Final Update
Rounding out my coverage of the 2012 March for Life, I’ve added photos (taken by my companion at the March, Rob, father of Ben and Theo in the photo to the right). Rob has a good eye and captured some nice images; enjoy them. (Also, shout-out to my home-office blogging assistant Suz for managing my texts from the field, doing some necessary clean-up and fact-checking, and handling the actual posting.)
In a strange echo of John Boehner’s comments about the defense of life and the defense of liberty, Rep. Rand Paul was prevented from speaking at the rally—when he was detained by TSA agents after refusing an enhanced pat-down and missed his flight as a result. While TSA security-theater invasion of privacy is small beer in comparison with abortion, there is a connection: The right to life is the foundation of all other rights, and a government that denies the dignity of human life at any stage need not scruple at the dignity of travelers in airports. In the pragmatism of the culture of death, citizens are property of our ruling classes, and they will do with us as they wish. Naturally, the White House is supporting the TSA.
Meanwhile, how did the media do this year reporting on the march? Michelle Malkin wrote before the March about the media’s routine downplaying of the event, and Mary Chastain of Big Journalism says that televised coverage was limited to EWTN and CSPAN-2. I saw a FOX News van, but saw nothing of the big networks, CNN and so forth.
Both the New York Times and the Washington Post completely ignored the March in their print editions—the Times for the fifth year in a row. The WaPo did online coverage, including offering the strange metric “more than 17,000 youths” participated in March for Life events. NYTimes.com has not covered the 2012 March that I can find, except incidentally.
Perhaps surprisingly, the best mainstream media coverage I could find was MSNBC.com, which did not one but two remarkable pieces before and after the March. The earlier piece notes that “more than 100,000” were expected to attend, and calls the March “the largest and longest-running peaceful human rights demonstration for the unborn.” Get that: MSNBC acknowledges the March for Life as a “human rights demonstration.”
The latter piece acknowledges “tens of thousands” present, even adding that the March for Life is “consistently one of the largest protests of the year in Washington, although weather likely kept this year’s numbers down a bit.” Though not without some editorial slanting, the overall coverage is pretty good.
The Washington Times, which in the past has acknowledged that the event consistently draws 250,000 or more, referred vaguely to “thousands” in its lede, though it also acknowledged that National Park Service officials stated that the event historically draws crowds exceeding the event’s permit for 50,000 participants.
Oh, and the L.A. Times took the easy way out, declining to suggest any order of magnitude to the crowd: “Protesters converged under chilly gray skies for the annual march on the National Mall, which coincides with the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision that legalized abortion.” Can’t argue with that, can you?
Finally, hat tip to the blog Wynkin, Blynken and Nod for noticing a despicable photo gallery from CBS has actually surpasses that CNN.com coverage from two years ago for the most horrendous misreportage of the March for Life: Not only does the caption deploy the “Activists on both sides of the abortion issue” dodge, but all the photos are of the pro-choice counter-demonstrators. Not one photo of the March for Life or any pro-life demonstrators or signs.
That takes some doing. CBS, there will be a reckoning. (P.S. Added: Looks like CBS agrees, after a fashion. That didn’t take long.)
Original post
Monday morning, 5:30am. 39 years after Roe v. Wade, the 39th annual March for Life is slated to make its way up Constitution Avenue later today. This will be my fifth year attending the March, and my third year live-blogging via iPhone. I’m about to get in my van with my father and my older kids and hit the road, picking up friends along the way.
Each year, always on a weekday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators (of various faiths, and of none) converge on Washington, DC to protest the gravest moral evil of our times, a horror that ranks with the Holocaust and slavery in the annals of man’s inhumanity to man.
The March for Life is much more than a one-day event. It’s a multi-day rally that includes rallies, discussion panels, film screenings, Masses, and a reception and dinner after the March. Many demonstrators make a point of stopping at Capitol Hill to see their representatives.
Each year, the mainstream media ignores, downplays and spins the event. In particular, media reports seem to take pains to hide the sheer numbers of the participants.
Granted, crowd estimates are always contentious and subject to spin in both directions, but the 2009 Washington Times report that the March for Life consistently draws crowds of 250,000 is credible, and attendance for more recent rallies has been estimated even higher—as high as 400,000 for 2011.
Even for skeptics doubting these numbers, the media deflation of the rally numbers is staggering. Vague media references to mere “thousands” of demonstrators—not even “tens of thousands,” let alone “hundreds of thousands”—have appeared in numerous outlets over the years, including New York Times (2007, 2004), the Washington Post, USA Today and CNN.com’s Religion Blog. That’s when they report on the March at all.
Occasionally, a slightly franker order of magnitude slips through: “tens of thousands” was allowed by the Washington Post in 2010, USA Today in 2008 and the New York Times in 2006. Other times, no order of magnitude is mentioned at all, leaving readers unclear whether the event drew participants in double digits, three or more, etc. (e.g., AP).
Photo coverage is equally selective. Carefully chosen camera angles are used to depict only a few demonstrators at a time—or even, in the case of that CNN.com Religion Blog story, a single protester praying in front of the Supreme Court building. Seldom does a major media outlet offer a shot depicting the vast throng of marchers flooding Constitution Avenue.
Far and away the most blatant misreporting I’ve seen to date was a CNN.com story from two years ago.
The story began with the almost Orwellian sentence “Abortion rights supporters and opponents hit the streets of the nation’s capital Friday…”—not only suggesting a picture of two roughly comparable, opposed rallies, as opposed to one massive event with a handful of counter-demonstrators, but actually citing the pro-choice demonstrators first.
Accompanying the story was a two-photo slideshow leading with a photo of a few pro-choice demonstrators with “Keep Abortion Legal” signs. Only if you click to the second photo do you see a number of pro-life demonstrators (photographed, of course, from an angle that gives no hint of the size of the rally).
As an idea of the magnitude of the March, here’s a time-lapse video compressing over 90 minutes to about 1 minute:
Updates from the March to come.
Update #1
8:30am. We’re on I-95 with about an hour to go. There’s snow on the ground, but it’s a balmy 36 degrees outside—much warmer than in recent years. It’s also raining. We’ve had a lot of mist and fog on the trip. At times visibility has been low.
I’m in an 8-seat van with two of my older kids and some friends from church. An hour ago or so we were praying a rosary and talked to Brian Patrick on the Son Rise Morning Show (Sacred Heart Radio), on which I do a weekly Friday spot.
9:15am. Spotted a VA “Choose Life” license plate. The car we’re driving has NJ “Choose Life” tags.
9:35. Greenbelt Metro Station. The station is packed—fuller than I remember it from previous years, even though we’re earlier than usual.
On the Metro. We arrived just ahead of an enormous busload of students wearing Maine gear—they came a lot further than we did! We’re already getting compliments on our signs from random passers-by—not people going to the March.
I’ll report back from the March once we arrive.
Update #2
10:20am. At Gallery Place Metro station. The train has just been invaded by an enormous group with yellow balloons reading “LIFE.” The group is singing the chorus of “Amen,” like Sidney Poitier in Lilies of the Field. When I ask where they’re from, the answer is a bit confusing: Apparently the balloon idea is from Chicago, but this particular group is from Connecticut. “We’ll be joining the rest of the group from Chicago,” he sort of explains.
11am. At the rally. So far a small crowd—the rally this year is scheduled to begin at noon, so presumably throngs are arriving later than usual.
The crowd is small—but raucous. An enthusiastic group with guitars, drums and a sort of windwood keyboard are singing “Pro-life!” at the top of their lungs. They’re the Neocatechumenal Way, and they couldn’t be more effusive.
It’s raining, and the rain is picking up. The grounds are a muddy, slick mess—and it’s only going to get worse as the crowd grows. I can see the Washington Monument, but its top is hidden in mist.
Are they playing “Car Wash” over the loudspeakers? Is that meant to be ironic? Okay, now there’s a pop group from Liberty University: Sounds of Liberty. That’s more appropriate.
I follow the signs for EWTN, where I know my friend Damon Owens is covering the march. Every year I look for Damon, but this year for the first time I find him—or rather his four oldest girls, who greet me with surprised smiles. Damon himself, I’m told, is in the midst of an interview. I tell them I’ll bring Sarah by to see them.
Some big banners in evidence: “Mercer County Right to Life” from Ohio. “Ave Maria University Students For Life.” “Overturn Roe v. Wade: Pass a Life at Conception Act.” Lots of smaller signs too, of course—including a bunch of signs from Maine. Understandably, they’re not scared of the weather.
Okay, we met up with Damon. He tells me that the rally schedule has been thrown into flux with the planned appearance of John Boehner.
Update #3
11:45am.
The rain has let up for the moment, at least. The crowd is growing, but still quite small so far compared to previous years—Rob and estimate low thousands. Still, the rally itself hasn’t begun.
Al-Jazeera English is here doing interviews. My friend Rob and I both talk to them. Rob tells them that the right to life is the first and foundational human right, upon which all other rights depend.
Once again, our homemade signs are getting a lot of admiration and attention. We’ve been asked for lots of pictures.
11:55. Sounds of Liberty sings the National Anthem.
The opening prayer is an ecumenical venture, offered by Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America in union with other Orthodox and Roman Catholic bishops present on the stage, including Cardinal-elect Timothy Dolan of New York and Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities. “We are of one heart and one purpose,” Metropolitan Jonah says.
Offering a beautiful opening prayer, Met. Jonah leads us in a sort of responsive litany in which the crowd responds, “Lord, have mercy” as he weaves together biblical and theological references. Citing Jeremiah, he affirms that God knows each of us from our mother’s womb: he goes on to invoke the lament of Rachel weeping for her children and Jesus telling the disciples that they must accept the kingdom like little children.
Nellie Gray, founder of the March, is now speaking. Calling abortion a crime against humanity, she denounces Roe v Wade as not the law of the land, but an immoral precept promoted as law. Enunciating her chosen theme for the march, she urges pro-lifers to reject incremental strategies and accept no compromises. Personally, I think incremental progress is better than no progress at all, but I agree we can be satisfied with nothing less than full protection of law for all human beings from conception to natural death.
Suddenly there is a large crowd. We are surrounded on all sides, and the signs go back as far as I can see. I can no longer make a stab at estimating the size of the crowd.
Update #4
12:15pm.
Now John Boehner is here.
He thanks us for braving the elements, and says that he represents a bipartisan pro-life majority that recognizes that the majority of Americans are against funding abortion with tax dollars.
Boehner tells us that he’s from a big family—that he has 11 brothers and sisters! “I’m sure it wasn’t easy for our mother to have 12 of us,” he says, “but I’m glad we’re all here.” He explains that he learned his pro-life convictions early, citing Jesus teaching regarding “the least of these.” Being pro-life, he says, isn’t just a belief: “It’s who I am.”
“When we affirm our commitment to life,” Boehner continues, “we affirm our commitment to liberty and freedom. When our commitment to life is diminished freedom is diminished.” Wrapping up his comments, he says, “God go with all of you today, and God bless America.”
Next up is Rep. Chris Smith of my state of New Jersey and co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. Smith touts the House’s overwhelming support for to defunding Planned Parenthood. “Now we need to retake the Senate.”
Rhetorically taking on President Obama, Smith shouts, “Mr. president, killing babies is not an American value! Mr. president, stop violating conscience rights! Mr. president, stop exporting abortion!”
Smith also warns that a second Obama term would be far worse than the first, and emphasizes the importance of uniting behind a candidate to defeat Obama.
Now speaking is Eric Cantor, House Majority leader and currently, I learn, the only Jewish Republican currently in congress. Like others, Cantor affirms the House’s commitment to conscience rights.
12:35pm
Currently speaking is Tom Price of Georgia, a physician. “Life is so very very basic, so very very precious. And it’s also so very very threatened.” Price goes on to indict popular culture and education for diminishing the value of life.
Steve king of Iowa tells us, “You fill this mall as far as the eye can see”—and on that stage he can see further than I can. He also touts the 40-something states that have passed incremental restrictions on abortion.
Todd Akin of Missouri says this is his 12th annual pro-life march, but will be his last march as a Senator—because he hopes to oust Missouri’s pro choice governor and join the March next year as a governor.
12:45pm
Raining hard again.
Update #5
1pm.
Along with the senators and representatives are speakers representing abortion alternatives and healing groups. The co-founders of Silent No More are here, along with Chris Bell of Good Counsel Homes and others representing groups in Arizona, St Louis and Ohio, among others.
There are more representatives, from more states than I can keep track of: Texas, Nebraska, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Virginia, and Louisiana—the latter of which is the most pro-life state in the union, we’re told by a Louisiana representative who challenges the other states to “take us down.”
They continue to speak about threats to conscience rights under the Obama administration as well as the war against abortion itself. We are thanked for coming out in spite of the cold and the rain. “I wish Roe v Wade had been on May 22 instead of January 22,” cracks a Texas rep who strangely introduces himself as “95 percent pro-life.”
Apparently there is a huge contingent here from Kansas; a pair of Kansas representatives gets a huge cheer of welcome.
A lone protestor is carrying a very tall sign attacking the Catholic Church for not speaking out against contraception. He’s being obnoxious and disruptive. I try to talk to him—tell him that I’m Catholic and that I agree with him about contraception. “No you don’t!” he shouts angrily at me. The conversation goes downhill from there. I try to argue that this isn’t the time and place for that discussion, but he just keeps shouting. I let him go his way.
Update #6
1:25pm.
Luke Robertson, a fiery African-American pastor, is giving closing remarks before the March. He blasts President Obama for neglecting the devastation of the black community from abortion, calling it a genocide. “Where is the voice of President Obama?” he thunders. “Where is the voice of Jesse Jackson? Where is the voice of the NAACP? Where’s the voice of the Black Congressional Caucus?” Recalling Jackson’s former pro-life stance, he asks pointedly if he was corrupted by planned parenthood dollars, calling it “blood money”.
I don’t think Rabbis for Life spoke this year. Nor was there a roll call of Catholic bishops, as I remember from two years ago. (Last year I arrived late, so I might have missed it.) There was a roll call of the bishops at the mass that was held at the armory.
1:37pm.
Now Robertson is giving the closing prayer—but from here it looks as if the march may be sort of starting unofficially. At least, there’s a huge surge of marchers and banners in the direction of the march route.
Somewhere at the front of the line, I think, is Christendom College, which is leading the march this year. Every year they cancel classes and bus students to the march. My oldest daughter Sarah is going to Christendom in the fall, so I expect I’ll be meeting her here next year.
1:45pm.
The march is underway. We’re at Madison Drive & 7th, moving very slowly if at all. Directly in front of me are a half dozen or so papal flags flying alongside flags for the Diocese of Trenton. Far ahead I see a familiar banner: “Lutherans for Life”.
To my left is a big banner for the Diocese of Salina, Kansas. A number of people are carrying a powerful sign I haven’t seen before: a fetus with a crown of thorns bearing the words “Forgive them, they know not what they do.”
And there’s something I’ve never seen at a pro-life march: a giant American flag with an equally huge Marine Corp flag beneath it.
2:15pm.
We’ve reached Constitution. We were strategically positioned to get moving pretty quickly. Even so, a policeman tells me the crowd has been going steadily by for about an hour—and to my left I hear a priest on a cellphone talking to marchers who are still stuck back on the Mall. When I ask police officers how the crowd compare to last year, the universal answer is “More than last year.”
To my right is a raucous Hispanic group from the diocese of Raleigh, alternately chanting in Spanish and shouting “We are pro-life!”
The rain has let up, and now that we’re moving it’s not too cold.
We’re now in the best place on constitution to evaluate the whole crowd. I can see it thronging up the hill ahead of me as far as I can see behind me it’s the same thing.
I see young women and young men, children of all ages, priests young and old. I see blacks and whites, Latinos. To my right is an older Asian man wearing a headband I would have killed for in college. There was even a woman on crutches.
Next to me are a group of young girls spontaneously singing a song about praising God “right where we are.” They shift to “Go Tell it on the Mountain,” but one of them ad libs “that babies will be born.” Then I hear a quartet of young men singing their high school anthem in strong four-part harmony. Now there’s a raucous chant behind me with young men and young women are alternating lines: “We love babies, yes we do! We love babies, how ‘bout you?”
You just can’t believe the size and the good spirits of the crowd that comes out here every January, in spite of snow and rain and cold.
I see the diocese of Grand Rapids, MI—a Protestant Mecca for my Dutch Reformed family. It’s nice to see Grand Rapids Catholics here today.
2:45pm. Hey, there’s my alma mater, St Charles Borreomeo Seminary from Wynnewood, Pa! They tell me it’s their first year here representing the religious studies program (“Of course all the seminarians are here”).
The Catholic Medical Association has a nice banner that says “Respecting Human Life in the Science & Practice of Medicine.”
3:00pm.
Turning the corner to pass in front of the Supreme Court and complete the march. It’s raining again, but the crowd’s spirits are undampened. Our homemade signs, alas, have been pretty ravaged by the rain—yet people are still smiling, pointing and taking pictures when they see them. The moral of the story, I guess, is that if you put out a little effort to make a homemade sign you’ll get a lot more attention.
Now we’re marching next to a group singing and praying in Polish. They’re from New Jersey, not far from where we live.
Hey, a shofar ... that’s got to be the Rabbis for Life. Still haven’t seen the big Orthodox banners of previous years, although there’s clearly an Orthodox presence here.
3:15pm.
We’re about to pass in front of the Supreme Court building. To my left I can hear a woman with Silent No More, a Canadian, talking about her abortion and all the information the doctor didn’t give her, and how it affected her physically and emotionally for years. The young women passing by are much more somber now. “Oh my God, I’m going to cry,” one whispers.
Although I’m now right in front of the courthouse, I don’t see any counter-demonstrators. Oh yes, there must be a few. I don’t see them, but it looks like they have a banner this year: “Trust Women.” We don’t stop to talk to them this year. We don’t hear anyone else talking to them. In a moment I can no longer see them. I’m surrounded by Loyola students chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Roe v Wade has got to go!”
And here, finally, are students from Christendom College. They’re glad to meet Sarah and say they’re looking forward to coming back next year with her—those who aren’t graduating anyway. Of course, I’m sure many Christendom graduates are among us too, if not marching with the current students.
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We’re with you there in Spirit.
I was fortunate to be at the prayer service sendoff of eight charter buses filled with Cincinnati high schoolers last night. Praying for change of hearts, strength of witness, and safety of the marchers and the unborn.
SO proud of the number of bishops that are there. Too many of them act like politicians sometimes, but thank God they have not dropped the ball on this issue.
The Apostolic Nuncio is reading a greeting from Pope Benedict at the mass at the Verizon Center. The chants of “Benedict! Benedict!” went on for what seemed like minutes.
SO glad you are doing this! I couldn’t make it this year, and it’s nice to get these updates! :)
Praying for you and looking forward to reading more updates throughout the day!
Today is the first March for Life that I am unable to attend in the past 6 years. Prayers go out to all on this most important pilgrimage. My daughter Megan is there with a group from the Diocese of Rockford, IL, marching and praying that we continue to support all life from conception to it’s natural end. Prayers of thanksgiving for all whom pray in front of abortion clinics, Rockford’s has recently shut down permanently, praise God and His wondrous deeds. God bless all.
CNN is reporting a few hundred people in a park.
I wasn’t able to attend the March this year for the first time in a couple of years. It’s so nice to feel like I’m there through your words and the hearts of all of those in attendance. My sister and friends from Ohio are there with our Pro-Life group Teens for Truth. Each step they take today is one step closer to saving million of innocent lives tomorrow. My prayers go out to everyone in Washington.
I am not able to be there, but my 20 year old college son has made his first trip there! I am so proud of him! I volunteer at Birthright Counseling and I am praying for all of you! Thanks for the updates-God bless you all.
Praying with you today! Thanks for keeping us with you.
The lone protestor from update5 was obviously from Bizarro World. On Bizarro World, everybody speaks out against contraception except the Catholic Church, as opposed to Earth where it is exactly the other way around.
My son and sister and her family are there from the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas. We sent over 9 charter buses with youth from our diocese. They will be traveling 23 hours to get home by tomorrow night. They have had a great time from the text I have received from my son. May God bless our efforts.
My wife and daughter have joined the throngs in DC today, 1/23/2012. While I had to work, I am with them in spirit. Having watched the events of the day on EWTN, I regret that the speakers only seem to represent conservative Republicans. As a faithful Democrat, who argues that abortion is rarely a good choice (the absolutist position never holds up when face-to-face with those in despair, those in need, those in fear, those who are self-righteous), and who aims to defend life from cradle to grave, or before the cradle and after the grave (memory), I wish for this annual March for Life to broaden its outward signs and witness to include the human lifespan, and to honor and defend life, and the quality of life, of all creatures, great and small. No more platitudes. No more politicking. No more abortions. No more abandonment of the elderly. No more the ignoring of prison inmates. No more stepping over the homeless on the streets.
But for today, God bless all those who have gathered on behalf of the unborn in DC. Today, amidst the bad weather conditions, the marchers are certainly engaged in liberating sacrifice!
So glad to read this! My son is there with some others from UNCG Catholic Campus Ministries in Greensboro NC. Praying for all who attend.
Thank you so much, Steve, for allowing us prayer warriors at home to be “at the march” with you! I watched what I could on EWTN. Good to know so many wonderful people made the trip. Now, we all need to pray and work for the day that this march will be a VICTORY March for Our Lord and all innocent babies!!!!
Great blog! I did not attend the MFL this year, and this blog me to participate in the day’s events - reminding me of its importance, how much I enjoy participating, and the incredibly blatant bias of the main stream media. Thank you
You should have given that obnoxious contraception protester a link to your “Redefining Marriage” series! That would have convinced him!
I am on the bus home from the march with my group from the University of Michigan. Many of the things you mentioned I saw too. I wonder if we brushed shoulders : )
Good for John Boehner for personally attending! What a change from Nancy!
Go Kansas! We always have a pretty large delegation, considering the drive.
We came into the March behind the National Art Gallery thinking it had already begun there were so many people walking already and we walked all the way to the Supreme Court, came back around to where we began and they were still walking past us up Constitution Avenue. We stayed there and watched for another 20 minutes with no end in sight. So many people! Despite the cold and the rain. And our Bishop made the trip to Washington to join our young people at Mass at the Youth Rally at the Armory even though he just returned two days ago from his visit to Rome to see the Pope.
Love the accompanying video—hope you’ll be able to compress and update for 2012. Thanks for standing up for pro-life issues in this forum! We were at the Teen Rally & Mass—amazing!
Thank you for defending life. Pro-life people are the true lovers.
So proud of you all! I’m there in spirit!
Pro-life America, pro-life world! Quick addendum to the 12:35 PM entry, I believe Akin said he was running for senator.
This was my first visit to the March for Life. I was overwhelmed by the amazing organization of the event.
Hey where were the major networks? CBS, ABC, NBC, where were you ? Where was CNN? Aren’t news channels supposed to be mainstream, report only the facts and not take sides? I mean that’s Journalism 101.
Hundreds of thousands on Capitol Hill and no major networks? Hmmmmm, something smells foul here?
All you major networks should be ashamed of yourselves. FOX is for me !
Where is a picture of your homemade signs? What did they look like? Go LIFE!!!
You must live in “Fantasy Land” Steven D. I don’t know where you were today but it CERTAINLY wasn’t Washington, D.C. I’m 48 years old and have always known that whenever more than ten THOUSAND people converge on our Nation’s Capital for ANYTHING it ALWAYS makes the national news.
I set my DVR to record the NBC and CBS Evening News of their coverage of the activities in D.C. today but I was disappointed. Nothing, nunca, nada. I figured I had programmed the wrong day into my recorder, so I went to the Internet. On the home pages of CBS, NBC and ABC News there was also no mention of the thirty-ninth anniversary of the Supreme Court sanctioning of the wholesale murder of pre-born babies.
I’m sorry to break it to you but the age-old question has been answered, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, did it really fall”? Apparently not.
Please pray for the United States of America!
I hate to point this out, since I was at the March in 2011 and 2012 (just got back this morning), the video loops the same groups of people multiple times. I must’ve seen the same sign a dozen times. It’s kinda misleading.
John Bequette:
If you were at the March last year and this year, you know that a great many signs at the March are duplicates.
Some points to bear in mind.
1. The video was posted by Franciscan Friars. We should be wise as serpents, but we should also take an accusation of breaking the eighth commandment seriously.
2. Because the video is time lapse photography, even though it’s speeded up it is possible to follow the action—to follow individual signs, balloons and other crowd “landmarks” along the screen. If the video were looped at any point, there would be a hard break in which all visible landmarks would vanish and be replaced by brand-new images. It should be possible to detect such a hard break through careful analysis. If you think there’s a loop, I submit it’s incumbent on you to find the hard break.
3. By the same token, it should be possible to point out any number of duplicate moments by time register. Can you point out approximate time registers to be compared (e.g., the 20s mark vs. the 35s mark)? If you can’t, then you must withdraw your claim.
4. Here is another time lapse video of last year’s march shot from a different vantage point.
John Bequette:
I’ve now carefully reviewed the time-lapse video a few frames at a time, and can confirm what I was sure of all along: You’re just wrong.
In practically every frame, and certainly in any five-second clip, there are unique signs not seen anywhere else in the video. I could provide a list of them if I had the time and the inclination.
On those occasions where the signs are mostly generic, you can track the continuity to preceding and subsequent frames with unique signs. The signs move across the screen, so there’s no way the video was looped. It is a true record of the 2011 March.
BTW, I hope to post photos and final thoughts later today.
Thanks Steven for your blogging at the march—we felt like we were there. So sad that we couldn’t make it this year—we would have been a part of that Kansas ruckus! We pray, as we always do, that there will not be another march next year.
Thank God for EWTN broadcasting this event. I was with them in spirit and pray for the safety of all these people on their way home.
I don’t understand events like this. Imagine a world where clinics provided the option of terminating the life of children ages 3-9. Would we respond to these places by marching about for an hour or two, followed by a nice cuppa hot chocolate? Absolutely not. We’d uproot any city harboring such clinics. So, why do most pro-lifers only respond to abortion with things like marches? I can only infer that they don’t *really* believe fetuses have the same moral status as human persons. And if they do really believe this, then shame on them for doing nothing more than walking around with sticks for an hour or two. Pro-lifers :rolls-eyes:
Stevo:
1. Actually, I agree with you that if all any of us did were “walk around with sticks for an hour or two” once a year, that would be a terrible indictment of the pro-life movement. And in fact many of us could do a lot more than we do. But it’s also true that many of us are doing much, much more than that already.
Many of us are on the streets every month or even every week protesting and praying outside abortion facilities. Many of us do sidewalk counseling, work at or support crisis pregnancy centers and post-abortion counseling, etc. Many of us adopt unwanted children, handicapped children, etc.
Many of us have engaged in civil disobedience. Many of us have illegally blocked clinic doors, facing arrest or being arrested. Many of us have been spat upon, roughed up by unsympathetic police officers (though there are also plenty of the sympathetic type) and more.
Many of us also recognize that in an age of judicial activism, when an atrocious 1973 Supreme Court overreach is accorded the status of “settled law of the land,” the best option we have is to work to appoint judges who go by what the law says rather than “emanations and prenumbras.” Many of us work very hard to support candidates who can help us get such judicial appointments. (Alas, such efforts can come with terrible compromises. I’m glad we got Roberts and Alito. But was the Bush administration as a whole worth it?)
Incidentally, in order to “walk around with sticks” every January, many of us use vacation time from work, drive hours or days to Washington, rent hotel rooms, stand around on the Mall in rain and snow and freezing cold, and shuffle in a vast crowd for a march that lasts three hours or more, not counting the rally. Then we bundle back into cars and buses to drive for hours or days back home, often dragging ourselves to work or school the next day. So have a little respect.
2. For your analogy to work, you first have to imagine a world in which a) nearly half the population has been persuaded that parents have a right to murder their 3-9 year olds, so that opposition to such murder is widely considered controversial, slurred in the MSM, etc., b) the Supreme Court has established the “right” to murder 3-9 year olds as “the law of the land,” c) the president strongly supports this “right” and is willing to defend and promote it at almost any cost; etc.
Tell me what you personally would be willing to do in such a world. I am particularly curious what you have in mind regarding “uprooting cities,” and how or whether you think this would help support the dignity of human life.
Note to all:
I’ve updated the article with final thoughts and photos. (Anonymous, you can now see two of my homemade signs in the photos above!)
That obnoxious protester with the tall sign about contraception rode my bus to the march and goes to my church! His heart is in the right place but he can definitely be over-argumentative (as he was on the bus ride).
Thanks, Adam Burch. I thought your fellow parishioner’s heart was in the right place, but I had to tell him I thought he was doing more harm than good.
FWIW, if you happen to talk to him, you can tell him from me that the guy who briefly tried to convince him that the March wasn’t the time or place for that discussion wrote this piece calling contraception “the root of the [marriage] problem”—so I definitely agree with him on contraception. And I agree that the Catholic Church is the one true Church, and I agree that the Church needs to do a better job at preaching its message on the subject of contraception.
What I was trying to tell him at the rally is this: The March for Life is a coalition rally of co-belligerents of varying faiths and of none, brought together—despite very large differences on very important subjects from the existence of God to the path of salvation—by an overwhelming conviction that life is sacred, that the right to life is primary, that abortion is unacceptable.
Important as this message is, it is not the most important message our society needs to hear—the most important message is that salvation is only in Jesus and only through the Catholic Church. But the pro-life message is an obvious message, one that reasonable people who won’t agree on a lot of other things, including some more important things as well as less important things, can agree on.
The March for Life is meant to be an expression of our coalition unity on abortion. To use that occasion to focus attention instead on subjects of disagreement, and especially to attack the leaders of the one true Church in front of other churches over a subject of division among Christians, is likely to do far more harm than good.
So, yes, let’s keep the pressure on on contraception, and demand more of our pastors and shepherds—but not this way at the March for Life.
It is alittle late for me to be typing this, but I went to the march. I couldn’t believe how many people there were. I was so over joyed to see everyone helping us show people how wrong abortion is. All the pictures they showed should really made me wonder how pro-choice people could see that and not think it’s wrong. I think that the people who think abortion is ok don’t really think that it’s ok they just want to how on so their life is messed up. I think that if God allowed the woman to get pregnat that their life won’t get messed up. My whole 8th grade class went and together we told people what we thought. I never knew that one third of our generation is gone because of abortion. That is all I have to say now.
This year was my first march. What a wonderful experience! Sometimes I feel like my husband and I are the only sane people in the world. It was breathtaking to see how many of us there are!
I’ve noticed the Stevo-style argument before. Strangely, everyone who makes it is also (quite rightly) horrified by violence against abortionists. Lifers are hypocrites when we react to abortion peacefully and monsters when we don’t. Heads, they win, tails, we lose . . . (Lest anyone misconstrue this statement, I’m not condoning violence here. I just think that if the Stevo types really believed what they were saying and weren’t using it as a “gotcha!”, violence wouldn’t surprise them.)
During the Atlantic Slave trade, the Church allowed slavery rather than excommunicated Catholic slaveowners (really) because they feared that the slaveowners would turn Protestant and still own slaves. To wit: ‘Heresy’ was worse that slavery, but in reality, it wasn’t worse for the slaves involved-they merely wanted to be free of kidnapping, torture, forced labor and rape- etc;.
In the new slavery,(FORCED PREGNANCY) the Church’s stand on abortion would FORCE women to stay pregnant until birth OR death under any and all circumstances. In theory, the Church says this is not true, but in reality what happens when a woman’s life is threatened during pregnancy and abortion saves her life-she and the abortionist are ‘excommunicated’. In rape as well, she is coerced to have ‘pity’ on the unborn who only got there by the free will act of the rapist- HIS contribution, his VIOLATION OF HER body. Pity on the unborn? Well, why not fall in love with the rapist too? Her enslavement is seen as less important than the life or well being of the unborn. But that life means nothing to a SLAVE THAT DOES NOT WISH TO BE ENSLAVED and that new slave is going to be the woman if such extremists get their way!
Forced pregnancy is a slippery slope towards an Islamic views of women which is completely at odds with Western thought. The young don’t realize this yet, but older women do and this may be the next Civil War for freedom like the last one.
I was there and felt the power of change coming! To many people not to change a government so weak right now. My first time and can’t wait for the next!
For 39 years we have been praying for an end to abortion. We say “Lord, how long must we wait? Why won’t You help us? How can You let this go on????” It occurred to me while at the Verizon Center Youth Rally and Mass that like the Jews that were waiting for a Messiah and “expected” Him to come with swords and armies, we have been waiting for someone in our political world/generation to “save us”. And like those Jews, the savior(s) have been among us all along. Those young people marching in DC ARE the answer to our prayers. God has sent us saviors…one at a time for 39 years now. They have come of age and they WILL end abortion in our lifetime. It’s almost as if in 1973, when our first prayers went up, God replied, “Patience, for the UNBORN themselves will save you. Just give them a chance to be born and wait patiently!” God is good. All the time. God Bless our Youth!
Forced pregnancy? Seriously? I’ll tell you what is “extreme”. Killing unborn children because of inconvenience. Woman are smarter, stronger and better than that. And the young women of today know that! Ask the “Silent No More” women what REALLY enslaved them. It wasn’t pregnancy. It was abortion. The 70’s are dead and gone. You “old” folks need to wake up and get with the times. The girls/women of today are so done with your rhetoric. Seriously, mullets, disco and the slaughter of our unborn children are soooooo yesterday. You can botox all you want…the Truth is marching on and you are being left behind. The “new black” is life!
Hey, you finally mentioned Ave Maria University!:-) We were right up front during the rally, but I still had a hard time seeing the platform…so many tall people.:-) And, oh, if no one else mentioned it—Benedictine College was up front next to/in the middle of us, in the white hats, and they were the ones who cheered so loudly when the Kansas congressman came up. I was also squeezed into the Basilica the night before for the Vigil Mass—which was AMAZING—and I’m pretty sure there were way more than the “10,000” people there that some sites say—someone else said the “official” tally was like 17,800…it was pretty crammed in there. See y’all at the March for Life 2013!
Steven, nice coverage. Also, thanks for the link.
-W.B. Nod
W.B. Nod: You’re welcome, sir. Thanks for the catch. Cheers.
SDG,
You will be glad to know that CBS Washington has added pictures of pro-lifers, including some impressive crowd shots, to their gallery from the March for Life on Monday. I got the tip from LifeSiteNews.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/under-hail-of-criticism-cbs-relents-adds-photos-of-pro-lifers-to-march-for
Stop the presses!
Looks like CBS has belatedly noticed pro-lifers at the March for Life, after all.
P.S. Edward C., commented before noticing your comment still waiting approval. Not sure why that happens sometimes, unless it’s because you included a link.
OUR Prayers and support are with all those people who are rallying to defend life. It’s so sad that there is absolutely no News coverage on this event! Yet Beyoncé’s lip singing controversy is still an item of discussion on News stations such as CNN and ABC…Disgraceful! God have Mercy on us.
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