Protesting the Racist Violence in Charlottesville Last Saturday, August 12, after a white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a participant deliberately drove his car into a group of mostly nonviolent counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring many others (plus the tragic death of two state troopers monitoring by helicopter; cause of crash not yet known). Anti-racist protests sprang up around the country, and many of us joined in. CL board member Lisa Stiller (pictured) was part of the effort to organize the Portland, Oregon rally. She reports “We had about 500 people. It was open mic, some music, with messages addressing the necessity to keep standing up against hate and intolerance, and many speakers offering opinions about how our current political climate contributed to Charlottesville and also how our failure to address racism and intolerance and bigotry led to the violence this weekend. Faith leaders from the Jewish and Buddhist and Native American communities spoke out, and we had powerful statements read by staff members of our US Senators.” People from our member group Rehumanize International (pictured) joined their local protest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Lisa Stiller
Left to right: Kelly Matula, Rosemary Geraghty, Aimee Murphy
Nonviolent protesters being in danger of being injured, much less actually killed, just because they were protesting, is of course an outrage that connects every issue of violence that we protest. Fortunately, the US Attorney General has decried this as an act of domestic terrorism. The US President’s take on the situation is much more ominous.
Upcoming Action: Pro-Life Anti-Nuke March September 9 & Petition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Rehumanize International has started an initiative to abolish nuclear weapons that is based on explicitly pro-life principles. The initiative, which we are co-sponsoring, is also co-sponsored by CLN member Feminists for Nonviolent Choices and our friends at the American Solidarity Party. It includes a new petition addressed to US President Donald Trump and other leaders of nuclear weapons-holding states that calls for adoption of the U.N. treaty for nuclear disarmament. The petition says “Nuclear weapons have no place in a culture that strives to affirm the lives of all, born and preborn.”
Accompanying this petition drive will be a Pro-Life March to Abolish Nuclear Weapons in Washington, D.C., on September 9. Mark your calendars, and stay tuned!
Pro-life activists and organizations can sign the petition, join and co-sponsor the March, and publicize both efforts. Social media users can use the hashtag #NukesAreNotProLife.
Upcoming Actions: Campaign Nonviolence We’ve included the above March in our list of consistent-life actions for the Week of Actions of Campaign Nonviolence – while that week is September 16-23, it’s not uncommon for actions close to that time period to be included. If anyone has in mind any similar action in that time frame, including local pro-life marches to abolish nuclear weapons in conjunction with the D.C. march mentioned above, or anything as modest as a small vigil or a speaking presentation, please let us know at weekly@consistent-life.org.
Latest CL Blog: The Vital Need for Diversity
In the second in our series of blog posts based on presentations at our 30th-anniversary conference, Sarah Terzo talks about the valuable contribution and crucial need for “non-traditional” pro-lifers, focusing on atheists and LGBT people.
Quotation of the Week John Cavanaugh O’Keefe The Roots of Racism and Abortion: An Exploration of Eugenics Eugenics, the ideology of arrogance, is generally ignored. Few people even know that the word means. But this ideology led to racism (academic racism), abortion, anti-immigration laws, population control, abuses in genetic engineering -- to mention a few. It is astounding that any serious historian or political leader imagines that it is possible to understand today's world without getting a firm grasp of eugenics!
Responses/News tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
Send to weekly@consistent-life.org.
