January 25, 2011

Please send me your comments!

By Dave Andrusko

Good evening and thanks for being part of the discussion. Part Two takes a quick look at the pro-abortionist's lament. Parts Three and Four update you on state January 22-related activities. In Part Five Wesley Smith clears away the clutter. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), Joleigh Little shares the excitement of yesterday's National Teens for Life Congressional Reception. On a grim note I bring the latest news about abortionist Kermit Gosnell. To do the best job possible I need your feedback on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha.

A few hours from the time you may be reading this post, pro-abortion President Barack Obama will deliver his third "State of the Union" message. This comes amidst an avalanche of stories that the prickly, self-contained Obama is in the first stages of a new charm offensive.

Just to be clear, I did not make up the following paragraph. It comes from today's POLITICO, which operates to explain all things Obama to sympathizers.

"Barack Obama is letting outsiders inside his White House," Carol E. Lee writes. "He's getting more personal in closed-door meetings and factoring social business into his weekend schedule, a time he typically reserves for family and close friends. He's even using his teleprompter less and considering opening up his golf game, which, with few exceptions, has been restricted to the same handful of people since he took office."

Lee later suggests that Obama is even reaching out to Republican leaders, only to add that it "hasn't gained much traction." (The implication is clear. Even though Obama and fellow Democratic congressional leaders have frozen out Republican leaders for two years, it's--of course-- the GOP's fault.)

And while some aides acknowledge, Lee writes, that "the president's post-shellacking, pre-2012 makeover is still moving at a slow pace," Obama "is venturing out of his comfort zone."

Frankly, I don't expect that "comfort zone" to expand to include the likes of you and me. Obama no doubt considers us part of the "bitter" riff-raff who "cling to guns or religion" as a way "to explain their frustrations," as he condescendingly explained at a 2008 San Francisco fundraiser.

But it would have done the President a world of good to have been on the National Mall yesterday--to see who pro-lifers really are, as opposed to the paper mache clichés he and other pro-abortionists have created for their own enjoyment. What would he have seen had he ventured outside and walked a few blocks?

Incredible energy, enthusiasm, camaraderie, friendship, loyalty, and a fierce dedication to eradicating a stain on our national conscience. And, of course, tons and tons of young people.

The Washington Post's semi-snarky story this morning reported that "Some attending the events Monday said that more young people appeared to be participating than in previous years." Of course the "some" operates like a ventriloquist's dummy. The reporters speak through them to convey their own (wholly misguided) impression that a smaller contingent of young people "appeared" to be growing.

But it's more like a tidal wave becoming a Tsunami. For the last number of years, a morning Mass at the Verizon Center has been packed with 18,000+ young people. Yesterday, it was "expanded to the D.C. Armory, where a parallel event was held. More than 27,000 young people attended the event," according to the Post.

(The actual total would be closer to 30,000+, and that doesn't even account for a packed special Sunday youth rally and Mass at the Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Virginia--my neck of the woods--that holds 3,500.)

According to the Post account, "The Rev. Mark Ivany of the Catholic Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, who delivered the homily at Verizon Center, compared attendees to activists from previous eras who fought against slavery and for women's right to vote. 'The greatest difference between other civil rights movements and this one is that most of the people affected by Roe v. Wade can't march on Washington,' Ivany said. 'They can't give great speeches.'"

Which brings me full circle. Obama may deliver a great speech tonight. I doubt it--he remains fundamentally a narcissist at a time when the public is showing unmistakable signs that it finds his overweening ego tiresome--but he might.

But great speeches must begin with truth. One of those truths which Obama has steadfastly refused to acknowledge is that the public sent a crystal-clear message through last November's election results and by the results of numerous public opinion polls. The American public doesn't want public dollars facilitating abortion and/or paying for it--and that most certainly includes ObamaCare which contains federal subsidies for abortion, and federal regulations that could expand abortion in various ways.

At a time when a Philadelphia abortionist is about to stand trial on eight counts of murder, is it possible that Obama will open his eyes long enough and wide enough to stop clinging to an abortion orthodoxy that bears no resemblance to the truth?

Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five