It struck me as being a pretty amateurish affair, frankly. Especially since I have been used to the large events in the US, run by well organised cadres of people who understand what "professionalism" means. And who aren't Europeans.
Their press releases were not well written; their website was confusing and difficult to navigate; and honestly, the communication skills of some of the people they put in charge of dealing with the media... well, let's say I've dealt with better.
And they got 2400 people there, from several countries.
And that's kind of the point.
It was not organised by a group of highly skilled professional organisers with lots of experience. It was put together by a group of students who had never done anything like it before. They really were just a group of ordinary people, not really activists, who deeply believed that abortion is killing Europe's future and thought that a public demonstration should be held, every year, to show the world that not everyone in Europe is on with the Death Programme. They told me they had expected a few hundred. They made a lot of mistakes, but still got 2400 people to turn out.
A few weeks before the Brussels March, there was another one in Copenhagen, I think. And they've had them in Prague and a few other places around Europe recently. And at each of these there have been about ten times as many people as were expected by the organisers.
And the way you get to be a highly skilled and experienced event organiser is to do it for a while and learn the ropes.
The fact that these marches are happening, that there are (thank God!) (finally) better bishops being appointed to key places around the world, that more and younger people are turning out to march in the streets to say please stop killing babies,
strikes me as a positive thing that doesn't get a lot of airtime.
Is it me? or are things turning around?
Am I dreaming or is that a light I see all the way down there at the end of that tunnel?
Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life of America told LSN that the fears expressed by the pro-abortion giant are playing out visibly on college campuses, where she says pro-life groups are routinely more vigorous and longer-lasting than pro-abortion groups.
"That's exactly what we see every day on college campuses," said Hawkins. "We'll have pro-choice groups that spring up in reaction to the pro-life groups that are started on campus and those groups, they last maybe a year. The only purpose they serve is to be reactionary towards our pro-life students."
Hawkins noted that groups such as Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the Feminist Majority Network struggle to maintain campus chapters. "They all are incredibly well-funded, have a lot more money than Students for Life of America, yet none of them can [keep] active groups," she said.
It's just you. :)
ReplyDeleteLight at the end of the tunnel can be an express train hurtling towards you! But it can also be the knowledge that you aren't the only person with a light, and it can be the light at the end of the tunnel. Either way, it's worth celebrating, and if it's the express train, there's nothing much you can do.
ReplyDeleteBetween the crisis and the catastrophe we might well enjoy a glass of champagne.
It's certainly a train every time it's the Coyote in the tunnel.
ReplyDeleteOn a related somewhat upbeat note, my 15 y.o. daughter referred to one of her flakier teachers as "a permafried hippie" the other day. Hippie-types are regarded, somewhat condescendingly, as quaint by today's teenagers, it would seem.
ReplyDelete