Posted on 11/11/2004 1:30:48 PM PST by CHARLITE
During the Civil War, few Americans knew what was really taking place on the battlefields. In 1863, one man, Alexander Gardner, a photographer in the new field of photogravure, dragged his wooden cameras and metal plates onto the killing fields and captured images of Americans slaughtered by one another.
By way of couriers on horseback, Gardner sent his photo plates back to New York publishers, and, for the first time, American families saw the horrific images of their fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons lying dead and mutilated in once serene pastures. The result was the education of a people, and the war soon came to an end. No one can dispute the power of a poignant picture.
On January 22, 1993, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch rejected a prolife advertisement submitted and paid for at no small price ($25,000) by Missouri Right to Life. The ad consisted of a simple black-and-white photograph of a plastic doll with its arms and legs disconnected and laid next to its disconnected head and torso. The photo was too controversial for the Post-Dispatch. Truth does have a way of being controversial.
Sen. Bob Smith has used five black-and-white sketches depicting partial-birth abortions to convince the members of Congress to pass bans on this form of infanticide. The pictures did what speeches could not.
But somewhere along the line, many prolifers acquiesced to the pro-aborts who protested, "Don't show those horrible pictures of aborted babies…they're in bad taste and you'll disturb people with them." Those pictures of aborted babies depict a gruesome reality, and that's precisely why Americans need to see them — see them often. I'd bet that many of the complaining pro-aborts had no problem with the gruesome pictures of napalmed Vietnamese children shown during antiwar protests, pictures that did so much to hasten the end of the Vietnam War.
Many of our good prolife groups, after years of hard struggle, seem to have fallen into the trap of secular "civility," whereby they have stopped showing the vivid photos of our aborted little boys and girls, photos that have the power to change people's hearts and minds. There is good news in Britain, however. The prolife group, Precious Life, is distributing hundreds of thousands of videos and CD-ROMs featuring graphic images of abortions to some 240 co-operating schools in England and Scotland as part of a £1 million prolife publicity drive to educate people about the truth of what abortion really is.
As of June 25, 2001, and for the next six months, a number of trucks have been rolling out of the Los Angeles-based Center for Bio-Ethical Reform with billboard-sized photos of dismembered babies pasted on all sides, for the purpose of making abortion impossible to trivialize or ignore. Each picture shows tiny, severed body parts of first-trimester babies, accompanied by the word "Choice." The Center's aim is to stigmatize that catchword with pictures that are horrifying and shocking — and truthful.
In a bold move in August 2001, the Thomas More Center for Law and Justice in Ann Arbor, Mich., successfully convinced the city of Great Falls, Mont., to drop their ban on prolife demonstrators carrying graphic posters of mutilated, aborted babies. The city's statement of retraction: "We will refrain from limiting in any way any pro-life advocate or group from expressing their opposition to abortion in a public forum through the display of hand-held signs containing images of aborted children based on the content of their message." The original complaint from the city was that so many motorists were "rubbernecking" and slowing down to look at the horrific pictures that traffic became congested. Police will now direct traffic at the places of demonstration.
A courageous five-day "Face the Truth" protest in Maryland this past summer drew much attention across the state as prolife demonstrators carried five-foot posters of aborted babies on the streets. Andrea Hussle, the protest's director, likened abortion to the atrocities of the Holocaust. Joe Scheidler said, "Call us names, give us the finger. It doesn't matter. America's got to wake up. We have a Holocaust on our hands. People driving by will…remember the pictures."
Bring back the pictures! It was these graphic photos shown by Fr. Paul Marx back in the 1980s that educated me and my husband about the reality of abortion — that it kills innocent, living babies.
Barbara Kralis
Barbara Kralis, with her husband, Mitch, directs the Jesus Through Mary Foundation, in Howe, Texas, and edits Semper Fidelis, a Catholic newsletter. Barbara may be reached by e-mail at Avemaria@earthlink.net
Related article: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1104/chafets1.asp
Didn't stop the Civil War.
The pictures need to be seen.
Well, he would have been my ancestor were it not for the fact that he got killed. Great Grandmama remarried.
He was an officer so he got his own grave.
The largest mass grave in any U.S. Military Cemetary is at Cold Harbor. Over 800 interred in two graves.
Unfortunately, at least some of Gardner's & Brady's battlefield photos are somewhat staged shots. Probably the most famous is "Dead Confederate Sharpshooter - Devil's Den". This stunning and poignant photo which purports to show a dead Confederate sharpshooter slumped against a rock breastwork has been debunked. Examination of other Gardner photos taken that day show the same body in other shots at a different location.
Evidently Gardner and his crew found this body (Texas soldier) just south of the battery position of the 4th New York Artillery. They took several photos of this soldier where he fell and then probably moved up into Devil's Den where they discovered the abandoned stone breastwork. They returned and retrieved the body, dragging it approximately 100 feet up to Devil's Den and placed it behind the stones, thus creating the scene for this famous image.
You want pictures? This place has pictures:
http://www.abortiontv.com/
"Don't show those horrible pictures of aborted babies…they're in bad taste and you'll disturb people with them."
gee, isn't that the point?
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