What the World Saw

If you were in Washington, DC a week ago this afternoon, you saw hundreds of thousands of people, of different ages, religions, and political views coming together from across the nation with one common factor : they recognize abortion as murder and want that murder to be legal no more. The crowd flooded the Mall, traveled together through the streets of the capital, and slowly dispersed in after pausing in front of the Supreme Court building. It was full of an energy and vibrancy created by a group of people who are finding mutual hope and encouragement in one another.

If you were not in Washington, DC a week ago this afternoon, you might not have even realized that the March for Life was happening. Or happened. As usual, it made barely a blip in the news media. As usual, those blips gave their readership no idea as to the size of the event. NPR, for example, gave it a brief shout-out -- before it really even happened. The Washington Post, our good hometown paper, made it out to be a religious and political event, interesting Catholics and conservatives. And while many people there had religious and/or political motivations (including your faithful writer, on the religious side), to take that view narrows the meaning and the strength of the pro-life movement. Not all pro-life people are Catholic -- the president of the College's Students for Life group, for example. Not all pro-life people are conservative -- myself, for example.

By far the most frustrating angle I found came from this photoblog on MSNBC, which demeans the March in so many ways that I can't articulate them -- my words get messed up as they all try to come out at once. None of these pictures capture the essence of the March for Life... until you get to the last one. A young man, staring at the Supreme Court building, silently. His sunglasses reflect a police officer on the steps of the building. The word "LIFE," written on red duct tape, covers his mouth. He is standing in solemn witness for the unborn, silently accusing our nation of the wrongs it has done.

If you find a Catholic or a pro-life news source, it will provide more comprehensive coverage of the March for Life. But most of the world sees through the eyes of NPR, the Washington Post, MSNBC, or similar sources of news. We shouldn't be surprised then, when people catch a glimpse of the true pro-life world and are surprised.