Unfortunately, my traditional Saturday morning posting of the weekend question got derailed by hackers, so here is my late weekend entry.
I wrote March 30 about a flier being distributed in the neighborhood of Germantown, Maryland, late-term abortion clinic owner Todd Stave, pictured right, which depicts him as equivalent to a Nazi. The fliers included Stave’s home phone number.
Now Stave is “turning the tables,” according to a supportive Washington Post columnist:
But his tormentors crossed the line last fall when a big group showed up at his daughter’s middle school on the first day of classes and again at back-to-school night. They had signs displaying his name and contact information as well as those gory images of the fetuses.
“What parent wants to have that conversation with an 11-year-old on the first day of school?” he fumed.
Soon after that, the harassing calls started coming to his home. By the dozens, at all hours. Friends asked him how they could help. He began to take down the names and phone numbers of people who made unwanted calls. And he gave the information to his friends and asked them to call these folks back.
“In a very calm, very respectful voice, they said that the Stave family thanks you for your prayers,” he said. “They cannot terminate the lease, and they do not want to. They support women’s rights.”
This started with a dozen or so friends, and then it grew. Soon, more than a thousand volunteers were dialing.
If they could find the information, Stave’s supporters would ask during the callbacks how the children in the family were doing and mention their names and the names of their schools. “And then,” Stave said, “we’d tell them that we bless their home on such and such street,” giving the address.
The family of a protester who called Stave’s home could get up to 5,000 calls in return.
Harsh? Nope.
“We gave them back what they gave us,” he said. Do unto others, and so forth.
The supporters came so fast and in such big numbers, Stave founded a group, Voice of Choice . And now there are about 3,000 volunteers ready to make calm, reasoned calls to the homes of people who bombard doctors, landlords and their families with protests at homes or schools across the country.
Stave clearly enjoys turning the tables after decades of not fighting back.
“What? They don’t want unsolicited calls to their homes?” he asked.
Several questions: Do you think involving the children of either abortion proponents or opponents is fair game? Do you think what Stave’s group is doing is comparable to what pro-life activists do? Do you agree turnabout is fair play? Are the goals of both groups employing these tactics the same?
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.