Red Tape.

Butterflies. heart racing. sweaty hands.

Beat red face. perhaps even brighter than the tape across my mouth.

Last tuesday was Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. Millions of teens and young adults stepped onto the campuses of their high schools and universities. They came armed with fliers and posters with bright red tape across their mouths bearing one small but powerful word. LIFE. Braving the cries of negativity, anger, and even hatred they walked around passing out their fliers. However, under the cloud of ridicule lies whispers of enocouragement which lets us know that there is hope for unborn babies.

Students for Life at Eastern Michigan University, of which I am vice-president and co-founder, decided to make Silent Day our first "demonstration" on campus. We decided that in order to get people's attention and let them know we are here is to do something "visual."

What better way to get someone's attention then to walk around with red duct tape on your mouth?

About 12 people showed up with their red tape and fliers ready to create a buzz. First we started with about 2,000 fliers and after about an hour and a half...we ran out. We gathered the troops and rushed to the library to print more. Luckily a nun was at a computer nearby and realized what we were doing. She printed off a lot more for us. Somehow we rounded up about 1,000 more fliers. Those quickly disapeared.

Now that you know exactly what we did...here are the mixed responses we recieved...

I personally had a guy spit on the ground right next to my shoe. One girl took the flier, handed it back, and said "I don't want this!!" A couple more people, including a teacher, walked up and thanked me for what I was doing.(Which reassured me that I was doing the right thing)

Other people from our group had a variety of experiences. Our president, Christen, had a guy hug her and say "Another conservative!!" :-) Another girl was called horrible names.

Later that day, we found out that there was a guy on campus handing out "pro-choice" fliers. The fliers had a C.S. Lewis quote and said something about us "oppressing people with our morals."

When I first heard about this I laughed

I laughed because the word oppress means "to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power: " (via Dictionary.com)

So is he saying we are in authority or have so much power over everyone?

That was definately a poor choice of words on his part.

Did we really make such an impact that someone felt the need to "stand up" and "confront" us?

I hope so.