Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Nearly 1200 colleges and schools sign up for powerful pro-life day of silence

by Jeremy Kryn

  • NEW YORK CITY, October 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Students at nearly 1,200 colleges, high schools, middle schools, and home schools have signed up to remain silent in solidarity with unborn children this October 18, the date of this year’s Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity.

A student from McNeese State University in Louisiana inspired the start of annual pro-life event in 2004 when she asked Bryan Kemper, the founder of the event: “What can I do to work with other students around the country, in solidarity, to help end abortion?”

Every year thousands of students around the world wear red duct tape across their mouths with the word "life," and hand out pro-life literature during the Day of Silent Solidarity.

“I replied (to that student), ‘What if we got students to not only act in solidarity with others, but also with the children that are dying every day?’ As soon as I said it, I knew God had set something in motion inside of me,” said Bryan Kemper, founder of Stand True and the Youth Outreach Director of Priests for Life.

Kemper organized the first Silent Day of Solidarity event from the basement of his home with a computer, a website, and a small e-mail list that he had been collecting for a few months. Since its first year, when a few thousand students from 300 campuses participants, the annual event has grown into a worldwide phenomenon in dozens of countries.

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On October 18, 2011, people from all over the world will give up their voices, and wear red armbands and duct tape across their mouths identifying them as taking part in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. Participants will carry fliers explaining why they are silent and educate others about the plight of the innocent children lost every day.

According to Kemper, at least 31 babies were saved from abortion last year. Over the years, at least 500 babies have been saved from abortion thanks to the campaign.

One girl wrote in to the Day of Silent Solidarity team last year, saying that when she arrived at school, a fellow student came up to her and said she was wasting her time and that no one would listen to her. “All I did was nod,” wrote the student, “and gave her the paper [flyer],” at which point she “threw it at me.”

But when the pro-life student walked away, she said that she saw the other girl pick up the flyer and put it in her pocket. Later that day, she said, “I saw her but her eyes were puffy, then she hugged me and said I was making a huge difference to a lot of girls, and that she was scheduled for an abortion later this week and that she will cancel it.”

The pro-life student concluded saying that she feels “happy to know that not even saying something made such a difference.”

Another student, Lyssa, described how when she entered the school wearing a pro-life t-shirt and the red duct tape, a bunch of students at a nearby table were murmuring about it, and “one of the guys came over with clear duct tape on his mouth, trying to mock me.” But by lunchtime Lyssa had convinced 25 other students to join in the Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity effort.

“‘I have a dream’ – a statement powerfully spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and yet so much more than just words,” says Kemper. “I, too, have a dream … I believe that, through Christ, we can restore personhood to the most innocent of our brothers and sisters: the children in the womb.”

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