schedule would look something like this.


  • 9 o'clock: Morning Briefing


  • 10 o'clock: Meeting with Senator X to discuss Y


  • 11 o'clock: Respond to emails


  • 12 o'clock: Appease the pro-life voting bloc


  • Et cetera

The evidence is in the passion the pour (or don't pour) into their speeches.

The "rally" should run something like this.


  1. Introductory remarks by hip, energetic Emcee


  2. Keynote address


  3. Update on Pro-life successes/battles/legislation


  4. Impassioned speeches by no more than two politicians/leaders


  5. March

If those involved with the pro-life movement find the courage to let go of their personal agendas and look at the goal, the event will take on the professional, attractive glean that has the potential to push this cause deep into the hearts and minds of this nation.

Where's my head?

The murder of George Tiller has epic consequences because no one who has the potential to unify the pro-life movement has risen to the task. As long as people like Randall Terry are featured in leading news stories about events like the Tiller murder, pro-life causes will suffer. The same dearth of leadership (or at least lack of self-awareness) allows bill board-sized pictures of aborted babies to litter the sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue along the March's route. Someone, maybe a politician, but someone worthy of representing this cause needs to step up and take control.

It's obvious and it should be easy. Young people respond to attractive messages and young people have the necessary energy to drive this movement forward. Only when pro-lifers learn to cater to their greatest hope can change be effected.

The Blue Anchor Vol I: 2

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I have a question for you. Do you really still hope to be anything but vilified in the media? I feel that perhaps we are willing to sacrifice a lot for the sake of popularity or at least the desire to appear rational to our opponents. However, I think this is a misguided approach. If you go against an enemy that is not willing to give quarter with gentle words of reconciliation, you will undoubtedly get your head blown off. And we have done this many times. We want to talk, to reason, to convince, and we come away, again and again, riddled with bullet holes. This seems like an ineffective strategy to me because it has not been working. Our enemies believe in the will to power. They do not believe in reason, conversation, reconciliation. We should be careful in this. Although Edmund Burke is often quoted as having said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." this quote was never captured in writing directly attributed to Burke. However, one thing he did write is very appropriate as well, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

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  3. Brandon, I think the most appropriate question is: Who is the enemy?
    Because if the enemy is another person like you or I, a fellow partaker of the human experience, I absolutely disagree.
    My limited experience with the media does not allow me to label them as 'satan incarnate' either. The media will produce whatever sells.

    However, I completely agree that any group that hopes to change the hearts and minds of a society must be united. The pro-life movement has not failed because its "gentle words of reconciliation" have been "riddled with bullet holes". The pro-life movement has failed thus far because it has not transmitted a coherent message on society's wavelength.
    This is not a reason to lose faith in man. It should be an inspiration to discover what new wonders modern man can achieve.

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