Might 8, 2018
Operation Rescue is the biggest civil disobedience motion in
American historical past. It even dwarfs the civil rights motion, with
over fifty thousand individuals having been arrested between 1988 and
1992 for nonviolently blockading abortion clinics. But most individuals,
even most Catholics, don’t know the story. On the uncommon events
when it has been coated by the media, it has been falsely and
laughably portrayed as violent and extremist.
Right now’s episode is one thing of an oral historical past of Operation
Rescue, informed by Invoice Cotter, head of OR Boston, who spent 19 months
in jail for his involvement with the protests. You’ll additionally hear
from CatholicCulture.org’s personal Phil Lawler, who supplied the general public
face of OR Boston whereas Invoice was in jail, and in addition wrote a ebook
in regards to the motion in 1992.
Hyperlinks
Phil Lawler’s ebook, Operation Rescue: A Problem to the
Nation’s Conscience
https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Rescue-Problem-Nations-Conscience/dp/0879735066
Operation Rescue Boston http://orboston.org/
Operation Rescue nationwide web site http://www.operationrescue.org/
Footage of police brutality towards Rescuers throughout the “Summer time
of Mercy”, during which tens of 1000’s of pro-lifers flocked to
Wichita and 1000’s had been arrested https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSPto_gQ5CU
Footage of L.A. police breaking a Rescuer’s arm with nunchucks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6H-8_VE6Oc
Timestamps:
Invoice Cotter interview
3:00 Description of a rescue
6:49 Techniques to delay police from dragging individuals away
10:13 Components that saved Operation Rescue from persevering with to
function as a mass motion blockading abortion clinics after its
heyday within the late 80s and early 90s: court docket injunctions, most
individuals unwilling to go to jail for longer than a weekend
12:07 The general public concerned weren’t activist varieties and
the rescues weren’t demonstrations. They’d a particular concrete
aim: on that day, at the moment, in that place, to forestall infants
from being killed
14:31 In keeping with Phil Lawler’s ebook Operation Rescue,
in between 1988 and 1992 over 50,000 Rescuers had been
arrested—about six occasions as many arrests as throughout your entire civil
rights motion! So why don’t extra individuals learn about OR? (Want I
have requested?)
17:00 Lack of help and even hostility from some Catholic
clergy right this moment in the direction of pro-life motion
18:19 Police brutality towards Rescuers in West Hartford, CT and
elsewhere
22:22 Invoice spent 19 months in jail
27:15 Blended response to OR in Boston
29:19 The genesis of OR; the early days; getting increasingly more
consideration
34:06 Invoice’s participation in Rescues exterior Boston; Rescues
accompanying St. JPII’s go to to the US in 1987; the Summer time of
Mercy in Wichita
37:39 What’s OR doing right this moment?
39:54 Is it true that the younger individuals are changing into extra
pro-life?
42:05 Studying about Operation Rescue is a problem to our
complacency and desensitization to the continued toleration of
abortion. Why shouldn’t I be in jail proper now?
47:51 Significance of prayer
49:28 How individuals can study extra and become involved with OR
50:31 Present indicators of hope for the pro-life motion;
eschatological hope
Phil Lawler interview
55:12 How Phil received concerned with Operation Rescue
56:35 His first impression of OR individuals
57:52 Phil was the general public face of OR Boston whereas Invoice Cotter
was in jail
58:47 Being arrested
59:55 Phil’s interactions with the media on behalf of OR,
private expertise of media bias
1:02:00 How the archdiocese of Boston handled OR
1:04:07 The media and others routinely accused OR of violence;
Ted Kennedy made a speech saying OR had “a coverage of firebombing
and even homicide”(!!!)
1:04:59 The optimism of the pro-life motion presently
1:07:52 The draconian penalties judges imposed on the
protesters
1:10:24 Why accomplish that few Catholics learn about OR?
1:11:02 Couldn’t the Rescuers have referred to as the bluff on these
lengthy jail sentences and introduced the entire thing to a standstill?
Phil offers his personal private reply
1:13:27 Joan Andrews, the Dorothy Day of the fashionable pro-life
motion; right this moment’s Crimson Rose Rescues
1:15:20 This week’s excerpt: Pope Benedict XVI, Deus
Caritas Est
