In All Things
Lip Service to Life
The annual March for Life has come and gone. One of its more bizarre qualities is the way GOP presidents participate: by recorded message or telephone hook-up, but never in person. This began during Ronald Reagan’s presidency when some advisors did not want a photo beamed around the world of Reagan addressing the crowd, but those same advisors knew they had to at least acknowledge the role that pro-life forces played in Reagan’s 1980 victory. Reagan could look out the window of the Oval Office and see that marchers, as could every president since, but the phone connection has remained the means of participation. Even George W. Bush, who will never face another election and seems plenty unconcerned about the political fallout of other decisions, could not manage to emerge from his office to address the crowd in person.
Yesterday’s march in Washington was no different. Presidential aspirant John McCain sent a letter to the marchers that was read by fellow Sen. Sam Brownback. Mitt Romney, whose previous flip-flop on abortion has earned him a great deal of suspicion from conservative voters, issued a press release that is buried on his campaign’s Web site. Mike Huckabee participated in a March for Life in Atlanta. Ron Paul had the most significant abortion-related news of the day, announcing the endorsement of his candidacy by Norma McCorvey, who was "Jane Roe" in the Roe v. Wade court case that landed before the Supreme Court in 1973.
Huckabee is probably finished after his loss in South Carolina, and Ron Paul, whose followers are as devoted as they are few, is not in serious contention for the GOP nod. But both McCain and Romney would have gained much by showing up at the march in Washington yesterday. At some point, pro-life groups need to challenge those whose disembodied voices fill their ears every January. This bizarre "telephone hook-up" is, in both the literal and figurative senses of the phrase, lip service to the cause. The loyal pro-life members of the GOP coalition deserve more, to say nothing of the unborn.
Michael Sean Winters
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The president's presence would also do good. It would not only encourage the marchers, but also show them his or her gratitude.
Are pro-choicers really going to be mad that the president appeared in person at one of these rallies. I don't think so. If it is, where is the evidence?
Because in the end, they don't really care enough to be bothered with it.
Like slavery in America, which was opposed by the majority almost from day one, the Presidents and candidates played lip service to it. Too afraid to take a strong stance on ANYTHING so as not to get caught up in it.
It's telling that abortion has been an issue in every election since roe v. wade, yet not a single thing has been done about it. It is convenient to keep it a dividing issue to mask the lack of contrast between the two parties on most issues.
Ron Paul is honestly the only one with a plan to stop abortion, and he can't even get a single republican to co-sponsor his "Sanctity of life Act" which would remove the supreme court's jurisdiction on the abortion issue due to it being unconstitutional.
But, like I said, it is too convenient to keep it going for political purposes.
Ron Paul did speak in person from the stage to the March for Life crowd (in his role as a pro-life Congressman; he did not indicate he was running for Prez).
There also were lots of Ron Paul signs and banners in the crowd.
The statement: "Reagan could look out the window of the Oval Office and see that [sic] marchers, as could every president since", is only half true. During the Reagan Administration marches were, indeed, staged at the Ellipse in front of the White House. Yesterday's March was staged in front of the National Archives at 7th and Constitution and had President Bush looked out of the Oval Office window at roughly 2:15 pm when the March finally started, he would have seen what he sees everyday -- the flags at the base of the Washington Monument and in the distance the Jefferson Memorial. The March for Life was happening roughly eight blocks east of the White House on 7th Street.
For those of us off the Mall yesterday and unable to make our way up the hill between the National Gallery of Art and Natural History Museum to the stage, the March was a strange and somewhat haphazard affair. We were unable to hear the speeches and only caught the last few strains of "God Bless America". There was almost no spacing between the marchers and the prospect of getting stuck in the scrum at the top of Capitol Hill was sufficiently daunting that we peeled off on Louisiana and boarded our buses in front of Union Station a few minutes earlier than anticipated.
That said, Mass at the recently-restored St. Matthews was, while crowded, wonderfully moving with the pews and aisles filled with Catholic school students from the Archdiocese of Washington and up and down the East Coast.
In all honesty, the Republican Party cares about the sanctity of life to the extent that they can get good people to vote for them. Until we can change our country's politics, find common ground, and change the way we think about abortion, it will remain a wedge issue that divides this country instead of uniting it.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=D0IJkD0znCQ
I never thought I'd have anything in common with you guys but you learn something new every day!
Truth be told, there is an entire class of well-connected "conservatives" who wouldn't hesitate to secure abortions for their teen-aged daughters rather than risk the full-throated contempt they heap on the poor for out-of-wedlock pregnancies.
But I was not disappointed by the event. The emphasis for the group from our Diocese was on religious pilgrimage and not political rally. Perhaps it is in the conversion of hearts and not in court decisions that the ultimate solution lies.
ALSO - issues of Creationism vs. Evolution, gay rights, gun rights (yes you read that correctly) began to creep into my circle of friends. If you weren't on board with the Republican right on those issues, you weren't really pro-life. I stopped marching. On January 22 every year, people need to put aside their differences on all issues NOT relating to abortion and march together.
Peace out.
Mike
Why does our protest of abortion in the US not extend to the unecessary war that's an abortion of iraqi babies? And the killing of our soldiers?
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