The Tenth Annual “Face the Truth Tour” July 10 through 18 was easily the most successful tour to date.
Great Tour In Every Way
The average attendance was 50 to 70 volunteers at each site, and in Naperville on Saturday July 18 attendance was more than 100.
Also, we had few problems with the police and only a few pro-aborts showed up with ugly unreadable signs. Their main message was that they want unrestricted abortion on demand without apology. We thought they already had that. Possibly they feel they are losing it. They are.
This year’s volunteers and staff had a magnificent upbeat spirit that showed in their enthusiasm, their powerful singing at the end of each tour site and a general attitude of spiritual joy. Much as these tours require sacrifice and self-denial, they also give back much more than they take.
At one point I had to borrow the sentiments of Coach Norman Dale from “Hoosiers” when he tells his team “I love you guys!” I had to tell the crowd during the prayers after a session on the streets that I had the same sentiment.
Many little miracles happened along the way, from girls telling us they were not going to have their abortions, to new people suddenly deciding to come out and join us for the day, to people driving by, parking their cars, picking up a sign and becoming a part of the tour.
One police officer told Kathy Mieding that she has a beautiful heart. Another Police Officer asked for two of our pro-life red shirts, for himself and his wife.
Kathy and Alberta led a group in handing out thousands of pro-life flyers and some of our crew got into conversations with pro-aborts, and in general all was more peaceful this year than in any past year, and the positive signs, thumbs up, horn honking and “God bless you,” outnumbered the negative signs and comments, though those were certainly there.
For a large number of volunteers, this was their first “Face the Truth Tour,” and several said it was the most memorable experience of their lives.
Rockford Tour: Coming Soon
We will be holding a one-day, three site Face the Truth Tour in Rockford soon [August 12]. Stay tuned to our website, or this Hotline.
The Spitter Is Found Liable
On Monday we were in court with a woman who turned out to be an attorney with her own law firm in the suburbs, who had spit on our signs during one of our tours in downtown Chicago. When she spotted the sign I was holding picturing Baby Malachi, she came out of her way to spit on my sign, and in the process also caught Ann Scheidler in the face with her spit.
Then she hurried on past and spit on Corrina’s sign of Baby Malachi. But this time Corrina was able to call the police officer before the woman was able to escape, and the lady attorney was arrested on the spot and given a citation and court date.
She admitted that she had spit on the picture but asked if she could just apologize and skip court. Neither Corrina nor the police officer would allow that.
So in court Monday the defendant, as we mentioned, a lawyer, had her own lawyer try his best to turn her spit into some kind of little mist, that just sort of vanished into thin air, never really hit the picture, and certainly didn’t touch Ann.
The fact is, however, Sam Scheidler, our photographer, had taken a photo of the sign with the spit on it, and Ann really did get a spray. Also, she was easy to identify, a very tall, grey haired woman with sharp features.
So after some discussion she was found guilty of at least breathing on the picture of Baby Malachi, was fined eighty dollars and $20 costs for a total of $100. Not much, but at least the episode had to be somewhat embarrassing to her, an attorney having to hire a green attorney who wasn’t above trying to recreate her story to make her look innocent. And perhaps in the future when she sees something she doesn’t like she will contain her anger and not start spitting uncontrollably.
While we are tempted to take a dozen pictures of Baby Malachi and stand in front of her law office in Naperville, that might be rubbing salt in the wound. In any event, it’s all in a day’s work at the Pro-Life Action League.
