Emergency Plea
November 14, 2013
From Guadalupe Partners
Edmund at 734 709 4096
A sidewalk counselor called Alicia yesterday during the
morning hours when she was in class. She
wasn’t even aware that her phone was ringing, but one of her students—probably
remembering how important those phone calls sometimes can be—actually answered
the phone for her. When Alicia took the
call, the sidewalk counselor told her that he was at that moment in front of
Summit and that a woman intending to make an abortion appointment was with
him. He asked Alicia to talk to
her. Alicia quieted her class, spoke to
the woman for a few minutes and actually arranged for the woman to go for an
ultrasound appointment later that morning.
She also promised that we would bring a delivery of groceries for her
and her eight children that very evening.
That evening, as I saw where the GPS was leading me, I was a
bit uneasy. It was not the worst area of
Detroit, but certainly not one of the better ones either. When we pulled on to Tiffany’s street, I saw
what I expected—the collapsed front porches and boarded windows. One of the older sons immediately came out of
the house to greet us, though, which was reassuring. He led us to a side door
and as I entered the first thing to catch my attention was a large hole in the
wall. Entering the living area, I saw
only two or three pieces of unusable furniture, buried under boxes, clothes,
bags. I saw more holes, in walls and in
the ceiling; the dining area was empty except for a refrigerator, which
obviously should have been in the kitchen, but I saw that the kitchen was—well,
there was no kitchen. What had been a
kitchen was gutted. The floor was rough
plywood; there was no stove, no lower cabinets, no sink. I then learned that in fact there was no
water supply anywhere in the house. No washing machine, no tub sinks, no
bathroom, no shower, no sink—nothing.
When I was upstairs and passed the bathroom door, the smell told me that
the family still made use of the toilet…. Bucket flushing, I guess. What else can they do?
As for Tiffany, she was very glad to see us and very proud
of the ultrasound images that had been taken that day. When the wand was placed on her womb and the
image came into view, she and the technician were surprised to see a hand
waving at them. And one of the images
clearly features that waving hand, expressing the joy of the child whose life
only a few hours earlier had been threatened, but who now was rescued.
Tiffany’s situation is similar to that of many other Detroit
mothers. There is no husband to help
her; she lives dependent on the state.
She fears she will never be able to find work because a few years ago,
she was, in her words, “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” Lifting her sleeve she showed me a disfigured
left arm, the result of a gunshot wound.
While her situation, then, in its basic outline is similar
to many others, there are yet a few key differences. She has more children than most others and
her housing is worse than most others.
She, however, is the one who didn’t even go into the abortion mill. She is the one who immediately recognized
that the action she had considered would have been a tragedy. She is the one whose joy and gratitude for
the few groceries and clothes we brought for her family were genuine.
Therefore, before Christmas we would like to establish a
decent living environment for Tiffany and her children. Right now we are moving to have the water
service to the house re-established. (Currently she is being held responsible
for water usage which occurred before she even moved into the house.)
Meanwhile, we would like to bring basic furnishings into the bedrooms—bunk beds
and dressers. The next step will be to
bring a stove into the house, so that she will no longer have to cook for eight
children from a two-burner hotplate on the floor and a deep fryer. Finally, after water service is renewed, we
will hire a worker to install a sink and replace the cracked bathtub, leaks
from which brought down part of the ceiling in the living room.
Every now and then we meet a mother or a couple with
desperate needs, and you have always responded generously. We are praying and hoping that you will come
through again with the following items:
Three bunk beds
An electric stove
Dressers
Dining room table and chairs
And, if anyone has done any remodeling, perhaps a kitchen
sink and countertops.
Please reach us through our website or call me, Edmund, at
734 709 4096.
Thank you!
The use of graphic images of abortion victims in pro-life work has in more recent decades become a point of conflict and debate within the pro-life movement itself, especially the public display of such images. Monica Migliorino Miller’s recently published article is an unprecedented comprehensive examination of this issue. Published in the September 2013 New Oxford Review it is now available on the NOR website for a limited time at: 
“The viewer of the image of an aborted baby should be able to identify with the victim — not simply be shocked or repulsed by the blood-drenched image. The photo should provoke pathos, pity, sorrow, and a response to the injustice done to the baby, whose humanity is obvious in the midst of the tragedy and violence. To the majority of viewers whom pro-lifers are trying to reach, that first glance is the most important — indeed, it might not just be the first glance but the only glance — and thus its impact in drawing the viewer into the humanity of the victim cannot be squandered.”
