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Home Action News Fall 2003 Face the Truth 2003 (Part 2)

Fall 2003 ACTION NEWS | VOL. XXII No. 3

NOTE: Due to its length and number of pictures, this article is split into three parts.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

2003 Face the Truth Tour a Success, cont.

"Abortion Should Be Banned!"

Thanks, Tom!

Tom Morrison]

We offer special thanks to Tom Morrison, a junior high school teacher who has come to work for the League the past several summers during our Face the Truth tour. Tom helped plan the tour, made and repaired signs, and drove the rented cargo van during the entire tour. We couldn't have done it without him.

Following the Kennedy overpasses on Day Three, we set up on Lake Shore Drive by Buckingham Fountain. At first a Chicago Park District security guard tried to tell us to leave, but he then disappeared. The Chicago police included friendly bicycle cops who policed many downtown stops. At one point another officer appeared to be manipulating the traffic signals to keep traffic moving so drivers wouldn't have to stop and look at the signs.

We had an outright confrontation with the police at our final stop on Van Buren, near the LaSalle Street Station. A police sergeant insisted we had to stay off a large stretch of sidewalk painted black, saying it was the private property of the owners of the building. Ann Scheidler objected that the public can't be prohibited from using a sidewalk, but the officer threatened to arrest her if she set foot on the black sidewalk, even without a sign or brochure.

At one point a young man asked me what was on my Baby Malachi sign. I told him it was a baby boy aborted in the second trimester. He was shocked and declared, "Man, abortion should be banned!" and then slapped a stranger on the shoulder, and said, "That's abortion!"

While half of the Truth tour stayed at the Van Buren site, the other half returned to the Kennedy overpasses to reach the afternoon expressway traffic. Thus ended our three-day downtown blitz.
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Holy Spirit on Halsted

After three days in hectic downtown Chicago, we were glad to move to the South Side Saturday, July 12. Our first stop was at 87th Street and Western Avenue near the Marquette Country Club, where our numbers were bolstered by a new wave of volunteers.

[Western and 87th]

Tour on Western at 87th in Chicago [Photo by EJS]

During our midday stop at 79th and Halsted Streets, a young woman approached Margie Manczko of the Archdiocese of Chicago Respect Life Office and Annie Scheidler, and asked if the signs were true. With tears in her eyes she said, "They told me it was just like a tadpole. They never told me what my baby really looked like." Realizing the distraught young woman had had an abortion, Annie and Margie gave her information on Project Rachel, and prayed for her.

Cathy Reese walked down a couple blocks to a White Castle restaurant looking for a bathroom for her son. Since only customers can use the bathroom, Cathy ordered a hamburger. The woman behind the counter asked Cathy, "Can you talk to her?" pointing to another young woman behind the counter. "She's going to have an abortion and I want you to talk to her."

Cathy was surprised but then realized the woman had read her T-shirt: "Abortion Stops a Baby's Heart." "I was just telling her not to get an abortion," the woman said, "and then you walk in here." Turning to her friend she said, "Isn't that a coincidence?" Cathy gave the woman considering abortion some literature, and she seemed receptive.

The Quality of Life

Our last stop that day was at 51st Street and Lake Park Avenue in Hyde Park. A young African-American man named Craig passing by with his baby son stopped and joined us. Craig and his girlfriend had considered aborting Craig, Jr. but decided against it and got married. They had dedicated themselves to Christ. Craig offered witness to a woman who at first objected to the signs, but then admitted she had had four abortions.

"It's not for us to judge the quality of another's life. Murder is never the answer."

Craig told the woman, "It's not for us to judge the quality of another's life. Murder is never the answer. Two years ago my house was burned down. I had a tuxedo and three pairs of jeans, no job, no place to stay. My quality of life was pretty low. But nobody cut me up into little pieces. Nobody came along and said, ‘Oh poor Craig, he lost everything in the fire, we better kill him.'"

We said a special prayer at the end of this stop for Ron Brock and tour veteran Bob Roethlisberger, who were leaving Chicago to join a tour out East. Ron came from San Diego, CA to drive his anti-abortion truck around the sites during the first week of our tour.
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"Spreading Hate"

After Sunday and Monday off to recuperate, we were back on the South Side of Chicago Tuesday, July 15, at 95th and Halsted Streets. We were joined by Fr. Peter West of Priests for Life, who has participated with us in past tours. Fr. Peter stayed with us for two days. We used special signs to draw attention to a Planned Parenthood abortion mill at the first site.

At midday we set up at Sibley Boulevard and Torrence Avenue in Calumet City. The owner of the White Castle there complained about our signs, even though we voluntarily moved them away from the restaurant. Many business owners are under the impression they own the public sidewalks.

[Unloading the Van]

Stalwarts Scott and Leo Reese at Kedzie and 103rd [Photo by EJS]

A reporter and photographer from the Northwest Indiana Times came to this site. I gave a long interview to the reporter, and almost missed the lunch hosted for us at St. Thomas More Church in Munster, IN. I was disappointed when her article appeared the next day revealing her pro-abortion bias. It was dominated by quotes from a local Planned Parenthood representative who claimed we were "spreading hate." She had not even seen the tour site.

After the delicious lunch in Munster we ended at 165th Street and Calumet Avenue in Hammond, IN. After this site, a phalanx of activists joined Julie Wheeland at a protest at Porter Memorial Hospital in Valparaiso, where abortions are performed. Julie protests there on a regular basis. The Porter County Times reported on the protest, the first time graphic signs had been used there. Julie's group has continued to use the signs since. Her protest is finally receiving public notice.

[Distributing Literature]

Dave Funovitz distributes literature in Pilsen [Photo by EJS]

Grief and Grace from the Police

The second day of Week Two began at 103rd Street and Kedzie Avenue. We were given a hard time by a Chicago police officer who insisted we had to walk while holding our signs, and that they were too large. Tim Murphy, who works with the police a great deal, kept him talking until his sergeant arrived and diffused the situation.

At 67th Street and Western Avenue, an African-American neighborhood, we were joined by Fr. Gerry O'Reilly of St. Thomas More parish. The Chicago police at this site were respectful and helpful. They gave a deaf ear to furious complaints about our presence by the owner of Gillespie Auto Group on Western Avenue.

"That's Abortion? We're not going to do that."

We included several Spanish signs at our afternoon site at Cermak and Ashland Avenues in Chicago's heavily Hispanic Pilsen neighborhood. Cathy Reese was passing out literature on Ashland when a Hispanic couple stopped at the light with several children in the car. The wife called out to Cathy, "Tell him (indicating her husband) that's what abortion is." She explained to Cathy that he had told her to abort the baby she was pregnant with, their fifth child. He looked at the pictures and said, "That's abortion? We're not going to do that."

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