Posts Tagged ‘fitchburg’

The “Coincidence” of the 3 year mass cycle

Posted: January 31, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, local stuff
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As you likely don’t know if you aren’t Catholic, (and you may not know if you are). There is a 3 year cycle that scripture reading at a Catholic Mass are on. Each year we do a different one of the synoptic Gospels, on the “Mark” years we mix in John (because Mark is so short) and John is also used on major feasts and heavily during Lent.

What this means is over a 3 year period we complete all of Paul’s letters, all of the Gospels and a good chunk of the rest of the New Testament and large chunks of the old.

Now as you know the big news around here is the Planned Parenthood stuff.

So what do you think happens to be the first reading today?

The word of the LORD came to me thus:
5
1 Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

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But do you gird your loins; stand up and tell them all that I command you. Be not crushed on their account, as though I would leave you crushed before them;
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For it is I this day who have made you a fortified city, A pillar of iron, a wall of brass, against the whole land: Against Judah’s kings and princes, against its priests and people.
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They will fight against you, but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD. Jeremiah 1:4,5,17-19

And of course this is only two days before the big city counsel meeting. So what does Father Bob do? Does he play it safe and go with the Bishop’s letter talking about Penance, or does he challenge the congregation as Christ does in today’s gospel?

Well if you’ve been reading about Fr. Bruso you know the answer.

Today’s sermon was a direct challenge to get involved, going over each argument and leaving Planned Parenthood’s arguments in the dust of logic. This big argument was the encouragement of the separation of the decision making process from the parent since teenagers are so good at making decisions without parents, but the ironic line was his final point, which went something like this:

Let’s assume that disagree with every argument I’ve already made. Think a sec, when your teens had regular prescriptions, have they taken their pills without be reminded by a parent? Why would anyone think they would be any more responsible with no parents helping them?

There is a reason why teenage pregnancy rates don’t drop when Planned Parenthood arrives.

He asked the congregation to call their city counselors and the Mayor’s office noting that both the Mayor and the president of the city counsel were supporters of Planned Parenthood move to Fitchburg.

What will the result be? We will find out in two days.

The cut to the chase business on Abortion.

Posted: January 29, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Yesterday I was listening to the pro-choice argument of a person I knew, the whole: “I don’t like abortion but I think I don’t have a right to forbid someone from having one.” argument. The gentleman who volunteered his thoughts sounding so reasonable so tolerant, asked my opinion on the subject.

I had been talking about covering the protest downtown and hadn’t specified my own position on the matter. So I answered him directly that I was pro life.

He asked me in return if I felt I had the right to forbid a woman from having an abortion? My answer was equally blunt: Yes.

Although throughout history that would not be a controversial answer, today it is positively anathema. The type of answer one doesn’t give in polite company.

As he recovered from his surprise, not only from my answer but from the matter of fact way I gave it, I asked the bottom line question: “Is abortion the killing of a human life?”

That is when the gentleman started to hem and haw about when life began and when it should be protected, hen it has value. I pointed out that the government had no problem protecting a bald eagle’s egg unhatched, why not a human?

This is the cut to the chase, the argument that we have ceded to the determent of millions for the sake of politeness and inoffensiveness.

Bottom line: If abortion does not end a unique human life then there is no reason to forbid, restrict or even consider it the least bit of controversial. The filming of it would not be an issue the sight of the “bodies” should be no more odd than a trip to the butcher shop and psychologically it should be no more traumatic than any other simple surgery. There would be no reason to want to reduce abortion, after all it’s just another same day operation, in fact we would want to encourage it for the monetary savings to the public.

When people talk about abortion as a “tragedy“, as something that should be “safe, legal and rare” as something we all “want to reduce” they reveal that they know the truth behind it, that we are talking about human life. We are ending a human life for the sake of convince, hardship or panic. We are willing to let it go, discarding it like any other piece of unwanted property, just so long as we don’t have to talk about it.

Like a town the day after a lynch mob strikes or a person at a party of a plantation owner who visits the slave quarters in the evening, we know something is wrong, but we don’t want to embarrass our neighbors and friends by saying a word.

Because once we say that word, we acknowledge reality instead of feigning ignorance. Once we KNOW then we are committed to make our choice. Do we stay silent and hope it goes away or do we act when that action will make others uncomfortable to the point where you are the target? In a society where being “judgmental” is the highest sin that takes more bravery than many people think they have.

It is for that reason why Planned Parenthood opening a office in a small city with a high unemployment rate, an action that should gather no attention at all gains national coverage and protesters. It is why as many people turned out on a snowy day on short notice in Fitchburg (pop 40k)to oppose Planned Parenthood as did in the entire city of San Francisco (pop 744k) to support abortion a mere week ago.

Within sight of the parking garage where the pro-life protesters held their signs. Less than a block away sits a monument to Captain Ebenezer Bridge and the forty-two men who when confronted with an uncomfortable reality on the 19th of April in 1775 made a decision to march putting their lives and reputation against one of the greatest powers in the world.

I’ll wager almost none of the protesters know Ebenezer Bridge’s name, but unbeknown to them, they are his successors carrying on that same Fitchburg tradition of confronting an uncomfortable reality for the sake of their children.

Update: A double thanks to Adrienne’s (Catholics) Corner for both the link and the donation to the CPAC/I’ll do it myself Tucker fund.

The Sentinel & Enterprise covered yesterday’s protest…

Posted: January 29, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, internet/free speech, opinion/news
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..against Planned Parenthood and had a quote from city counselor Rosemary Reynolds that every pol who claims Catholicism should memorize:

Reynolds said she was protesting as a resident, and a member of the City Council, against Planned Parenthood coming to Fitchburg.

“I’m one person. I don’t divide myself,” Reynolds said.

As Emily Devlin reports there were quite a few people beeping in support of the protesters. I noticed one driver in particular who showed more enthusiasm than sense giving two thumbs up while taking his hands off the wheel in a snowstorm.

Devlin like Stacy and myself, quotes Fr. Bruso:

Bruso said a Main Street location, just down the street from Longsjo Middle School, makes the prospect of a Planned Parenthood office in Fitchburg even less palpable. Planned Parenthood is trying to depict itself as an agency that is only planning to educate the community about sexual health, Bruso said, but he believes that’s not the case.

“They don’t make money by giving out literature. They make money by performing abortions,” Bruso said.

And it would appear that for the second time this month events in Fitchburg are drawing more notice than usual. National notice.

If yesterday was any indication then the Battle of Fitchburg as Stacy put it will not be a silent one. Tuesday’s counsel meeting will be rather interesting.

My complements to Emily Devlin. The story is a pretty accurate one, the Sentinel has does good work covering this story thus far.

Update: Haemet links and states a basic truth:

it is entirely hypocritical for Planned Parenthood to advocate for treating sexual health like any other health issue; after all, this is the group that fights parental notification and parental consent laws

Meanwhile Creative Minority report is as impressed with Rosemary Reynolds as I am.

“Abortion is the abandonment of hope.”

Posted: January 28, 2010 by datechguy in catholic, internet/free speech, local stuff, opinion/news
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The snow was falling steadily but for the 6 dozen or so protesters (not counting children) it didn’t matter. What mattered was Planned parenthood was planning to come to Fitchburg.

“We are here for the children” said one man standing in front of the parking lot, the crowd around him nodded their heads in agreement. When asked if the reports that abortions would not take place at this location due to the nature of their federal grant, they answered referrals would still be provided and who’s to say that the laws wouldn’t be changed in the future?

The general consensus was that Planned Parenthood choose Fitchburg due to a combination of a large teenage pregnancy rate and a large minority population. When I asked one protester if she thought that was a miscalculation, after all the Spanish population is very Catholic, she shook her head, “Look around you, do you see any Spanish faces out here?”

She would have been much more reassured if she had walked into the Barber Shop two doors down from where she was standing. At the Dream Team Barber shop with it’s very Spanish clientele I asked one of the barbers what they thought of the protest and planned parenthood.

He didn’t think their presence would affect his business one way or the other but Planned Parenthood was mistaken if he thought that the Spanish population would be behind them. “We love our children” he declared as he stood before the Crucifix next to the chair where he was lathering the head of a customer.

City Counselor Rosemary Reynolds spoke in even blunter terms concerning the relationship between Planned Parenthood and the minority community. She stressed its origins and Margaret Sanger’s involvement in the eugenics movement, maintaining that Planned Parenthood had been a disaster to the black community in particular.

Although no protesters showed up for the other side, this sentiment was not unanimous among Fitchburg residents. A customer in a variety store in front of the protest asked why people weren’t protesting the mayor or Unitil instead. The store owner was neutral on the subject of Abortion but not Unitil, one it was mentioned he spoke at length on how Unitil’s high prices do more damage to business in Fitchburg than anything Planned Parenthood could ever do. (If there was one thing everyone I talked to agreed on; it was they hated Unitil, A man making a delivery to the shop said that only Unitil would have drawn a bigger crowd against them here.)

Another business owner was certainly not neutral when it came to either Planned Parenthood or protesters. She commented that protesters in front of the office in Worcester that she visited as a teenager decades ago has some very unkind words for her. (That certainly wasn’t the case today. Local police at the scene stated the protesters where calm, respectful and orderly) As for Planned Parenthood: “When I was a teenager and pregnant they were there.” noting that they had provided birth control and advice to her in the 80’s when she needed it. She had her first child at 16 and her second at 21 saying Planned Parenthood provides advice for girls who feel they can’t talk to their parents. Ironically while her first two pregnancies were carried to term she did get an Abortion at 26 not wanting to bring a child into what was an abusive relationship. Although she deeply regrets the decision now, she doesn’t lay any blame on Planned Parenthood and stresses although they performed the abortion they didn’t push her to that choice: “I made the decision. It’s not their fault it’s mine.” Though she considers it now the wrong choice for her; she maintains that’s not true for everyone.

Fr. Robert Bruso (full disclosure, my parish priest) would disagree. The pastor of Saint Anthony di Padua Church talked about how the issue isn’t a Catholic or a Protestant or even a religious issue. It’s all a question of respect for life and it’s potential. “President Obama’s book is called The Audacity of Hope. Abortion is the abandonment of hope. When a person chooses abortion they are saying they don’t have hope for the future, not for their child or for themselves.”

When it came to hope the protesters had plenty that they could keep planned parenthood out. Counselor Reynolds mentioned the location they wanted to open in was not zoned for any sort of medical office. When asked if the city counsel could keep them out if they choose an area that was zoned for their presence, she seemed less confident but no less dedicated. The protesters thought the same, stressing that it was important for landlords in Fitchburg to understand that wherever Planned Parenthood went, the protests would follow not stopping until they were gone.

Considering that a protest organized on the fly drew dozens of people in a snowstorm, it appears that’s one promise they will certainly be kept.

Update: Camp of the Saints links: thanks muchly.

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