Love Amidst Hate At The Sidewalk

Some of our walkers pray outside of Planned Parenthood in Salt Lake City, featured in Intermountain Catholic http://www.icatholic.org/article/crossroads-prolife-walkers-come-through-utah-6246841#

I’ve prayed at many abortion clinics before, from Sacramento, Pittsburgh, New York, and elsewhere. Clinic escorts have smeared foul fruit on the sidewalk and turned on the sprinklers to deter sidewalk counselors. Others have dragged snow shovels, turned on car alarms or loud music to drown out the counselor’s voices.

Since starting Crossroads, I’ve seen a lot of sinister and eerie abortion clinics.

In Reno, NV, the abortion clinic had two fences with hedges and cacti in between, megaphones to blare music and ugly words, disturbing signs saying in all caps, “God is pro-choice,” “Pray to end sidewalk bullying,” “Pray to end child molestation by priests,” “Bullies, Molesters, Terrorists.”

In Salt Lake City, we had people yell out the window, “Your mothers should have aborted you all,” “**** you, pro-choice!” and other ugly comments.

And honestly, I can take that. I can take being yelled at or mistreated. It exposes abortion for the evil it is.

In Denver though, my heart broke. Planned Parenthood, that bastion of evil, appeared as a professional beacon of hope compared to the anti-abortion protestors. These protestors were filled with such hatred.

Plastic dolls torn limb from limb and covered in fake blood were strewn across the driveway. More bloodied dolls were hung upside down on strings from a pole, and tossed in baby strollers. Huge graphic images of aborted children were set up all across the street. Homemade signs on ladders yelled in all caps, “Don’t Kill Your Baby,” “Repent or Perish,” and “Choice Is Abortion.”

But the worst part of all was the despicable character of the protestors. With bleeding hate, they screamed at the women entering the clinic. Holding more pictures of aborted children, they shrieked, “We have help for you! Don’t kill your baby. You will go to hell! God doesn’t want you to kill your baby. Don’t be a murderer!” And once they were in the parking lot, the protestors would climb on the ladders to see over the fence and continue to scream at the women.

These protestors may have been anti-abortion, but they were totally immersed in a culture of death. Their screams chased these already scared women into the seemingly professional and caring arms of Planned Parenthood. How twisted.

Love is at the heart of a culture of life. To be pro-life is to recognize the dignity and sanctity of all human life – children, elderly, mothers, fathers, abortionists, staff, everyone. It means to work to understand these poor mothers who are struggling, in pain, and think they have no choice. We want to love them, give them hope, and empower them to choose life.

These protestors had fallen so far into despair that they failed to recognize God’s unfathomable mercy for these women and men who are made in His image and likeness. They forgot to hope. But we have hope. Our loving Father loves these women no matter what. St. John Paul II said, “We are an Easter people, and hallelujah is our song.” We know that Christ has already conquered abortion since He conquered death. That is why we must never cease to work for the conversion of hearts.

There is hope for everyone. And we need to offer it with love.

Kindness in All Its Forms

One of the most striking things about walking is the kindness of strangers.

People have taken us to breakfast and lunch, made us humongous potluck dinners, and served us every kind of tasty dish. They ply us with seconds and desserts too, saying, “Oh, you’ve got a long walk ahead of you!” If I gave in each time, I definitely would gain weight over the course of this summer.

More than a few kind folks have stopped in the middle of the desert to give us granola bars, water bottles, and encouragement. One lady drove up to me and Colby in a big truck with a trailer. She asked us what we were doing, and after we told her, she dug a $100 bill out of her truck to hand to us. She shook her head saying, “Wow, I just really admire what you’re doing.”

We’ve also crossed paths several times over the last few days with a group biking across the country to raise money for disabled kids. It’s been super fun cheering them on and having them root for us. “Yeah, Push America!” “Go Crossroads!”

On the weekends when we stay with host families, I’m shocked and humbled by the generosity of these wonderful people. These folks are genuinely sweet and selfless. They open their homes, their hearts, and their fridges to us. Let me tell you, we have more cookies packed into our RV than we could ever eat!

One host family in Sacramento set it up so that every single walker on Central, Northern, and Southern walks would have a prayer warrior praying for their safety every day. We pulled the names out of the hats…I couldn’t contain my excitement and joy. How wonderful that so many people, even people we may not have met before, care enough to pray for us each day. Since this was my home parish, I knew most of the prayer warriors. Mine were an awesome family and my neighbor down the street! One family of prayer warriors makes shirts with the name of their walker on the back. So awesome!

So, to all of the awesome host families, kind strangers, lovely parishioners and cool bikers, I salute you.

Desert. Lots of Desert.

I’ve been walking through the desert all the live long day!

We’ve been through Carson City, Dayton, Fallon, Austin, Eureka, and Ely, Nevada. Sitting in the middle of the desert, it’s a very harsh and inhospitable landscape. They call Highway 50 “The Loneliest Highway in America.” But the rugged terrain maintains a stark beauty.

The sunsets turn the sky bright orange and pink. The brown hills are dotted with trees, gaining shades of blue and yellow silhouettes at dusk.
Bright constellations light up the night sky as we make our way back to the RV we call home. The alkali salt flats that looked white moments before turned into miles of reflective mirages.

By far the most exciting locations I’ve walked by would be the forest fire in Lake Tahoe and the bombing range in the Nevada desert. The wildfire had dozens of fire crews and police, two aircraft and a helicopter dropping fire retardant and water on the small blaze. The bombing range was complete with half a dozen military planes practicing hitting their targets.

Some other highlights include:
-driving the RV (we’ve lovingly nicknamed her Bessie the Struggle Bus)
-flooring the gas (I need to so I can get Bessie up these hills)
-licking an alkali salt flat (note: it tastes like dirty salt)
-walking through a drive-thru in Reno (just because)
-seeing wild horses, antelope, many species of lizards and birds, and a dead rattlesnake and coyote

Best sight by far: the night I first saw wild Mustangs. There were two chestnuts and a paint. They flicked their tails and shook their golden manes in the light of the setting sun. Powerful, graceful, independent and carefree, they pawed, pranced, galloped and grazed their way across the bushy plains.

Wild Horses! I can die happy now.

I fell in love. Truly, I don’t think I have ever seen such majestic creatures in my life.

Of course, now my fellow walkers love to poke at my soft spot for horses. Whenever I start bouncing up and down over how gorgeous they are, they love to point out that they will likely be sent to a glue factory, or starve to death, or meet some ugly fate. But I still love them (horses and walkers).

Why We Walk for Life

So far this trip, I’ve walked further than I ever had in my life (my longest day so far was 14.5 miles). It’s stretched me in the most beautiful ways. Early mornings, late nights, little sleep, speed walking, good conversations and peaceful scenery.

Since we’re the only ones out on the road, I wave at all the passing cars and trucks. Nearly everyone waves back. They probably think, “Human interaction! YES!”

I’ve only had one person yell out the window, “Pro-choice!” It amused me. Pro-life young people walk across the country because we have a cause, a desire, a hope. Our message is life-saving, and each child is life-changing. Yelling a single word at us accomplished nothing.

To be pro-abortion has no fire, no hope. You either believe you’re advocating killing which is frightening, or you are confusedly advocating for a surgery…which is just boring. There is no cross-country walk for choice by the youth because it is a dead end. To be “pro-choice” is to be pro-abortion. It promotes pain, heartache, and death, and few people have such an intense passion for the culture of death.

I don’t think any of us would do something this crazy and intense were it not to offer it up for the unborn. We want to change the world, to save our unborn brothers and sisters, to love mothers and fathers, to spread a culture of life. And that in itself is exciting. It motivates, it fuels our actions, and it pushes our feet when they ache.

 

 

I’m Walking Across the Country for Life!

One walk. One RV. 8 people. 15 miles per person per day. 3000 total miles.

San Francisco, Sacramento, Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, Lincoln, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Steubenville, Washington D.C.

Today, I leave on the adventure of a lifetime. For the next several months, I will be walking with Crossroads Pro-life Walks to raise awareness for the dignity of all human life, especially the unborn. We walk in shifts throughout the day, camp out at night, speak in churches and pray at abortion clinics on weekends.

So, why am I doing this? First of all, I feel called to do something more for the pro-life movement. The new evangelization calls for creativity. If abortion is the greatest human rights abuse of our time, we need to do our utmost to raise awareness to it, educate people, and then end it. Doing something radical like walking clear across the country definitely draws attention to the pro-life cause!

I’m sacrificing my summer (and my feet) because I want to raise awareness of the value and intrinsic worth each human being possesses. I’m doing this in memory of my 55 million unborn brothers and sisters who have been killed by abortion. I’m doing this for the mothers and fathers who have suffered the loss of their child, and live in silent regret and pain. I’m doing this to touch the lives of the silent majority who refuses to speak up for the unborn because of apathy.

I’ll keep you updated as often as possible through this blog. Please pray for me as I embark on this journey. God bless you all!