OTTAWA, May 2, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Thousands of students and adults are gearing up for the much anticipated March for Life 2008, set to rock the national capital next Thursday, May 8. Meanwhile, March for Life activities have already begun around the nation. In Regina Saskatchewan the pro-life March is underway today and the March in Edmonton and Winnipeg are set for Sunday.
African-Americans have brought a new vitality to the pro-life movement in the United States as they have seen the fight for the right to life as the greatest human rights struggle of the 21st century. Alveda King, with all the fire and stamina of her late uncle Martin Luther King Jr., has rallied thousands to speak out, to march, to lobby and to pray that unborn children may be recognized in law as human beings and given full legal protection.
In Regina today, Stephanie Gray of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform addressed the March for Life recalling the example of Martin Luther King Jr. Following his example, she stressed that we engage in defending the lives of the countless infants killed by abortion not with violence but with love and perseverance. Gray said:
In 1963, a group of high school students gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, and organized the 'Children's Crusade for Freedom". They marched through the streets to speak against racism and segregation. Today, May 2, is the anniversary of their first march. They returned the following day to march again. And as they peacefully walked and sang gospel songs, they were brutalized by authorities: police dogs were let loose on the marchers; they were attacked with clubs; they were sprayed with fire hoses, smashing them into buildings, ripping their clothes, and blasting them down the street.
The great civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responded to this injustice by saying the following:
"We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you.
Do to us what you will. Threaten our children and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and our churches and we will still love you. We will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.
In winning the victory, we will not only win our freedom. We will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process."
On May 8, Alveda King will raise the call to continue the struggle for human life and freedom at the March for Life. In its call for Canadians to attend the March for Life, the pro-life arm of the Canadian Conference of Bishops noted that this year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. "LIFE - The FIRST Human Right" is the theme of this year's March for Life.
As Pope Benedict XVI put it: "The fundamental right, the presupposition of every other right, is the right to life itself. Abortion, consequently, cannot be a human right -- it is the very opposite."
For more information on the March for Life see:
http://MarchForLife.ca
Stephanie Gray's CCBR website is here:
http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca
There are still some seats on buses coming from various regions of Ontario to the march
See locations and contact numbers at
http://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/Bus%20for%20MFL.pdf
See numerous photos from last year's March for Life events
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jun/07060803.html
