March For Life Rally 2017 Washington D.C.

Washington D.C., USA
The Annual Pro-Life Rally
1.27.17

Each year, thousands upon thousands of devoted people come to the National Mall in our nation’s capital and demand to be heard regarding their views on the abortion of babies. This was my second time attending this event and I knew what to expect: a lot of people, a cold and windy environment, and angry scowls from the Pro-Choice protesters that look upon the crowd with disdain.

This all began with a US Supreme Court case called Roe vs. Wade in 1973. The Court basically decided that it was the woman’s right to decide if she wanted to abort her baby. It was legalized that an abortion could be performed up until the third trimester of a pregnancy. 

Inability to care for the baby and it being a potential harm to the mother are two common reasons women opt for an abortion. Other reasons that are common are: “it was an accident…” or “I didn’t want to have a child.” Many people have said via internet discussions as well as public statements, that ‘an abortion is a women’s right just as opting to not have an abortion is also a women’s right.’

“It is my right to have an abortion.”

“This is my body and I may do as I please with it.”

“Get your religious beliefs out of my uterus.”

“I can’t provide for him/her.”

“It’s just a fetus, it doesn’t count.”

“I was raped and I do not want to have this child.”

Or

“I was raped and it will kill me to have a child. Do you expect me to have to carry around this burden until both me and the child die? How is that right?”

These are the questions that are asked by the people who want the right to an abortion.

I do not have the answers to all of life’s questions, I’m just someone who writes what he sees and tries hard to find my way towards truth.

I believe this: Murder is wrong and abortion is murder. Over a million babies are aborted each year because of various reasons. Sadly, most of the time the reasons for the abortion are because of inconvenience to the mother. I’m being fair here. While there are plenty of hardships that are involved with having a child, it does not give the mother the right to opt for murder when there are other options available. If there is a lack of care that can be provided for the baby, choose adoption. If you have sex while using protection and you still end up with a child, still, choose adoption. Who’s to say that those children in the woman’s womb don’t have rights? Are they not human beings? Just because they’re small, does that make them any less human? ProLife Across America, an organization devoted to spreading the anti-abortion movement, says that:

“18 days a Baby’s heart beats

8 weeks all organs function

9 weeks has individual fingerprints

10 weeks a baby can feel pain

12 weeks a baby can smile”

Let me remind the reader that the US has made abortion legal up to the third trimester. That’s 28 weeks into a woman’s pregnancy.

That feels wrong to me. Killing a human being because one can’t support him/her on one’s own seems to be more out of convenience, not necessity.

Killing a human being because it was an accident is also wrong. Okay, it happened. But your baby is beautiful. You now have a human being who holds real emotion, has feelings, and will one day walk around and talk with you. He/she will share joy and love and laughter, one human to another.

What hurts me is when there can be nothing done about it. The woman can be saved, but not both; the child must be terminated or both will. This is a situation that happens very rarely, but is still a possibility. What does one do when medical professionals say that both will die if the baby isn’t aborted?

When I say, “I am Pro-Life”, I’m saying that I opt for the preservation of as much life as possible. If I allow the baby and the mother to die because I said no to abortion and am stating that “I’m Pro-Life”, I’m the biggest hypocrite there is. In this case, as sad as it would make me to abort my child, if it meant saving a life that could’ve been lost, I’d choose saving a life.

It’s difficult. I don’t want that statement to be regarded as, ‘murder is OK in some circumstances.’

What I’m saying is preserving as much life as possible is the key.

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One woman asked if we were the group from Louisville, Kentucky, for the Catholics we came with were wearing scarves colored gold and burgundy. Another woman asked where we were from. After we told her we were from Baltimore, she chuckled slightly and said that her group came all the way from Indiana.

Oh, please. Baltimore? We’ve traveled 600 miles for this.

I commend all the people who came to D.C. for their dedication and determination. It was truly one of the biggest turnouts in Pro-Life history.

Kellyanne Conway, the Senior Counselor to Donald Trump, spoke along with Cardinal Timothy Dolan (the cardinal of New York City), and Vice-President, Mike Pence. I held Blanche up so she could see the stage. It was history in the making, and we were part of it.

We marched down Constitution Avenue, holding signs that promoted the preservation of life. There were groups of people with matching articles of clothing, distinguishing them from the masses. Large groups of 50 or more had speakers and sang loud the lyrics of familiar Christian hymns.

I saw horribly graphic pictures of the remains of babies that had been cut up and vacuumed out of a woman’s uterus. There were tiny hands as recognizable as ours, covered in blood and placed on a quarter to show the size.

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I remember standing around a lot during this march. I didn’t really think about that I was in the capital of the United States. My mind was preoccupied with the amount of people that could’ve been there with me. A million babies each year die because their moms choose abortion. A million little chances.

I learned from this experience to preserve life and at all costs.

Here’s the thing: life is awesome. Life truly is wonderful. There are going to be times where it’ll be hard and you may feel overwhelmed to the point of breaking, but that’s bound to happen sometimes. Life is great, but it’s not perfect.

Give those little babies the chance to experience it. They have rights too, you know. Just because they can’t present themselves in court yet doesn’t mean that they don’t matter.

They aren’t just vestiges of a female body until they pop out.

They are living, human beings in there with souls and they deserve the chance to live out here in the world.

Regardless of how hard it might be.

Even if they need to be put up for adoption in Baltimore, forced to live a harder life than a kid who’s fed with a silver spoon in the Upper East Side, NYC, life is life.

And everyone has a right to live.

This is a generation where so many lives are lost under the pretexts of 'choice' and 'rights'. Writing something long-winded (whoops, don’t read my blog then) about why the unborn have a right to life and why these acts of murder are truly wrong doesn't click with this generation anymore. That, knowing that you are murdering a future holder of aspirations, emotions, love, and joy, doesn't seem to affect our world. I can only say to you, don't take for granted even the smallest things in life. Because there are a million babies each year that never get to experience even those small joys.

Baltimore City, MD, USA

Federal Hill, Baltimore, MD.

January 28, 2017

There are some days where you go places, do activities, and are active throughout the entire day. Today was not one of those days.

It began with a late start: me forgetting to do laundry the night before and having to scramble in the morning to have something to wear.

This was 9:36. We were leaving at 12 o’clock. I hadn’t even started the wash.

Blanche and I planned to visit today with friends of ours: Josh and Lauren. They’re a great pair and a blast to be around. We’d been planning a double date for some time and the opportunity finally arose.

When I came around to willing myself out of bed, I got a call from my good friend Julian requesting to visit and bring me a ‘gift’. While a thousand fears flooded my mind on what this gift might be, I obliged and told him to stop by. Julian and his friend Jonathan greeted me at my front door bearing a pound of Starbucks coffee. I must say that any time coffee is given to me I am truly ecstatic. I begged them to stay, offering them a cup of the new beans.

Every time I’m around Julian, particularly a caffeinated Julian, I enjoy myself immensely. It’s as if there’s everything in the world to laugh at. And everything, somehow, someway is extremely hilarious. He’s the only person I’ve ever known to be simultaneously smoking a pipe, discussing theology, and singing along to the Lumineers. Oh, and all while laughing a contagious and hysterical laugh.

After me thanking them (Jonathan was actually the one who hooked me up with the sick roast. Thanks mate, you’re rad.) for such great coffee and conversation, the pair left the house and Blanche came through the door smiling warmly. I didn’t even notice my appearance of fluorescent yellow shorts and a dingy, large T-shirt.

Blanche and I talked over taking pictures of her art work for her Towson University portfolio. She is going places. There’s a uniqueness about Blanche that I feel isn’t realized as much as it should be. Like seriously, she takes something in nature, throws it through her canvas-like mind, and shoots it out through her delicate fingers in the form of something absolutely incredible.

Lauren was going to pick us up and take us to her house in Federal Hill. Mind you, my clothes were still more than damp in the dryer.

To put it briefly, when Lauren showed up at my house, I wasn’t ready.

I still sported the fluorescent-hobo look.

I threw everything in my bag (wet clothes and all, Lauren offered her dryer at her house), threw on an outfit that made me look like a New Age yoga instructor and off we went.

I’ve never really thought about it until recently, but Baltimore is one of the most dangerous cities in the world. And I live here. That makes me feel like I live on the edge, which makes me feel cool, which gives me bragging rights, but really doesn’t because why would I brag about that?

But really, Baltimore is a cool city. I’ve been to the Inner Harbor and around the hipster parts so many times that I forget that it really is a city that hosts tourists every year. Sure, it’s not New York or Los Angeles. But people don’t realize that Baltimore has two professional sports teams, Fort McHenry (a stronghold that played a major part in The War of 1812 and the construction of Francis Scott Key’s poem “The Star-Spangled Banner”), and one of the greatest Gothic writers of all time: Edgar Allen Poe. We have crabs, sure, and Old Bay Seasoning that is apparently quite popular, but the amount of history alone possessed within the city limits makes Baltimore unique.  

All in all, I like the city. Don’t be stupid by going to places that just look dangerous (Baltimore is 19^th on the murder per capita list, worldwide) and you’ll have a swell time. That goes for any city, but Baltimore especially.

We arrived at Lauren’s house, a big European-looking place that was decorated with a heightened level of class. I wouldn’t mind living in a city home like that one bit. In fact, I asked Blanche if we could incorporate the décor into our own home when we get married.

Mrs. Prince cooked us a great dinner. It was a vegetable soup put into hand-cut bread bowls. For once, I couldn’t finish. But my goodness was it delicious.

I was told prior to our time together that I would need to bring my camera. I almost never forget my camera. Seriously. Last fall, someone asked me if I would be quicker to forget my camera or my phone and I could firmly say my phone. Cameras capture moments and preserve them in a little digital file, to be printed out later, preserved on your phone, or shared on social media. Photographs and videos are little snippets of some of your best memories. Even though I say this, do not try to capture “Kodak Perfect Moments”. What I mean is, KPMs are pictures that aren’t really real; you’re forcing it. It’s like trying to stage a scene to absolute perfection so that you can put it in your scrapbook, or say that you’ve really been there.

I had the privilege of taking some pictures for Josh and Lauren’s 1 year anniversary on the Prince’s roof deck that overlooks the city. Even though Lauren told us that a building had been erected in front of their house so as to obstruct their view, the sight of each rooftop bathed in the evening light and the sounds of the city playing the parts of chirping crickets in the woods was peaceful. Downside: it was freezing. Blanche and I were wearing large coats, but our friends were “man-ing up and roughing it”. They danced around on the roof a little, warmly embracing each other and not only because there was a heightened risk of hypothermia.

Everything from that point on was seen through a sleepy, food-induced haze. We played Clue, watched two episodes of Lie to Me (interesting show, note to self: a more serious version of Psych and Monk), and finished by watching Leap Year. Great movie.

The night ended with Lauren giving us gifts that she had bought in Guatemala on her mission’s trip. I do hope that she and Josh will get married. A little double date like that gets me excited for the times where we can take road trips with friends.

You have lots of adventures with us yet, Josh and Lauren.

Travel Stories and Pictures

Hi Everyone!

I'm taking a bit of a hiatus from my past style of writing and am going to throw some of my best travel pictures and stories at you! My goal for this year is to write personal, detailed, real-life accounts of the travel that I do in 2017. I already have a few stories from this year, and it's only January.
Here it goes!

(Stay tuned for latest stories, pictures, and videos)

THIS IS YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

January 8.

Have you ever been content with doing nothing? Not changing, not even attempting to morph into something better? A life where everything seems to be doing ‘OK’ and you’re content with having it keep on, keeping on as being just ‘OK’?

The funny thing about life is that nothing is picture perfect. Not only is it not picture perfect, it shouldn’t be; that’s the raw beauty of everything.

I don’t write because I’m an excellent writer, flawless in everything I pen. Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare and C.S. Lewis weren’t perfect writers. Simply recognizing those imperfections makes them all the better.

They were imperfect.

They messed up.

They had off-days.

They came to a point when they themselves realized that they were human.

Even in writing this I’ve messed up and had to go back and retype.

As you may know from reading some of my previous entries; I am the King of ‘sappiness’, the Duke of Romanticisms, and the Baron of Sentimentalities.

However, this isn’t sappy. This is true.

In life, you’re looking over a very steep cliff. You have been given three options: You either jump, hoping someone will catch you, not jump at all and live a life contemplating what could have happened, or you stick one leg over, complacently riding the high of both Everything and Nothing. Eventually, you would grow insane and depressed thinking about what you could have done if only you had jumped. Or, living on the edge, you would’ve grown tired of a life of ‘sitting there’.

But what if you jumped? What if you took that leap and did something?

Every social media platform tells you,

“Go out and do it.”

“Take the plunge…”

“Go.”

For some people, that means making headlining news and growing famous. For others, it means just making a difference. It doesn’t have to be something that you Pin on Pinterest or like on Instagram. Just something that matters.

So, listen to the social media platforms and don’t sit idly and complacently.

(Writing this is doing something. I’m exposing myself to the criticisms of the internet. If I can do it, you can. Today you can still start your New Year’s resolution.)

“You will never be entirely comfortable. This is the truth behind the champion - he is always fighting something. To do otherwise is to settle.” 

                                                                         ― Julien Smith, The Flinch