#295: March For Life, Public Peace Prize, Media Coverage

March for Life – East Coast Due to the major blizzard coming in, attendance was way down at the March for Life and related events, but spirits were high. Much of the press coverage indicated journalists being impressed that people still made it out at all; the Washington Post headlined it: “As DC shuts down for a blizzard, a small, faithful crowd still joins the March for Life.” This annual event to protest the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is too important to be stopped by a storm.

We marched with our banner. There was also a lively Life Matters Meetup with several speakers on the theme of pro-life feminism.

Pictured;: Left: CL Endorser Abby Johnson at Life Matters Meet-upRight: Tom Taylor (left) and John Whitehead (right) holding our banner.

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Walk for Life – West Coast

The West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco had no blizzard to contend with, and our table there was busy. Lisa Stiller reports: “We were pleased to find several students who embraced the CL ethic, and some who were open to discussions. The presence of petitions to abolish the death penalty in California promoted much discussion both days about connections between the life issues.”

Those petitions are to put abolition of the death penalty on the state-wide ballot in November.

Pictured: Lisa Stiller (left), Tom Webb (middle), and John Ahlbac (right) at the West Coast Walk table

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We’re Covered in the Washington Post In the coverage of the March is this beautiful tidbit: “Among those in the crowd was Richard Stith, 71, an Indiana law professor who called himself a part of a segment he dubbed ‘lefties for life’ — people who he said view abortion opposition as part of a broader ‘consistent ethic for life.’ In that, he said, is an opposition to the death penalty and any violence against LGBT people. He said he had been a member of a group called Socialists for Life as well and always felt welcome at the march.”

Rather scant, leaving out many issues – and of course there are conservatives who also support the consistent life ethic – but the media tends to avoid reporting on our breaking of stereotypes, so this was heartening to see.

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CL Endorser Marie Dennis Wins Public Peace Prize Marie Dennis, co-president of Pax Christi International, got the most votes and has accordingly become a Public Peace Prize Laureate. Congratulations!

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Quotation of the Week Athenagorus, early Christian writer who died in the year 160. “A Plea Regarding Christians,” a defense of Christians against charges of cannibalism and insurrection,Section 35s

Since they know we cannot endure to see a man being put to death even justly, who of them would charge us with murder or cannibalism? Who among our accusers is not eager to witness contests of gladiators and wild beasts? . . . But we see little difference between watching a man being put to death and killing him. So we have given up such spectacles . . . the same person would not regard the fetus in the womb as a living thing and therefore an object of God’s care, and at the same time slay it . . . Nor would someone refuse to expose infants, on the ground that those who expose them are murderers of children, and at the same time do away with the child he [or she] has reared . . . But we are altogether consistent in our conduct. We obey reason and do not override it.