…to March for Life. Prez is out of town phones it in.
Of course, no president, even the “pro-life” ones have ever, ever appeared at a March for Life, right down the street from their house. Bush is no different. And yes, Bush is no different.
I guess a President who is feverishly opposed by abortion advocates and who phones it in is better than a president who is feverishly supported by same abortion advocates – never forget the executive orders Clinton signed within days of his inauguration – but still. We have to make sure that this man knows that as he goes off to campaign for pro-choice GOP candidates that he may have made some small, positive moves, and we understands the constraints working, but all the same, he is, quite simply, no hero to the pro-life movement. And he should not be treated as one.
(And really, stop holding up the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban as the Evidence to End All Debate. A good thing, surely – or else the pro-aborts wouldn’t oppose it – but did it make all late-term abortions illegal? No, of course not. I mean, the PBA ban (is it still in judicial limbo, anyway?) hasn’t put George Tiller out of business, and late-term abortions are his specialty. There are other ways, none of them illegal.
From George Neumayr, strong words (surprise!)
But it was good to see John Kerry’s bishop in attendance, Sean Patrick O’Malley, the new head of the Boston archdiocese. Will O’Malley follow the lead of Raymond Burke, the La Crosse, Wisconsin bishop, who recently told pro-abortion Catholic pols to shape up or stop coming to communion?
March for Life organizers handed out a flier urging the bishops to stop sitting on their hands. “A Message For Our Bishops: The Way of La Crosse Leads To Life,” it said.
Though an ecumenical event, the March for Life in its organization and participation is largely Catholic. The march gives off a glimmer of the cultural potency the Church once enjoyed and could recover if the bishops got serious about their duties. It is striking that even in its weakened state Catholicism is driving the pro-life movement. Were the whole Church at every level pro-life, its cultural impact would be colossal. The Tom Daschles and Ted Kennedys, as they looked outside their offices and saw a sea of pro-lifers on Constitution Avenue, must have trembled a bit, wondering how long they can get away with their pro-abortion Catholicism.
Most striking was the number of marchers under 25. Two hundred Notre Dame University students rode all night in buses, piled into the Metro with their headphones, backpacks, and pillows, and joined their fellow collegians from Harvard, Williams, the University of Richmond, and St. Louis University, to name a few. Others came with “National Teens for Life,” “Rock for Life,” “Teens 4 Truth,” and one grunge-fringe group that we thought to call “Spikeheads for Life.” Some of their banners read: “Stop killing my generation,” “Rebel with a Cause,” and our personal favorite, “Abortion is mean!” The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington packed the 20,000-seat MCI Center with youth from all over the country for a pre-march rally and mass.
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