Speakout Illinois

I've posted these photos in previous posts, but now I will put them into context for the day. My Mom took some short videos from the conference which I will mix in.

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Saturday morning we got up early and made the trip out to Lombard for the 2009 Speakout Illinois Conference. When we arrived at the beautiful Westin Hotel, we joined hundreds of other pro-lifers. After checking in each person received a bag of materials including a Pro-Life Passport. At each table you visited you got a sticker, after filling up all the spots on the passport you turned it in and at the end of the day names would be pulled to win prizes. We walked around to different tables to see the different materials that the groups had available. In my experience Catholic groups are always heavily represented at pro-life events and this was no exception, but also in attendance were other religious groups including Lutherans for Life, Orthodox Christians for Life - Chicago, and others.

As I was walking around collecting stickers and I ended up listening to a representative from Word of Hope the post-abortion healing ministry from Lutherans for Life. She was saying that since Sarah Palin was chosen as John McCain's VP, and sshe was out front with her son Trig, they have received many more calls from women who aborted Down Syndrome children who were suffering.

I finished up my passport and went and sat down at the table. We were way in the back, which accounts for the number of heads you will see in my photos. The first speaker was Fr. Euteneuer of HLI. We saw him in the front getting ready so I went up and asked him to bless a few rosaries for me. He did, and even though he was busy it was still a very nice blessing. I've gotten a lot more rushed ones in the back of churches after mass than the one he did. I felt a little bad about it afterwards because I'm sure he was trying to prepare himself for the talk, but I am glad he did bless them.




Fr. Euteneuer gave his presentation. He spoke mostly about abortion throughout the world. He said that many times people think that either the whole world has abortion, or we're the only ones with abortion. Truly however it is a mixed bag. Most of Africa does not have abortion or abortion on demand. Most of Asia does. Most of Europe. South America is doing pretty good at the moment holding its own against abortion. He also showed the birthrates for the different continents around the world and he highlighted some countries specifically. Its shocking to see in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, how many countries are not only below replacement levels they are far below. Some of the countries do not even have a birthrate of 1.


He also touched on how abortion is often brought into a country with a 3 prong approach. First birth control is brought in, however when some in the older generation resist it, the second step is to bring sex education into the schools and prepare the future generations. The next step is abortion when birth control doesn't work. At the end of his presentation he had this slide, which got a pretty good laugh from the crowd.






After a short break Alveda King came to give her presentation. She spoke about how her mother almost had an abortion when she was pregnant with her. She spoke about how she had two abortions herself, one voluntary and one involuntary, and the effects that those abortions have had on her life and relationships. She played for us a video that is still being edited but is a video letter to President Obama, with the causes that the group she is in is asking for him to enact. She also showed another short video of her explaining abortion, which will soon be up on the priests for life website.

She also spent some of her time taking questions from the audience. The questions ranged from what one woman who has written a book about her experience from abortion could do to get her message out there, to the eugenic nature of Margaret Sanger, Planned Parenthood, and abortion. It seemed to me from the questions that people were asking that many people are worried about where the pro-life movement can go with an Obama presidency.

Dr. King teaches us a new song for the pro-life movement.





After Dr. King finished we had to leave the room for a half hour for the staff to set up for lunch. On my way out I stopped to view the Little Soles display in front.







After we came back for lunch the Henry Hyde Leadership Award was presented to Phyllis Schlafly. She didn't speak very long because she had a flight she needed to catch, but she spoke about what the feminist groups want President Obama to do for them after all the support they gave him.





After her speech, the prizes were called for the passport contest. There was going to be a memorial for the unborn next, but we left. We wanted to go to 5pm mass at church and we needed to go home and get ready to do that. It was a really great experience. Its so easy in the pro-life movement to feel alone, so it was great to be there with 400 other people who are all in it together with you, and have had many of the same experiences as you.

So Cute

Adorable to the extreme.



H/T Esther

I'm Voting For McCain

McCain has not been one of my favorite people, I have a lot of problems with his policies. But faced with the choice of an Obama presidency I know who I'm voting for. I base this decision on basically two things: abortion, and foreign policy.

I don't like McCain on a lot of issues, but I know he loves this country. Not to sound like a campaign slogan, but I know he will fight for us because he has fought for us.

He may not be the most pro-life candidate ever, but Obama is the most pro-choice candidate ever. Fr. Pavone has said that if Obama wins we will see every pro-life victory washed away.

I like Sarah Palin. I know she's pro-life. I know she's more closely aligned with the things I believe.

Earlier in the election I thought about voting for a third party candidate (like Alan Keyes). Its appealing to me because I live in a navy blue state my vote doesn't matter so much. But my vote for a third party candidate doesn't translate into anything, its not doing anything to stop a radical like Barack Obama from getting into the White House.

In the primary I had originally supported Senator Brownback. He was one of the first, if not the first, to drop out. I loved him especially for his pro-life stedfastness. He endorsed McCain. At the time I didn't understand it. Actually I still don't understand it, at the time McCain's campaign was failing. But McCain pulled it out.

Charles Krauthammer wrote this column which I heard read on Rush today, reprimanding certain conservatives who have flipped to Obama.

Today's economic crisis, like every other in our history, will in time pass. But the barbarians will still be at the gates. Whom do you want on the parapet? I'm for the guy who can tell the lion from the lamb.

Cardinal O'Malley on Trig Palin

Full Article

I'll have a full story on this issue in tomorrow's paper (UPDATE: here's the story), but here is a partial transcript of O'Malley's remarks, along with video from the rally:

"I very seldom get to see any television, but I did watch part of the political conventions, and for me the star of the conventions was Trig Palin, whose mother said that he was 'beautiful' and 'perfect.' And when his little sister used that spit to slick his hair down, I mean, I stood up and applauded.

When Senator Sam Brownback addressed the Red Mass for Catholic lawyers last year, he brought to our attention that, in the United States now, 90 percent of the Down Syndrome children are being aborted. This is what we mean by the culture of death. This is what we're here today about, to try and change, to make our country a safe place for children, born and unborn. It's a very serious task, but it's a very important one, and it's one that we can do. The more voices that are raised, the more that we talk about and witness to the Gospel of Life, the more Americans will come to realize what abortion is: it's not a choice, it's snuffing out an innocent life.

When I was young, everybody smoked, and then all of a sudden, there was what I call the Last Commandment: Thou Shall Not Smoke. And the campaign was out there, telling people how dangerous it was, the percentage of smokers that would die of cancer, how many people who were around smokers would be in danger. Well, that's all true, and I'm glad that that campaign has been so successful. But now we have to let people know that, when it comes to abortion, it's not just a percentage of the children that are dying, it's all of the children. And all of those who were involved in the abortion -- the parents, the nurses, the doctors, the social workers -- they're all being contaminated by this evil and diminished in their humanity and their appreciation for life.

We're not here to impose any religious principles on our nation. We know that this is a pluralistic society. But we're here to say that we must stand up for human rights, and the first human right of all is life."

Team Sarah

Team Sarah

If anyone would like to add me as a friend on there, here's my profile.

Family with Down Syndrome Child Meets John McCain and Sarah Palin

I'll have to listen to this online tonight when I get home from work, but this is just beautiful.

Family with Down Syndrome Child Meets John McCain and Sarah Palin

September 9, 2008

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Kurt in Pittsburgh, hello, sir. Nice to have you on the EIB Network, and how about the Steelers defense?

CALLER: How about those Steelers, huh?

RUSH: How about that?

CALLER: Hey, listen, Rush, long-time listener, first-time caller, one of those Bible, family, gun clingers from western Pennsylvania.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: And I wanted to share a story with you. A week ago last Saturday we went to the Palin-McCain rally in Washington, Pennsylvania, was the day after he announced her, and we have a five-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, and we made a sign that said: "We Love Kids with Down Syndrome." So when they pulled in their bus the sign did catch their, McCain and Palin and the rest of their family, it caught their eye, we could tell, they gave us a thumbs-up from the bus, so we were all excited just by that --

RUSH: Wait, wait, wait. Who gave you the thumbs up, McCain and Palin?

CALLER: McCain, Palin, Cindy McCain, we could see them from the bus. We were in a position where we had eye contact with them --

RUSH: Oh, cool!

CALLER: My wife was holding our daughter.

RUSH: Very, very, very cool.

CALLER: It was really cool, Rush. I was like, "Wow, that's awesome," because I love Governor Palin and so I thought that's really neat. So then we moved around as the bus was getting ready to pull out, we kind of positioned ourselves so we could just wave them on and a Secret Service agent came up to us and said, "Hey, can you come with us?" I was like, "Do we have a choice?"

RUSH: (laughing) You shouldn't have worried. It's not the Clinton administration.

CALLER: Right. So we accompanied them up the hill, we went right to the bus, where it was, and Governor Palin, Senator McCain, Cindy, Todd Palin, they're all standing there. We're in this inner circle with just us and them, and the Secret Service agent, and they came right up to us and thanked us for coming out, said they loved our sign, and Governor Palin immediately said, "May I hold your daughter?" and our daughter Chloe, who's five, went right to her, and I have some pictures I'd love to send you maybe when I'm done here, but Governor Palin was hugging Chloe, and then her little daughter brought their baby Trig who has Down syndrome from the bus, he was napping, and Chloe went right over and kissed him on the cheek, and my son Nolan who's nine, he thanked her.

RUSH: This is amazing.

CALLER: I will send you all the stuff, Senator McCain was talking to my son, and he thanked him for his service, and he asked my son if he wanted to see the bus, and we were hanging out and it was very surreal. I felt like we could have had a pizza and a beer with them, they were so warm.

RUSH: You know what? I want to put you on hold. I want Snerdley to give you our super-secret, known-only-to-three-people here, e-mail address.

CALLER: I will send you everything, Rush.

RUSH: And then could you send us these pictures? Would you mind if we put them on the website?

CALLER: I would be honored, and my main thing is they are warm, kind, genuine people, and they represent the best of this country.

RUSH: That's right. And when you send these pictures, make sure you identify them. I mean, we'll know Palin and McCain, of course. Identify yourselves.

CALLER: I will, I will identify everybody in the picture, Rush, and God bless you for being a beacon of hope and truth in this country.

RUSH: Oh, no, no. It's nothing, it's nothing. You're doing the Lord's work.

CALLER: Well, we're very blessed and I want people to know what a blessing it is to have a child with Down syndrome. These kids, they're angels.

RUSH: That's the thing. There's always good to be found in everything that happens. It may be a while before it reveals itself.

CALLER: Absolutely.

RUSH: Right, and when she hugged my daughter I said, here's the difference, this candidate embraces life and all it's limitless possibilities.

RUSH: All right.

CALLER: That's what she is.

RUSH: Terrific, okay, I gotta run here but I'm going to put you on hold.

CALLER: Thank you, Rush.

RUSH: Thank you, Kurt. I really appreciate it.

END TRANSCRIPT

Palin More Qualified Than Obama

Bristol, not Sarah.

Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin is better qualified than Barack Obama to be president of the United States in at least one respect: Figuring out when a baby gets human rights is apparently not above her pay grade.

Maggie Gallagher