March for Life

On Monday, January 22, I attended the annual March for Life. I had intended to visit the Blogs4Life conference, but due to circumstances beyond my control (our bus was later than we had planned for) I was unable to make the conference. I did however, still make the march. Following is some video from the march.



Here is video I shot before and after the Mass at DAR Constitution Hall. For an NO Mass, that was so large, it actually went fairly well. Cardinal Rigali from Philadelphia presided. I did not video any of the actual Mass, just the music beforehand, and the Cardinal leaving afterward. Note that this was the smaller of two Masses in DC at the same time. The larger one was at the Verizon center (used to be MCI center), where the Washingon Wizards basketball team plays.




Here is video immediately following the event at Constitution Hall as the group from the Mass makes its way to the march.




Here we have video of the more interesting speakers at the march. I skipped alot of the politicians as they are boring and not to be trusted, in general. I did get my congressman, Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland. My favorite speaker is the guy from the AME church in Frederick. The Rabbi is also there every year and always has something incendiary to say.




Here is video of the actual march. Its not a terribly long march, and there were absolutely no counter-protesters on hand.

So, there you have the video. I just wanted to add a comment about the march, both last year and this year... I noticed there are several different types of people that go to these marches. You have the people who are there and celebrate by chanting college fight songs, or cadences, or other types of music. They are usually younger people, and tend to be there with their college or high school, or youth group. I find it unsettling, because I am more the somber person, there to mourn and protest the holocaust. I would almost prefer a silent candle-lit march. I think that would somehow be more appropriate given the gravity of what I, and presumably the other march attendees believe is going on.

One last item to chew on. Thinking back to the Nazi holocaust, pretend for the sake of argument that the Nazis had allowed those who sympathized with their victims to hold a rally and march once a year in Berlin. How would we view the hundreds of thousands of people who one would assume would have turned out to march? How will history view us, assuming we will win one day, and human life will be protected by the law? We march once (some of us more often at smaller events) a year, we "pray" for an end to the holocaust, we donate time and money to oragnizations and groups that work to provide alternatives to abortion, for those women who seek an alternative. Is it enough? Would it have been enough for the Germans to do the same?