EMC took part in Operation Rescue/Operation Save America's Annual Event which took place in Las Vegas, NV this year. Imagine a week of Pro-life Activism in Sin City of all places! It was Great! Hundreds of Pro-lifers descended on the desert and what we had in store, they were not prepared for. We peacefully and compassionately let the City of Las Vegas see the victims of abortion.
I had the privilege of working at the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) display. We were stationed in the middle of the Fremont Street Experience: Summer of 69 Celebration. We were on the sidewalk between dozens of Casinos and underneath an overhead canopy that extended the length of five football fields. The temperature in Vegas that week was probably a sweltering 113 degrees, but underneath the canopy it felt at least 20 degrees cooler! So you can imagine where all the people were! That's right, they were walking right by us and our giant GAP display that showed the horror of what abortion does to a helpless child!
We handed out fliers to passers by and had many, many great conversations. The kind of conversations that get people thinking, thinking about subjects like right and wrong, justice and injustice, human rights, the dignity of the human person, fetal development, logic, and what exactly abortion does. Most people rarely think about these things, or they tend to compartmentalize such subjects to make themselves more comfortable. Because after all, it is written on the human heart and in the conscience that once we see injustice, we have the responsibility to do something about it.
Quite often people would stop and stare at the pictures. In one instance a young man looked for a very long time, left, and came back. As tourists walked up to our display one after another, I would ask them if they had ever seen pictures like these before, or what they thought of the images. Sadly, more often than not I would hear, "No, I have never seen such sights." As I write this now, I think to myself, that there is this major debate going on in our nation and in our world. So many people (our popular media are particularly guilty of this) take the "Pro-choice" side of the argument, without ever really knowing what abortion is, what abortion looks like, and without ever seeing the victims of this so called right. Because as we know, abortion not only kills one, but it also harms the other.
It is true that not everyone was happy seeing these images. In fact there were so many complaints about our display that The Fremont Street Experience put up a sign apologizing for our presence. But we were not there to make people feel all warm and fuzzy inside, while children are brutally ripped from their mother's wombs at the rate of 3,500 abortions per day in America.
At the end of the day, if you think that showing these pictures, is wrong, or uncharitable, or even just plain gross, I would offer you the story of Emmett Till. The effect that pictures of his open casket had on the Civil Rights Movement in America was no small deed. Emmett was a young, African American boy of 14 years old from Chicago. While visiting cousins in Mississippi he spoke to a white woman. An innocent enough act. Four days later he was dragged out of his uncle's house in the middle of the night by two men, the woman's husband included. Till was forced into their car, beaten, shot, and lynched. Three days later his body was found in the Tallahatchie River. A 75 pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire, weighted his body down. His face was so mutilated that the body could only be identified based on the ring that Till was wearing. His mother chose to be courageous, she chose to have an open casket funeral to let "the world see what they did to my boy." Pictures were published in magazines and newspapers and the people were outraged. Simlpy showing the victim helped spark, and some say started the Civil Rights Movement in America. The effect is undeniable.
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