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Home Action News Summer 2004 truth3

Summer 2004 ACTION NEWS | VOL. XXIII NO. 3

NOTE: Due to its length, this article is split into four parts.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Face the Truth Puts Faith into Action, cont.

by Eric Scheidler

St. Xavier University Uncooperative

On Wednesday, July 14 we were back in Chicago for three sites on the South Side. In the morning we set up at 103rd Street and Pulaski Road in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood, which also borders Oak Lawn. When we arrived we parked our vans not far from the corner at an empty lot of St. Xavier University.

[FTT on Pulaski]

Monica Miller leads a prayer at 103rd Street and Pulaski Road, July 14 [Photo by EJS]

Soon a public safety officer arrived and told us we could not park there, even though there were no other cars in the lot. We moved our vans to a space in front of the nearby Subway sandwich shop, but quite a few volunteers had parked in the St. Xavier lot too and were now out on the street with their signs.

Ann Scheidler called the Public Safety office and asked an official named Mary if the cars could stay there for the remaining hour. Mary replied that "the University cannot be associated with a political statement." Ann explained that Face the Truth isn't a political statement but a moral statement, but Mary insisted they can't be associated with "any statement." Ann later wrote to complain to St. Xavier University President Judith Dwyer about the incident, but received only a cursory reply.

While Ann held off the public safety officer, the other Tour coordinators fanned out to hold the signs of any volunteers who were parked in the St. Xavier lot while they moved their cars. I bicycled around gathering keys from several volunteers and moved their cars for them.

A Mother Shares Her Story

Meanwhile, an elegant black woman in her forties came out of the Subway shop and said to Ann, "I am so proud of you for doing this." Ann was so grateful to hear such encouragement after her frustrating experience with St. Xavier University that she gave the woman a hug.

The woman told Ann that when she was sixteen she got pregnant and was told by several friends to get an abortion, like they had done. But she knew that wasn't right and had the baby, a daughter now in her twenties who is the manager of that Subway sandwich shop. She said, "She has been my best friend." She called her daughter out to see the Tour, and two Subway employees came out and asked for information.

Hispanic Neighbors Welcome Tour

Next was 55th Street and Kedzie Avenue in the predominately Hispanic Gage Park neighborhood. Public reaction was much more positive at this site than at any other in the Tour so far. One exception was Rev. John Dearhammer, the pastor of St. Gall Parish, which is right on that corner. Fr. Dearhammer came out after we unloaded our signs onto the lawn in front of the Church. He was annoyed that we had not warned him we were coming and irritated that the signs were on church property.

We had actually sent a letter to the parish several weeks before the Tour, but we moved the signs. Fr. Dearhammer later called our office to complain further, but office volunteer Margaret Creagh sweet talked him into pledging to publicize the Tour next time we're in his neighborhood!

We were joined in Gage Park by two national leaders of Face the Truth, Monica Miller from Michigan and Jack Ames from Maryland. Every year League representatives join Jack's Maryland Truth Tour and we look forward to joining Monica on her first Michigan Tour next year. Monica lent us several first trimester abortion signs for the Tour.

While Matt Funovits was holding an Eighth Week of Life sign on 55th Street, a man walked out of a nearby house wearing a rock band T-shirt with the words "Butchered at Birth" on the back and a picture of a baby skeleton in the fetal position. Whether the slogan was meant to be pro-life or not Matt could not say, but it was a strange juxtaposition to Matt's unborn baby sign.
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Tour Saves a Baby's Life

Our final site of the day was Archer Avenue and Halsted Street in the Bridgeport neighborhood. Our numbers had thinned after lunch, so we held signs only on Archer, where traffic was heavier, but the Lord showed us that he doesn't need many to do his work.

A young man walking up Halsted stopped and began to flip through a pile of extra signs and ask Ann Scheidler about the babies depicted, both live and aborted. He told Ann his name was Mario and that yesterday he found out his girlfriend was nine weeks pregnant, and that they were considering abortion. He said that he believed stumbling upon our display was a sign from God to keep the baby.

Ann gave him a picture of a ten-week baby, and asked him if he had considered marrying his girlfriend. Mario said they'd been together for a long time and that he probably ought to marry her. At the end of the day our Tour group, representing five states, prayed for Mario, his girlfriend, and their unborn baby, who would have the chance to live thanks to Face the Truth.

Young Moms See Tour, Join In

Two days in the northwest suburbs began Thursday, July 15 with a morning stop in Hanover Park at Irving Park and Barrington Roads. Our numbers were bolstered at this site by members of a local teen pro-life club, and we saw the return of pro-abortion counter-protestors, who were to follow us for the last three days of the Tour.

[FTT in Hanover Park]

Tom Morrison (in blue at right) cooerdinates the set-up in Hanover Park, July 15 [Photo by EJS]

The handful of radical feminists held hand-made signs that were difficult for drivers to read. Whenever they held "Honk for Choice" signs, we posted someone nearby to hold a "Honk for Life" sign to neutralize the honking. When they held "Keep Abortion Legal" signs, we posted both similar-looking "Keep Murder Legal" signs and large Baby Choice signs to show exactly what they want to keep legal.

At our next site at Golf and Roselle Roads in Hoffman Estates we were joined by a young mother named Paula and her children who were picking up lunch nearby and saw the Tour (see story). In contrast another mother drove up beside Matthias Scheidler and began to yell at him for traumatizing her child, who was in the back seat -- fast asleep.

After another great Tour lunch at Christine Taylor's home in Hoffman Estates we moved on to our last site of the day at Euclid Avenue and Plum Grove Road in Rolling Meadows. Another young mother, Sheila, who actually considered herself pro-choice, was curious enough to stop and join us with her baby daughter (see story). She held an abortion sign and talked to the pro-abortion group about why people should see what abortion is if they're going to make that choice.
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