Meet A Community Organizer

From Halifax, Nova Scotia:

Ellen has been working with Campaign Life Coalition for 20 years now, and she is a veteran in Nova Scotia's pro-life movement. She was there on McCully Street when the Morgentaler clinic was in operation. She organizes every Life Chain in the fall and every March for Life in the spring.
And now she is the organizing force behind 40 Days, she keeps the schedule humming and she makes countless phone calls to fill the vigil hours.

Here is what Ellen has to say about her experience with 40 Days for Life:

Dear vigil attendees,

The 40 Days for Life campaign is a focused vision to access God's power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil at the site where abortions are committed. Our presence is a strong witness that we abhor the killing of pre-born children and are offering up to God our prayers for the souls of these children and also our prayers of repentance, asking God to turn hearts and minds from a culture of death to a culture of life.

When I arrive at the vigil site, I immediately feel a sense of calm. I usually walk up and down carrying the small sign while listening to Christian music, unless it is raining, at which time I sit under the umbrella and pray. One very rainy morning, I arrived rather early - 7:30 am - and did my walk about. After the "early bird" attendees left, I sat under my umbrella and prayed, and prayed, and prayed some more until I realized that an hour surely must have passed. I had forgotten my watch and my cell phone had died so I checked with a worker near by, and indeed my hour had finished and I was now into the next. 2 l/2 hours passed before someone else arrived - and you know what? - I didn't feel anxious or angry that I had been there that long. In fact, I felt so blessed and refreshed. You see, I'm a very busy person - I spend most of my time working out of my home for Campaign Life doing pro-life work, as well as church work, all in between running with my children. And although I attend Mass daily, rarely, if at all, do I spend time in quiet prayer - one on one with the Lord. So this day I thought .... the Lord wants us to come to Him and He is calling me to a deeper prayer life! I believe the forgotten watch and dead cell phone was a message for me to stay put and continue praying. So I thank God for the "no-shows", which allowed me to stay quiet and know that He is near.

The V.G. Hospital site is a place of Grace where we are indeed walking on Holy ground in the spirit of our Lord. Abortions are performed there daily and even when it rains, so be faithful to your commitment and don't let the devil get you down!

God bless, Ellen

Many of us know community organizers like Ellen Chesal. They sacrifice in their own daily lives striving to save the lives, and souls, of their fellow man. Let's get behind these people by putting our own selves 'out there'. Let's make some real communities.

I.W.K. Doing Late-Term Abortions - Halifax

Julie Culshaw updates us on what the acclaimed 'children's hospital' in Halifax has been up to:

...A nurse who works in the IWK (I don't know who she is) revealed to someone that she was very shaken and disturbed by the fact that a 37-week old baby was aborted because it had a severe heart defect. The doctors and parents chose abortion over post-partum surgery.

We all know of wonderful cases where the most amazing surgeries have been performed on infants and they have survived to live long and fruitful lives. Yes, there are many, I am sure, who have to live with heart problems and don't live fully active lives, but are their lives any less valuable?

And who are we to make that judgment? We all only get one chance to be born. There is only one set of DNA that makes up you, a unique individual. Yet, abortion gives someone the power to decide that an individual won't get to enter this world. That person will never come to exist here; they are gone forever. Yes, God looks after the babies, I know that, but God also intends for them to live here in this world, not to be killed in the womb. One chance and one chance only - that baby with the heart defect was not given that chance. Whether the parents decided they couldn't face looking after a child with health problems or whether the doctors advised them not to spend all that time and money on a baby that wouldn't be healthy, or whether it was both, they decided to end that child's life. Did anyone consider how much that decision is going to cost those parents?...

...My oldest daughter, Rebecca, was born at 37 weeks gestation, weighing 4 pounds seven ounces - this one really hits home. At that point, she was moving around inside me, hiccuping, rolling over, sleeping and waking, trusting that she was perfectly safe within her mother. This baby also trusted that he was safe, but he wasn't. Someone else decided that he didn't deserve to live.

This is not an isolated incident. We have heard twice now that late term abortions are being done in the IWK, which is the Children's Hospital, a place that is synonmous with caring for children, especially children with special needs. Now it will be synonmous with a place to kill those who are too much trouble.

Keep on praying, our prayers are ripping aside the curtain of darkness that hides these evil deeds from the light. And God will expose the deeds done in darkness, He will cast light on those things done in the name of good, but which are evil in His sight...

I find this very disturbing. My two youngest children were born at the I.W.K. Its heartbreaking to think that bringing life and administering death are so closely linked in this hospital. They share some of the same equipment, and even some of the same staff. How can anyone feel secure bringing their loved ones to a place that can serve up life and death on the same plate?

Please pray for all those families, who due to the one-payer health system in Canada, have no choice but to trust the I.W.K. with their loved ones. Please also pray for my future daughter-in-law, who is studying to be a nurse in this unholy environment. May God keep her strong and safe.

Free Speech On Campus

Here are some great posts on the 'free speech on campus' battle going on in Nova Scotia:


Steynian

...The fascistic tactics of such militant Progs are beyond irony– they view themselves as lonely crusaders for truth, and that the ends justify all means, even if said means are prejudicial, anti-democratic, hateful, and suppressive or real debate and discussion on the issues they supposedly feel so strongly about. It’s political violence, of a sort, and injures civil society, facts and reflection, and is an absolute assumption of rightness and righteousness on the protesters. This is a popular tactic of Jihadists, brownshirts, black shirts, Bolshevik students, ranting 60’s student bullies– not of those who want the free exchange of ideas in pursuit of truth.…

Comment Gold!

...our awesomer-than-usual Infidel Prof sends along a screed he flung off to the local Chronicle Herald. Proborts, anti-speechists, and academic drones beware: the truth is offensive.

To the editor:

The Herald is right that the protesters who disrupted Jose Ruba’s presentation at Saint Mary’s University last Thursday (”Protesters denied pro-lifer’s right to free speech,” 10 February 2009) have no regard for freedom of expression and were acting as vigilantes. But the Herald fails to press the same points against the university.

This is the first paragraph of the university’s press release regarding the incident: “The University remains committed to academic freedom, diversity of opinion, and supports open debate in a forum that does not put the personal safety and rights of our community at risk. There is a balance that must be maintained among all of these.”

This paragraph implies that it is possible in a open debate to put at risk the rights of our community, and this risk has to be balanced against other things. The university and the protesters are, then, as one in their disdain for freedom of expression. One of the organizers of the protest has said that to compare abortion to the Holocaust, which indeed is what Mr Ruba did, is to violate people’s human rights. Now if it is possible in an open debate to put at risk people’s human rights, comparing abortion to the Holocaust seems a good candidate for violating human rights. The university might well agree with the protesters about both principle and case....

NS Scott

...Today’s issue of The Journal, student newspaper of Saint Mary’s University, carries a front-page story on last week’s disruption of a pro-life presentation by a bunch of Brown Shirts.

A high-ranking official says that the university forced the presentation to be moved off campus because of concerns that the young fascists would become violent if the event were not stopped....

ConcernedForLife

...Among the many comments on this that I have read, one comment keeps popping up. If Mr. Ruba compares abortion to the holocaust, it is assumed that he is comparing women who have abortions to Nazis. I fail to see that that follows; only people who did not hear his talk make that conclusion. The comparison of abortion to the Holocaust is made on the basis of several points...

BigBlueWave

...Pro-lifers raise a number of important philosophical questions and dismissing them as irrelevant is not an intellectually satisfactory position for most people. The human mind, like the rest of nature, abhors a vacuum. When questions are raised, and answers sought, the need for authenticity and logical consistency pushes the mind to find answers, even if they are deemed "irrelevant" by some. That is the beauty of the human intellect.

If they do not answer these questions, they will lose ground. By raising questions, pro-lifers will create that vacuum and pro-lifers will fill it.

We only need to persistently present the facts in a calm and peaceful manner. I am not saying this is the magic bullet. I don't believe in magic bullets for such complex questions.

I am saying it can only further our cause...

(If you have found other relevant articles you'd like to share, pleas add them in the comments, or e-mail me.)

.

SMU Stifles Discussion *update*

Saint Mary's University, Halifax, has joined the ranks of 'higher ' education institutions that disallow intelligent discussion of 'certain' subjects.
Dartmouth Soundsystem:

"We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."

A few nights ago a group of SMU students gathered to hear a speaker talk about abortion. This was not a debate or protest, and it did not affect any SMU students or faculty in a negative manner. Students and interested non-students gathered to hear the speaker. He gave his introduction and invited questions to be asked at the end...
....There's a good old quote that states that while I may not agree with your opinion, I will fight to the death to preserve your right to have it and express it. Beyond the topic of abortion, this incident is terrifying in that one group completely silenced the other by chanting for over 45 minutes. I am saddened that university-educated students don't realize that the tactics they're employing have always been favoured by fascists. If our universities don't support open discourse on "uncomfortable" topics like this, then who will?...

(video of event disruption)

Kudos to the students who held their tempers in the face of injustice and intolerance. The event was closed down by SMU 'conflict resolution(?)' officials, and moved off campus . Lesson learned by young facists in the making? Be loud and obnoxious. The university will support your intolerance.


*More at:
NovaScotiaScott.

American Papist

Related : Holocaust Analogy IS Appropriate

Holocaust Analogy IS Appropriate

Here's why.

In WWII the world saw the result of dehumanizing disregard for the inherent and equal value of every human life. Millions died cruelly because they were not 'human' in the eyes of their assassins.

Today, 4000 children are murdered daily in the US alone.They die cruelly, and are disposed of as if they were farm refuse. They are not considered to be 'human' by law or by their assassins.

Apparently the lesson has not been learned. If comparing these two atrocities is to be considered in 'bad taste' or inappropriate, is it because we have accepted the assassins' viewpoint? Do we not consider these human lives as valuable as any others? Are we following a 'rubric of human value' that places those with power at the top, and those who are vulnerable and , yes, dependant, at the bottom?

If this is the case, in what way have we progressed from the callous indifference of the western world to the terrible persecution of the Jews and others in WWII? In what way are we any better than the SS?

The analogy, ugly as it is, IS justified and appropriate. We deserve to have it put in our faces over and over until we GET IT!!

As long as we are comfortable to do nothing about this TODAY holocaust, we should be bombarded with the truth of our moral cowardice and laziness until we RISE UP in defense of life, or expire with the guilt of millions of deaths on our souls.

Here is a group doing something, with courage and perseverance in the face of opposition from the perpetrators of unjust deaths themselves and the squeamish cowards who stand by doing nothing good:

U-News

A pro-life activist who equates abortion with the Holocaust will bring his controversial message to Halifax.

Jose Ruba is co-founder of the pro-life Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform and former executive director of the National Campus Life Network, two groups fighting to bring the anti-abortion message to campuses across Canada.

Ruba's lecture, entitled "Echoes of the Holocaust," will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. at Saint Mary's University in the Burke building...

...Saint Mary's student Joseph Westin is one of the organizers of Thursday's event.

The founder of the group Saint Mary's Students for Life, doesn't equate one "atrocity" with another, but says he does see similarities between abortion and the Holocaust.

"They're targeting a section of society, which happens to be unborn babies and they're eradicating them," he says. "They're saying they're not people and it's legal, just as it was in [Nazi] Germany."

And yes, Joseph is my son. We're very pleased that he's a STAND UP guy!