To make sure I went to the DOT (Department of Transportation). I had been told by former DOT chairman Jim Spratt, who was to testify at my trial, that it was NOT their property, but I wanted it in writing. I then descended into red tape hell. Four visits to the DOT and it still wasn't clear WHOSE property it was. Since recent construction had fudged the property line, a case could be made either way. I became discouraged and went to other places instead. But it kept eating at me.

Today I got a call by Terence Michos of Cablevision that he had found someone willing to debate me! Finally! I've been unable to be on his show because he needs a balanced presentation. The person is none other than Jennifer Shagan, mentioned before as the new president of "THEN", otherwise known as N.O.W. Terence and I spoke about if for a while, and I was really happy. It will be taped at the end of May. But as a result, the Vassar thing came back to mind, triggered by my boning up on research on NOW, and a conversation I had with Anne Scheidler, Joe's wife.

The Supreme court has decided to take up Joe's (Pro-Life Action League) RICO verdict; NOW is crowing on its website about how happy the girls are about it. The truth is that they are terrified. After talking to Anne (and trying to get Chris Ferrara involved on some level), I was simply furious. LIES - sometimes we feel choked by them. So off I went to Vassar.

At first I planned to stay in the road NEAR the sidewalk and take my chances that the cops would make me move. So for a while I stayed there. Then I (DUH - self-inflicted slap upside the head) remembered that Rich VanSlambrouck and Pat Messina had picketed Bill Baird's appearance there last week. Guess where they stood? Fugeddaboutit! I hit the sidewalk. Immediately a guard (Rich) comes over to yell. I told him I wasn't moving, period.

"It's MY property!" he said. I said "fine. Do your job!" Over comes the supervisor. ( Forgot - I used the S word to the first guy after reminding him they cannot selectively kick people off the property - i.e., the Baird picket- the word I used was SUE!) So the dear Supervisor comes over, his hand extended - to shake mine. We shared pleasantries, he agreed with my assessment of my right to picket.

That was that. Later Rich comes back and tells me he's really pro-life too, and an ex-cop. He spoke about his life, the political climate, the spoiled brats in the college. Then he was called away but told me to be careful that none of the "jerks'" inside throw bottles at me. However, what was going to be about an hour and a half picket turned into something longer, and lots of fun.

Soon, as I was picketing, a car entering the college pulled up to me. It was cold, and I had my coat's hood up. A girl in the car began screaming (once again, the pictures make people scream, that's how impotent they are in the face of the evidence. They are reduced to gibberish, hoping that LOUD gibberish will make a point).

"Why do you have your hood on??" ( I'm sure the reference to my "Hood" was to imply my connections with the KKK)." Are you afraid to show your face!!!!" I answered "It's cold, that's why." I then told her my name, several times, my phone number and address (I was on the phone with Rich VanSlambrouck at the time, and he heard the whole thing.) I offered her my card and even yelled out my email address.

Trounced, she swore and drove into the campus. I had been there for over an hour by then and had lessons to give. I was about to leave when the same girl, accompanied by a teacher at the college, came out with sorry looking hastily made signs

to counterpicket me. They heckled me a bit, I countered with "You're proud of THIS???" Then they went through the same litany of unwanted children, women dying of coat hanger abortions, ad nauseam. I'm always tempted to answer back, due to my experience with adoption, and the actual figures of maternal deaths by illegal abortion, etc. I have to keep reminding myself that these people don't want facts. In fact in answer to the accusation "You probably deny that the Holocaust happened, huh?!" I replied, that, no, and "were you (the student) present at the Support Israel rally at the Jewish Community Center? - I was." Smoothly the teacher then accused me of other horrors.

"Oho, then you only care about Jewish babies! What about Palestinian babies, hah??!!"

Oy vey! To top it off these liberal first amendment champions (aren't they all, at Vassar?) kept trying to hide my picture with their signs and bump me out of the way. However, my sign being 5 times larger, it didn't help. People going in and out sometimes honked happily at the pro-aborts, but I received just as many surreptitious thumbs up by students and workmen. A few years ago while we were picketing there, several students said "thank God you are here." Closet prolifers are everywhere.

One "closet prolifer" drove out of the college driving a sedan, rather beat up looking (the sedan). He motioned for me to come over, telling me he wanted the pamphlet. In exchange he gave me a CD. Then he explained that his wife is pregnant and that he just saw his daughter on one of the new ultrasounds. You may have seen commercials for these. They show the baby, not in black and white fuzzy forms, but as though they had a camera in the womb. The man's story was that they didn't want this child. Both of them had planned an abortion until they saw the ultrasound.

He went home and wrote a song for his unborn daughter, a lullaby, and wanted me to have a copy. This was overheard by my "opposition". The man told me to stay out with that picture as long as I could. I promised him I would. After he left, so did the "counterpicketers".  I cheerily called after them "Where are you going? I thought we just got started!!" Then they picketed INSIDE the college where they didn't have to compete with the evidence.

By that time I had been there for 4 and a half hours and explained to my piano students why I wasn't coming. I am finding that the people whose children I teach support Scripturewall, and STOPP. Finally, one of the Vassar students came out to talk to me. A very nice young lady wearing a "Support Campaign Reform" button. Before she could say anything, I commented on her button, and we discussed the pros and cons of Shays/Meehan.

I often do that, because

        1. It shows them we are not "single issue" -- that we can think about other stuff too, (though our priorities are REAL CLEAR while we're holding a picture of a dead kid), and

2. It engages them on a non-controversial topic and shows interest in what THEY'RE interested in, thereby lowering their defenses.  And

3. Because I'm curious. Same schpeel but nicely -- as she's staring into the face of this dead kid. I was able to get her on the doublespeak -- it's a baby if it's wanted, we can call it a "patient" if it gets sick, it's not a baby when we want it dead. She replied that what they mean is that because it's wanted, it will BECOME a baby, so that's why we call it a baby.

I said "Then what is meant when we call this human being an unborn baby?" I mentioned Daniel Pearl, the journalist killed in Afghanistan, and the references to his "unborn child", and several other instances.  I asked her to be very alert to the hundreds of times one hears "unborn CHILD" coming from the lips of the pro-abort media, and to question it. Not even baby, but child. I said "Presumably we outgrow magical thinking and toss our magic wands away when we grow up. But you are doing just the same thing, proclaiming with your semantic magic that one entity is a non-human nothing, treated with all the respect of an insect under your feet, and another entity that looks, and acts, and IS the same, is afforded all the might of modern science to preserve it's life and health, PLUS all the affection we can feel; so, like the man who gave me this CD, we compose songs to it." Then I told her the story of how I got the CD. She went away, troubled.
 
  

N.B.  I tell people, and have for YEARS, never be afraid of a debate; you can't lose; these people can't think, reason, or speak coherently. And don't dismiss the value of debates; ideas have consequences. We had no problem from the college then, though there were several of us, with Malachi in attendance. But THIS time...

I was there with the Greg Cunninhan poster. There were many cars leaving the college and many people saw the picture. Then "Security" came over.  He claimed the sidewalk for the college. I said, "no way". He made a phone call, came back, nasty as a pro-abort with the evidence in his face. One of the security people asked me why I was there since they didn't do abortions there (groan). I cited the obvious, that this was a fortress of pro-abort sentiment.

In the meantime the first guy came really close to me; did that nose to nose thing that bullies do... I figured, OK, and I moved toward him... he backed off; then I tried to give him a pamphlet; he took his phone, and knocked it out of my hand. Something may come of that, or not. Finally I had to leave because I had a piano lesson at 4pm. I simply told them that I would be calling the police myself to clarify things, and did.

Sargent Hamburg, Town of Poughkeepsie Police Dept. took the call, and said he'd look it up for me. Later he paged me, and nice as could be, said that Raymond Ave is a State road, and that the best thing to do would be to call the DOT, which I did, and left a message. The Sergeant went on to urge me to call them back about it "...so we're all on the same page with this  OK?"-- I'll let you know.  To be continued...

I think we need to rethink our purpose here. What are we trying to do? End abortion. Yes, there are other concerns, dealing with women who, like the kids in Poughkeepsie High, had no idea what was actually happening. On the other hand abortion has become a means of birth control.

Over 60% of abortions are REPEAT abortions. Many of these post-aborted women go back and have up to 10 abortions. This is becoming so prevalent that even abortion providers become exasperated at some of these women. But a woman who has had one abortion may STILL not be clear about the reality of the practice, or what was done to her unborn child. Perhaps if she saw the picture the kids saw, she wouldn't be so quick to do it again.

Telling the Truth is NEVER wrong, in my opinion. Shielding people from it is, especially in this battle, both counterproductive, and morally wrong. It is our eternal enemy, satan, who has set this thing up, a complicated web of lies that result in human misery, the death of the innocent, and a system that keeps the infernal machine in smooth running order. Showing the truth drains the oil from the machine; throws a monkey wrench in it, whatever metaphor works here. When you have done it, shown the victims, and see the white-hot rage it elicits from the pro-aborts, only then do you understand what needs to be done; to explode the facade within which they have painstakingly hidden the bloody truth. I suggest that interested people go to the website, The Center For Bioethical Reform, for more information. Helen