Letters

Show the Truth to students

On April 24 and 25 the pro-life organization Show the Truth made presentations at all the high schools in North Bay, Ontario, and at the French Catholic school in Sturgeon Falls. These presentations were the first since the arrest, jailing and subsequent trial of five defendants for a previous presentation in November of last year. At that time, the signs, depicting the results of surgical abortions on preborn children at seven weeks, 21 weeks and over 25 weeks respectively, were confiscated by the police to be kept as evidence. The charges were "displaying of indecent material" but were subsequently reduced four times, through five months of remanding, and finally were dropped to simply "causing a disturbance." This lengthy process of postponement and remanding, with the legal fees entailed, and the impoundment of the large signs, has been interpreted as an effort to harass and intimidate the defendants, and deter future missions to the schools. The presentations were done at major intersections close to the schools, and timed for maximum exposure, such as arrival of buses, lunch hour, and dismissal.

At the heart of the mission to high school students is the firm conviction that the gospel of life must be preached to the generation who has not yet heard it, namely, the youth who came into a world where a mother's right to kill her own child has always existed. We have first to make them see the world as we saw it as children, where our lives were protected, we knew we were safe, and grew up with the conviction that our lives, and all lives, were sacred. Our youth today know nothing of this security, in fact they feel just the opposite, from fear of nuclear holocaust, to death on our streets and in our schools. The second most urgent reason to preach to our youth, is that they are not yet jaded, and calloused to the reality of legalized killing. Even those who spout the "choice" slogans find it inherently abhorrent, when we take the time to hear their arguments, and debate them with genuine interest. A final reason for the mission to schools is that, despite all the assurances to the contrary, they are getting this information nowhere else, and, in fact, are being bombarded on all sides by hedonism, corruption, and temptations to a lifestyle that glorifies "choice." The schools, tragically, offer little more, with the exception of some teachers who may live exemplary lives, or try to set an example, or even insert the pro-life message into a secular (paganized?) curriculum.

Thus, missionaries provide a service that our youth will get nowhere else. There on the lines, during the presentations in front of schools, young persons engage in debate, or thank and congratulate us, or just politely ask questions. But one thing becomes clear: We are the first adults that most of them have ever felt able to speak to about abortion. Often a girl with tears in her eyes will speak of her own abortion, or tell of her mother's abortion, and it is at this time that she receives her first post-abortion counseling. It is quite obvious in many instances that such counseling is long overdue. The profound pain of these young girls is plain to see, young women who shouldn't have a care in the world. But due to the deafening silence on abortion which pervades our culture, they have now to carry through life the horrendous burden of killing their firstborn child. This has been a cause of concern to those who hammer out strategy for the missions, namely whether more youth would be spared this overwhelming grief, if we targeted middle schools before such life-altering mistakes are made.

Jeanie Arcand
Sturgeon Falls, Ont.

Pro-life youth

On May 11 - 12, I was in Ottawa as chauffeur and chaperone for a group of students from the Walkerton area who attended the March for Life 2001 youth conference. I would like to commend the organizers on a job well done. Sometimes I think there is no hope that Canada will survive as a country. There is much complacency, little desire to fight for what is right, so much immorality and breakdown of the family unit. But after seeing the youth and their commitment to standing up for what is right, I believe there is still hope.

Bob Zettel
Walkerton, Ont.

Civil disobedience

Joanne Dieleman's article on civil disobedience (April, 2001) is well thought out, and for the greater part I fully agree with it. i beg to disagree, though, with her view that Linda Gibbons went too far by contravening the 18-metre "bubble-zone" around the abortuary. Somehow, in our view, the perpetrators of the abortion mills have succeeded in dimming the public's perception of their vile deeds. With her unrelenting actions, Linda forces our ungodly government to do the bidding of Morgentaler & Co. and thus keeps the pro-life issue in front of the public, which would like to have us go to the back page, or if possible, disappear from the news altogether.

Bill and Joanne Veldboom
Chatham, Ont.

Bishops get bad advice

Last fall, the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Women's League national executive couldn't rush fast enough to support the pro-abortion March of Women to the tune of $135,000 even when warned by every pro-life group in the country. Now the Catholic Health Association proudly advertises abortion advocate Stephen Lewis as their guest speaker ("Steven Lewis to address Catholic health group," March 2001). How to explain such scandals? We must be into the Catholic silly season, a time when some Catholics shoot themselves in the foot or contract "foot-in-mouth" disease. Or perhaps there is a bug in the parish holy water. How else to explain why so many Catholic leaders display such a colossal lack of common sense? The United States bishops have a committee of women well-versed in feminist ideologies with NGO [non-governmental organization] experience at the United Nations to warn them of these landmines. The Canadian bishops need a similar organization to protect them and other Catholic groups against the very bad advice they are now receiving.

David M. Duff
St. John's Nfld.

Latimer sentence

Thank you John McDonell for writing in response to the people who have sympathy for Robert Latimer and who believe the sentence he got for murdering his daughter was too harsh. Although John's letter is important to the readers of The Interim his powerful message needs to appear in the general daily circulation. John could be as much a spokesman for the rights of the disabled as Stephen Hawking is for the people with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Theresa Sarabura
Jerseyville, Ont.

Senator Carstairs

Re: Mr. Chretien's appointment of the pro-euthanasia, pro-assisted-suicide Senator Sharon Carstairs to the sensitive post of government advisor on palliative care for the elderly. This fox-in-the-hen-house maneuver is typical, and would hold hilarious appeal for the PM's perversely-dissident streak, because for sure Miss Carstairs, like her boss, is nothing if not foxy. We would be wise to recall in the early 1990s, the then-Manitoba MP, acting as back-up to the UN's anti-family Convention on the Rights of the Child, blanketed the media to promote her private member's bill designed to rupture the solid parent-child bond by attacking parents who opted for corporal punishment when called for. Predictably, the bill went nowhere. The senator needs to come up with proof of her lightning-bolt, road-to-Damascus conversion before this old hen can feel safe with her in the coop.

Mrs. Aileen M. Sivell
Burlington, Ont.

Education tax credit I

For the life of me, I don't understand all the recent furor over the possibility of a tax credit for those choosing private school over public. And what is with the Sun doing the chicken little routine everyday, and subverting their dearly held mantra of democracy and choice. Their argument that everyone should be basically ignorant so that a few might not be more ignorant ("weakening the public system") as some sort of socialistic sacrifice hardly holds water in any sense.

Truth be told, there would be quality education brought in overnight for all. No one would have to settle for less including the poor, inner city or elsewhere. Private schools would wear their attributes on their sleeves and if there was a mass exodus from state schools (separate schools included), as I don't doubt for a moment, it would be for a very, very good reason. If all the Ryerson grads (and believe me they don't have to brag to let us know where they are from) at the various newspapers want their kids to be together (not likely), well, knock yourselves out!

Unions would be gone. Ideologues, and the likes of Earl Manners or even Joanna Manning would be cast so far out into the workforce wilderness they couldn't get a message back in a bottle. Real Catholic education would make a comeback, (possibly onside with the Vatican), teacher morale, benefits and efficiency would be at an all time high. There would be less need or desire for government involvement (another Sun rallying call) and the whole education system would be less politicized.

Has anyone been to a public school lately, where the three Rs currently stand for recycling, reproduction and revisionism, and where, for lack of any moral, ethical or spiritual guidance one gets the eerie feeling that pure unadulterated idolatry takes precedence over all. If one has nothing to look to on a higher plane one might worship Planet Earth, one might believe animals are people, and people are animals, one might believe pregnancy involves one body, and her "choice," or that buggery and perversion is a cool "lifestyle" that needs enshrined "rights" and sympathy, or that multiculturalism is OK as long as Christianity isn't involved and that all are given the same education and culture, in order that they sound the same and think the same, as long as that is like a vegan, feminist, gay activist, union supporting, liberal ecologist.

Paul Gordon
Marmora, Ont.

Education tax credit II

Bravo to Education Minister Janet Ecker, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, and Premier Mike Harris for this start of a positive help for those parents who want a "choice" in schooling for their children. Tax credits will be beneficial for choice in schools.

As a grandparent it will be good to know that the Bible can be read and studied, the Lord's Prayer can be prayed, and even Bible verses can be memorized and the 23rd Psalm. Our Grace Lutheran Church is establishing an elementary school in September 2001 and this tax credit as proposed by the government will help parents in financing this schooling. Remember these same parents will still be paying the regular educational taxes that go to support the public schools. They must also come up with the dollars to pay for their choice and arrange to transport their children to the school.

The movement to give parents a greater choice in schooling for their children is growing among Jews, Muslims and Christians of many denominations. The independent school movement is not promoting a separate curriculum or agenda, rather that schools exist to teach the curriculum in the context of religious values and the family values of the parents. We have reason to want to have a different "choice" when we read that the elementary Ontario Teachers Federation is promoting "gay pride" events (that is, lesbian and homosexual events), and telling teachers how they can get involved in local Toronto events. How sad for our public elementary school executive that it has come to this. They are also investigating the use of a booth at the Toronto event!

We know there have always been and still are good teachers in the school system, but it distresses us to see that they have now taken such a negative step. For this and other reasons, many parents opt either to home-school or to search an alternative to the public system. Parents always want what is best for their children and will search out that "choice" if it at all possible.

Shirley Witt
Pembroke, Ont.

Protect children's innocence

Michael Coren asks whether or not he should have intervened upon witnessing two young boys being exposed to an immoral movie, apparently with the approval of their father (May 2001). The answer is yes. He should have said to the father in a clear and pleasant voice, "Excuse me, sir. Are you sure this movie is right for children?" Regardless of the father's external reaction, Michael would have ipso facto given flesh to the Savior's love for children by this simple intervention. Satan would have wrung his hands in annoyance. After all, Satan's lust for the blood of unborn children is fueled by their potential to be happy now and forever with Jesus. So once they are born, his next move is to destroy their innocence, unless someone stops him.