Stories to watch in 2010

A few of the stories that are going to be big in 2010:

1. The Health Care Bill: Will the Democrats succeed in pushing through this legislation despite the wishes of the vast majority of the American people? Will the Stupak language remain in, or become a bone of contention that makes the whole bill fall apart? How many more sweetheart deals will be put in to entice any legislators that might be wavering? My prediction: the Dems pass the bill, committing political harikari in doing so.

2. The Midterm Elections: Will the discontent showcased in the Tea Party Movement translate into votes on Election Day? Will the Democrats maintain their leads in the House and Senate, or are we witnessing a repeat of 1994? My prediction: Republicans gain control of the House, narrow the gap in the Senate. Nancy Pelosi sacrifices the Blue Dogs as both parties reject moderates.

3. Iran: Will civil unrest lead to change, or more government crackdown? Will the US or Israel take action against the regime? My prediction: Obama is unwilling to support Iranian dissidents, which only serves to embolden Khameni. Israel decides it must take action on its own.

4. Government Spending: Will Congress put the brakes on its reckless spending? Prediction: Not anytime soon.

5. Economy: Will we finally see a recovery? Will the unemployment rate go down? Prediction: Any recovery is likely to be short-lived, as the government continues to pursue disastrous policies.

6. Afghanistan: Will the troop surge be as effective as the one in Iraq? Or is Afghanistan beyond saving? My prediction: Never underestimate our troops. Unfortunately, the rules of engagement are such that they can't effectively do their jobs, so either those need to change or we're going to have big problems.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of what lies ahead in the new year, but it's a pretty safe bet that these issues will loom large. Let's hope 2010 turns out better than any of us expect.

What issues do you think will be important in the new year?

After the March

So this year's March for Life has come and gone. Thankfully, I was able to attend this year- I knew this would be an important March and I didn't want to miss it. I have to express my great pride in my fellow pro-lifers. Despite all that was working against us, we actually ended up with one of the largest turnouts in the history of the March!
What was more impressive was the prayerful atmosphere of the marchers. Many prayed Rosaries, others sang songs; it was all done in the awareness that only God will be able to get us out of this, only God can stir the hearts of those in power to protect life rather than to destroy it. There was an atmosphere of joy that couldn't be shaken even by the most unspeakable evil. Kathryn Jean Lopez has a great article on the March that you should check out.
Despite the positive witness and the wonderful experience of the March, however, I was struck by a couple of sobering thoughts. The first was before Mass at the Basilica. I looked at the music handout and glanced at the front where it said "36th March for Life". That just really struck me, how it's been so long since Roe vs. Wade, and how most of this year's marchers, myself included, have never known a world without Roe. Then my mind went to Psalm 95:10-11: "Forty years I endured that generation. I said 'they are a people whose hearts go astray and they do not know my ways', so I swore in my anger 'they shall not enter into my rest.'" If the Lord endured that generation for forty years, how much longer can he endure this generation, which slaughters its young and disrepects human dignity so much?
Then after the March, I read the words of our new President to mark the occasion of the 36th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. He almost seemed to think that his stance on abortion was protecting families! I couldn't understand how he could be so blind, so callous, so cold.
But in the midst of these thoughts, I was reminded again of how God is merciful. For all of those people to be out there at the March, God had to have done something powerful in their lives to lead them to witness as they did. And if God can work in our hearts, he can work in the heart of our new President. There is no need for despair, because God desires to save His people. An evil like abortion cannot stand forever. The victory may not come quickly, but it will come.

On the Eve of the March for Life

Two days after a massive crowd of people gathered for the inauguration of Barack Obama, another large group will take to the streets of Washington for a different reason. The March for Life takes place tomorrow, January 22nd, the 36th anniversary of the catastrophic Roe vs. Wade decision. The March generally draws large crowds of pro-lifers from all across the country, but tomorrow's will have a new significance. This year's marchers will not receive a message of support from their President, as they have for the past eight years. In fact, they will be marching largely to protest the proposed policies of the new President. This year's march takes place at the beginning of the term of a President who seemingly spells the defeat of the pro-life movement. Never has there been a President as extreme on abortion as Barack Obama, who even voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. Obama came to office on the themes of hope and change, but what hope is there for the pro-life movement? With our government so firmly in the grasp of those who want abortion to remain legal, what possibility is there of change?
Now is not the time to despair. The pro-life movement has made tremendous strides over the last several decades. Legislatively, yes, we will suffer setbacks; much of the progress made over the last 8 years will soon be lost. However, we must remember that the pro-life movement is not as dependent on the changing of laws than on the changing of hearts. Millions of Americans have come over to the pro-life side, and we must continue to speak to those who are willing to hear. An evil such as abortion cannot stand forever, and eventually the consciences of Americans will be stirred to rise above the evil of abortion just as we rose above the evil of slavery. How pro-lifers conduct themselves, especially at the March tomorrow, will provide a glimpse to others of what we have to offer. If we are angry about our situation and disrespectful of those who disagree with us, we will never win them over. If we behave as we have in Marches past, with love and joy in our hearts despite the darkness of the situation, we will prevail.

President Barack Obama

Barack Obama was sworn in today as the 44th President of the United States. He comes into office with high expectations as well as great challenges. In the coming days, he will be making decisions that will affect this nation greatly, and some of the things he has promised to do should be of concern, particularly to pro-lifers. In the meantime, however, let us pray for our new President and our great nation. The fact that this nation has been able to progress morally from slavery to electing a black president should give us hope that other challenges, such as abortion, will eventually be overcome as well.

From Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life

LifeSite has an article about an abortionist and his profound conversion. Stojan Adasevic was the most well-known abortionist in Serbia for decades, performing 48,000 abortions. He had a dream where he saw a large group of children in a field, along with a man who identified himself as St. Thomas Aquinas. The saint told him that these children were the victims of the abortions he had performed. This led Adasevic to profoundly change his life and start advocating pro-life causes.

This is a great story and calls to mind Norma McCorvey, the Roe in the Roe vs. Wade decision, who became a committed pro-life activist in the 1990's. She entered the Catholic Church and now has her own pro-life ministry. This was an incredible conversion and a moment of rejoicing for the pro-life community.
I bring these up because a lot of us, myself included, have been demoralized about the future of the pro-life movement after the election of Barack Obama. His campaign promises and previous votes on the issue should be cause for concern for all who believe in the sanctity of human life. However, as the above stories demonstrate, we should NEVER UNDERESTIMATE GOD'S POWER TO WORK MIRACLES. God can work wonders in a person's heart, and we need to pray for this to happen with our President-Elect and all elected officials. We need to pray for those who provide abortions, that God may touch their hearts and awaken them to what they are doing. We need to pray for all those who advocate abortion, that they may instead seek to promote a Culture of Life. We need to pray for women who have had an abortion, that they may find the healing they need. Now do I think it's likely that all of the sudden Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are going to start being pro-life activists? Of course not, because in human terms, it's impossible. But then again, nobody thought it was possible for Dr. Adasevic or Norma McCorvey, either.

Where Does the Pro-Life Movement Go From Here?

A lot of us are disappointed over the outcome of the election. This country elected the most pro-abortion president in its history at the worst possible time for that to happen. With one more pro-life Supreme Court justice, Roe vs. Wade could have been overturned. Now, since it is likely that at least two justices will retire over the next four years, the people that the new President will choose to replace them with will assuredly not be pro-life. This is a devastating blow to the pro-life community; now it could be another generation before Roe vs. Wade is overturned.
Any hopes of advancing pro-life principles through legislation will have to be put on hold, too. Nancy Pelosi, who has distorted Church teaching on abortion, is unlikely to change her tune. During the Bush administration progress was made, but if Obama keeps his campaign promise of signing into law the Freedom of Choice Act all restrictions on abortion would be overturned. What are we to do?
It is NOT the time to give up. The pro-life community needs to step up its efforts more than ever. As it says in the John Paul II movie, we must "meet this abyss of hate with an abyss of love." We need to step up efforts in any way we can. When women are faced with fear because of an unwanted pregnancy, let our love guide them to embrace life rather than our indifference guiding them to the abortion clinic. We are not defeated, because Christ has conquered death!
Here's Father Pavone's take on the election results:

What do you feel are some ways in which the pro-life community can respond to this election?

Thank You From Cindy and John McCain

Cindy and John McCain sent this letter out today to their supporters thanking us for our hard work and dedication to their Presidential campaign.

I thought it was well thought out and very well said:
====================================

Cindy and I would like to take a moment to thank you for your loyal and steadfast support during the course of this campaign. Governor Palin, her husband Todd, our families, friends and campaign staff extend our deep appreciation for your tireless dedication, support and friendship.

It is the end of a long journey and your support through the ups and downs has meant more to us than you may ever know.

Although we were disappointed with the results, we must move beyond this campaign and work together to get our country moving again.

It is our sincere hope that you will join us in putting our country first and continue to work to keep our nation safe, free and prosperous.

We urge you to join us in not just congratulating Senator Obama, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together as a nation. Whatever our differences may be, we are all fellow Americans.

We are truly blessed to live in this great country and call ourselves Americans, and we will forever be her loyal servants.

Today, let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

With warm gratitude,

Cindy and John McCain

The Blame Game

It's interesting seeing people's reactions to the election results. A lot of people want to find a scapegoat. Within 24 hours of voting for the man, many conservatives were bashing John McCain. Fox News reported that sources in the McCain campaign were blaming Sarah Palin for the loss and portraying her as an idiot. And of course, everybody points the finger at George W. Bush, which is nothing new.
While there certainly were failures that need to be noted, I think it's wrong to find someone to whom we pass the blame. Rather, we need to learn from our failures and the Democrats' success. We need to look at why Reagan was so successful in 1980 and 1984 and why the Republicans took the House in 1994. We can't criticize the Democrats for "throwing people under the bus" and then turn around and do it ourselves. Was McCain a perfect candidate? No. He wasn't my first choice for the nomination, and I'll admit I was a bit disappointed that he won it. However, though I may have disagreed with him on some policies, he was and is a man of honor, and was a far better option than Barack Obama. Pointing fingers gets us nowhere; we need to move ahead.
There are many Republicans out there who represent hope for the future leadership of the party and the country. In the future, we will be doing profiles on some of these Republicans to give you a better idea of where the party is going. That's where we need to look- the future. Scapegoating is not the answer.

What I am going to take away from this election

Thank you to Kevin for allowing me to blog for him. I promised that I would help out as soon as the 2008 Election was complete.

Now that the election is over, I think its appropriate to transition to this blog as I discuss what I took from the this election:

In 2006, I became involved with politics at a state and nationwide scene. My commitment to the pro-life movement no longer was shuttered, but became wide open once I realized the political forum which its played in.I learned of Senator Sam Brownback Presidential Campaign from Billy Valentine and Terry Schilling, two great pro-life student champions.

Sam was raised in Kansas from very rural roots, and has defied all odds to become one of best senators of all time. Brownback's commitment to protecting life was not just merely opposing abortion, but became a pro-life, whole life philosophy, something that I really liked. I decided to extern for his campaign last spring. Little did I know that this would be one of the most grueling, yet most enjoyable times of my life. Our work was all grassroots, working to identify like-minded voters and converting them to support Senator Sam Brownback. We never ran on television or radio ad, funnelling our money in phone calls, door to door, and get out the vote efforts for the Iowa Straw Poll. We were able to deliver a hard fought 3rd place victory for Sam. Although this was well earned, I couldn't bring myself to help with the caucus team, since this would've take me away from my classwork, and I was only a year away from graduating.

It was difficult thereafter for Sam to take off due to the lack of fundraising and lost momentum after the straw poll.When Sam dropped out on October 21, 2007, I immediately supported Mike Huckabee, a evangelical Christian leader from Arkansas. While I respected Brownback's decision to support John McCain, I felt that my true loyalty lies in the pro-life movement, and that we need to elect the best pro-lifer into office. I never seriously worked on his campaign due to time constraints, but I made phone calls in a couple of key states, such as Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida.

Fortunately for pro-lifers, Mike's victory in Iowa helped to pave the way for Mitt Romney's downfall out of the race and prevented a flip flopper from receiving the nomination. While many conservatives criticized Mike for staying in the race longer than he needed to be, it helped to keep John in the news. I knew Mike wasn't going to win, but it prevented the Democrats from taking over the debate.

Therefore, it was easy to choose John McCain because of his pro-life values, conservative principles, and he was definitely the best candidate to go against the Democrats. However, the catch-22 for McCain was George Bush. Either Bush's endorsement was a no-win scenario in this election.My support for McCain early on was minimal at best. I was never really that excited about John McCain until Sarah Palin was chosen as his VP, an event I had the opportunity of witnessing. Once McCain wised up and felt we needed to energize the conservative base was when I really was brought on board. I signed up to volunteer 3 times a week at the local Victory Center, and decided to establish the College Republicans at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. I knew that we had hope for once, and it actually came in the polls in September when McCain was leading. However, the financial crisis became too much to bear. It was difficult for McCain to cut himself loose from the strains of the economy as well as the general dissatisfaction of the campaign. Obama and the Democrats prevailed.

What are the essential items that I will take away from this election:

1. Its not the most electable candidate, but the best candidate who will prevail. This was certainly true as all the front runners: Giuliani, Romney, Thompson; all were denied the nomination for the GOP. McCain was nearly bankrupt and totally out of it. Brownback had more money at one point. It goes to show that the American people can't be bought in any election.

2. The pro-life movement is down, but not out. Our nation is moving towards the center-left in this election, and that we are going to miss some more pro-life leaders. However, we still have much hope in state and local offices which will promote pro-life candidacies.

3. McCain's call to serve. John McCain called for a generation of Americans to put country above self, that we need to have a leader who won't merely satisfy the selfish desires of Americans, but bring about a commitment to serve our country. He was successful in instilling that in me, as I learned about McCain's service to America, and our duty to serve her country, to cherish and respect her for who she is.

4. While I don't support Barack Obama, I do believe that his election represents the breaking down of tremendous walls that at one point seemed impossible to scale. Many never thought that they would see a black man become President one day. His election represents the walls tore down, and that blacks have opportunities they thought they would never have had.

This election really brought me into the realm of the conservative movement. It also comes when the conservative movement has hit rock bottom. But I have hope that we can prevail, when we can broaden our base and reorganize.

Obama in His Own Words on The Born Alive Infant Protection Act

A very powerful and moving video. What he callously describes as a "burden" to the doctor is a living, breathing human being. This shows how the Culture of Death has taken hold here in America, and how we need a Culture of Life to replace it. This is why we can't give up in the pro-life movement. As I've said in a previous post, if this is where we are now, where will we be in ten years?

Pray the Rosary for the Election

I want to take the time and call upon all those who read this blog to pray for this election. The stakes have never been higher in an election because we have never had a clearer choice between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death. Make no mistake: if we don't elect pro-life leaders this election, we will not be able to end abortion for decades. If we have extremely pro-choice Justices on the Supreme Court, Roe vs. Wade will not be overturned. Period. If we have an extremely pro-choice Congress, they will do away with any limits on abortion. Period. If we elect the most pro-abortion candidate we've ever had for President, he will sign the "Freedom of Choice Act", doing away with any pro-life laws that have been passed. Period.
This is not only a time to be concerned about America's future in regard to energy, the economy, foreign policy, or things like that. We need to be concerned about where we are going spiritually. I feel that if we are to elect a President that has supported infanticide, we will have crossed a serious line that will spell disaster for our country.
That's why I ask everyone who reads this to offer up a Rosary for the election every day from now to November 4. The Rosary is a powerful spiritual weapon and when people pray it with devotion God will work wonders. Pope Pius XI said, "if I had an army reciting the Rosary, I would convert the whole world." So imagine the power that prayer could have in this election. Pray the Rosary. If you can, fast a day each week. If you're not Catholic, maybe spend an extra 15 minutes a day reading Scripture. And pray about your vote. (Don't forget to vote, either- that part's important!)
I think we've seen the results of putting our country in the hands of politicians. This time, let's put it in God's hands.

More on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act

Glenn Beck interviews David Freddoso and discusses the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, and Obama's opposition to it. Click here for the interview.

Powerful New Ad on Born Alive Infant Protection Act

Life is precious.

Hear her story:

Utilitarianism vs. the Culture of Life

The nomination of Sarah Palin has raised awareness of the issue of children with disabilities and of the sanctity of life in general. Pro-lifers were inspired by her refusal to have an abortion when informed that her child had Down Syndrome. This was a strong affirmation of the most fundamental tenet of the pro-life movement, namely that all human life has great value. In other words, she refused to see her baby as a burden but as a blessing.

Contrast this with the attitude of Barack Obama. He famously said that he didn't want his daughters "punished with a baby." More importantly, he voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act- denying medical care to babies ALREADY BORN after a failed abortion attempt.
Apparently, convenience is more important than life.

This great divide was further evidenced in two stories this past week relating to children with disabilities. In one story, a man named Thomas VanderWoude jumped in after his son with Down Syndrome fell into a septic tank. VanderWoude held his son above his head for twenty minutes before help arrived. By the time it finally did arrive, VanderWoude had died, but his son survived.

On the other end of the spectrum, there was the case of the woman in the UK who drowned her 4-year-old daughter in a bathtub because she was "embarrassed" by her child's cerebral palsy. Again, this shows an attitude that favors "convenience" over life, that views children (particularly disabled children) as a burden or a punishment.

How have we come to this point, where whole groups of people are seen as "inconvenient"? How have we decided that certain lives are not worth living? Occasionally, you will get an answer like, "who are we to let these children suffer?" But this is a false compassion. Everybody suffers- it doesn't make us less human. If anything, it makes us more human. We've gotten to the point in this culture where we want to eliminate all suffering, all inconvenience. That's why 90% of children diagnosed in the womb with Down Syndrome are aborted. That's why some who support abortion think Palin made the wrong choice in keeping her son Trig. These people cannot see the value in these lives. Perhaps it is because their measure of a person's worth is how much money they can potentially make, or how good-looking they are, or other superficial criteria. Certainly, in their viewpoint, someone like Terry Schiavo had no worth. What was she able to contribute to society?

But those who support life know that a person's worth is based on the fact that they are made in the image and likeness of God. Millions of us were touched by the story of Terry Schiavo, just as we are by that of Trig Palin. Even if a person is in such a state that they are unable to show love to others, they are able to BRING OUT the love in others in a special way, by virtue of their humanity, by virtue of their being children of God.

Whenever we say that any human life is inconvenient, or undesirable, it is a dangerous road to walk down. People should know- we walked down this road before in the 20th century, and saw the greatest horrors in human history. We need to celebrate life. ALL life. Because it all has value. America has an opportunity to look at herself and see this, and thus become an example to all the world. Here's hoping we open our eyes.

UPDATE: This T-Shirt demonstrates what I'm talking about from those who do not respect life.