ORTL Welcome Speech Convention 4/4/09

I want to thank all of you for coming to the Oregon Right to Life Conference. I will be setting up a table with free Prozac samples for those who need some.

It sure is a changing world out there. The political situation is certainly less favorable to us than it was last year at this time. Definitions have changed. What we say and how we say it is very important, for language is the means by which we communicate not just words, but our understanding, thought processes, intent and convictions. Those who seek to promote their hatred of real freedom and to promote the culture of death are experts in the use of obfuscation in order to advance their agenda.

A now well known political figure ran his campaign using the slogan of “change”. The growth in support for his party was largely due to his skills as an orator and his ability to obfuscate. During the political campaign he attempted to play down his extremist image. He claimed that capitalism and the church were in no danger from him. He reiterated that his ideas posed no threat to those who had worked hard and succeeded. He was lucky enough to be running his campaign during a severe economic downturn. He predicted worsening economic decline and when this occurred he was seen in a favorable light even by those who had previously opposed him. People began to say that if he was clever enough to understand the economic climate maybe he also knew how to solve it. He was, after all, an intellectual. The stock market had crashed, banks had failed, businesses were closing. With the drop in demand for labor, unemployment increased. Wages also fell and those with work had to survive on lower incomes. Foreign nations began thinking about calling in the debt.

As we know, this politician was elected to the highest office in the land. He supported programs that included redistribution of income and wealth, government control of large industries, nationalization of trusts and banks, more spending on free education and the suppression of religious institutions. He derided the people he felt were in control of the monetary system and said that certain segments of society were holding back the progress that he was going to ensure with his new programs. He supported abortion, euthanasia and the extermination of the unfit. This politician’s name, of course, was Adolf Hitler. Yes, words are very important.

Terrorist acts are now called: “Man Caused Disasters”. (I feel this s sexist and they should be called "person caused disasters"). The War on Terror is now known as the “Overseas Contingency Operation”. Terrorists should probably be called: “Disenchanted foreign persons with violent tendencies in need of a time out”.

But some definitions that have not been changed by those who would seek to change almost all reasonable definitions are those used to describe abortion and euthanasia. The murder of an innocent human baby is still called “A Woman’s Right to Choose”. The murder of an elderly or infirm person is called “Death with Dignity”. Some persons are said to have a “poor quality of life”. This really means they need killing. Again, words are very important. Hiding evil intent through euphemisms and obfuscation in order to lull the masses into compliance has always been the tactic of evil persons. The Devil comes not as a wolf, but as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I don’t know about you, but I am mad. My grandmother used to say: “Animals get mad, people get angry”. OK, then I’m angry. I am really angry. Is that wrong? St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that anger can be good. If the anger is a reaction to an evil, is directed at the proper source and is proportionate to the evil being perpetrated. If this is the case, my grandmother was wrong. Things are so bad I should be absolutely mad!

I am angry with our president, who is the greatest threat to the pre-born, and to the country as a whole, in US history. I am also angry because I would have loved to have been able to vote for a black president. An African American man or woman of integrity and compassion I could look up to with pride. I feel cheated that I could not in good conscience cast my vote for the first African American president of the United States.

I am angry with Prime Minister Pelosi, who has had her wildest dreams fulfilled and is visibly ecstatic that millions more babies will be killed using our tax money. I am incensed that she had the audacity to travel to Rome hoping to set the Holy Father right on the issue of abortion. I wonder whether she thought she was going to get a Planned Parenthood clinic opened at St. Peter’s Basilica? I’m angry with Harry Reid because, well, he is Harry Reid. And I’m angry with the republicans because when they could have taken the moral high ground they were, in the end, responsible for 48% of the earmarks. I am angry at people who do not live out their convictions.

But, I am most angry with those who claimed to be pro life but voted for those who promote the culture of death. People like the president of my undergraduate university, a Catholic, Vincentian school. People who I believed were pro-life, and damn well should have been. They claimed there were other issues. Pro-life was but one of many important issues and in this case they voted on character, the economy, foreign policy, and jobs. My former dean proves the point that my former professor and good friend Dr. Ed Houser made many years ago. “The road to Hell is paved with good Vincentians”.

Anyone with half a brain and a modicum of decency knows that pro-life is not just another issue, it is THE issue. Why? Because it is this issue that determines the soul of the country. We cannot support evil and expect good to come of it. If we support good, all other problems are potentially surmountable. We are now seeing that having supported the culture of death; we will have inadvertently worsened all the other problems we were hoping to solve. Our economy will be in ruins. We will never again be the United States that was the leader of the free world. Our children will be left with a 10 trillion dollar debt they will never be able to repay. Another generation of pre-born Americans will be tortured and murdered. The destination for choosing evil is Hell. It’s a one way road and we have set ourselves on it at high speed. We will reap what we have sown.

I am sick and tired of people who claim to be aithful Christians yet voted their comfort instead of their consciences. I’m sick of hearing about “Democrats for Life”. That makes as much sense as “Pilots for Crashing”. If you voted Democrat you are not pro-life. You are pro-you.

What can we do now? We can stand and fight. We can refuse to give our country up to the fascists. We must be tireless. We must engage those we know who voted the “other” issues. We must be willing to sacrifice our comfort, our friendships, and our very safety in order to promote that which we know to be good and oppose that which we know to be evil. As Our Lord said, we must be willing to take up our crosses. We must be willing to lose our lives in order to save them. We must be more vocal, more willing to promote our ideals in public and in private even though that causes social or financial discomfort. We must learn, as did the saints of old, to suffer well. If we are not willing to stand up and protect innocent life we don’t deserve to live ourselves.

Now, for those who don’t know me, when I promote fighting I am not promoting violence. I am promoting strong, definitive action. For too long we have been willing to tolerate our friends who obfuscate as above. We must openly and vigorously challenge them. For too long we have accepted the opposing point of view in the workplace because it would be uncomfortable for us to argue our cause. No more. We must fight for the pro-life cause at every possible moment, whatever the potential financial or social risks or we will consolidate our losses, witness the deaths of untold numbers of innocent babies and lose our country in the process. If we do not change the political makeup in the next election we will have no country. It will have turned into “The Peoples Republic of America”, or “The Union of American Socialist Republics”.

Jesus did not say to the money changers in the temple: “Hey, do be good chaps and take your business outside please”! He threw their tables to the ground and ran them out. He displayed justifiable anger at sacrilegious practices. Get angry and stay angry. Keep it measured, directed, proportionate and remain righteously angry. For as is said in Ephesians 6:12, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Don’t give up. Don’t you ever give up! God Help us and God Bless America. Thank you.

Frank S. Rosenbloom, M.D.