Monthly Truth Days Educate the Public, cont.

by Eric Scheidler

October Tour Highlights the Beauty of Life

In recognition of Respect Life Month, the October 20 "Life Day" featured only pictures of living babies, born and unborn. We began at 7:30 a.m. back at Madison Street and Wacker Drive, again providing coffee and donuts for our early bird volunteers. The signs east of Wacker depicted a fetus at eight weeks, while those west of Wacker showed a variety of infants.

Like the Life Day last year, we received some negative responses, despite the total lack of graphic abortion pictures. Shortly after we began setting up, a Chicago police officer arrived in response to "multiple complaints" about our "disruptive and offensive" signs. The officer was courteous and professional as we explained the purpose of our display.

One passer-by told a volunteer that her picture of a cute black baby with the caption "God's Gift of Life" was "disgusting." Another told League staffer Annie Casselman, who was holding another baby picture, that "Your mother should have aborted you."

"He's the Love of My Life"

But most comments were positive, like those offered by a woman who approached us right before we set up. She had apparently seen us on an earlier Truth Day, and thanked us for being there. She told Annie and me that she had faced an unplanned pregnancy twenty years before and was told by five different friends to get an abortion. Her son just celebrated his twentieth birthday. "He's the love of my life," she said, with tears welling up in her eyes.

A man working in one of the buildings on that corner came out and gave Ann Scheidler a card with a note of thanks and a donation towards the coffee and donuts.

At our second stop at the Art Institute of Chicago, on Michigan Avenue, a limousine of tourists from the Netherlands pulled up and asked Luann Bloom about our display. They told Luann that the Netherlands are "Sodom and Gemorrah" and gratefully accepted pro-life literature.

Three dozen volunteers participated in the Life Day, including several who joined us for the first time. Several hundred copies of the excellent "How You Began" flyer were distributed to the public.

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November Tour Tagets Fay Clayton Award

The first site for our November 18 Truth Day was chosen to coincide with an award being given to NOW attorney Fay Clayton at the 410 Club in the Wrigley Building. Our group was spread out along the east side of Michigan Avenue with their signs in full view as guests began to arrive for the event—including Fay Clayton herself, who exited a cab right in the middle of the display. She quickly darted past the protest and into the building.

In addition to large, graphic abortion signs, many volunteers held small "8-1 Victory" signs from last year's Supreme Court victory celebration, reminding Clayton of her loss before the high court in Scheidler v. NOW. Other protestors held the "Perjury?" signs, which feature Clayton's face.

Next we moved a few blocks away to Madison Street, between Clark and LaSalle, another heavily-trafficked spot, where we distributed hundreds of copies of the "Sing a Little Louder" flyer. This site featured a long row of Jesus signs in front of St. Peter's Church, an appropriate spot with its own graphic image—a giant crucifix facing the street. Thankfully we had no complaints from the Franciscan friars who run St. Peter's. Recently the pastor called police to stop a pro-lifer from distributing Catholic voter guides before the election.

Two pro-aborts showed up with an anarchist flag. My father and I suspected one of them was the masked attacker who splattered us with black dye during the April 7 Campus Truth Tour .

Face the Truth will resume in the spring, with monthly Truth Days leading up to the major "Summer Blitz" Truth Tour, July 6-16, 2005.

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