The speaker was Representative Marsha Blackburn, who spoke for 15 to 20 minutes on the necessity of free speech and a free press, and the wonderful things that are going on in Iraq with respect to the rise of a free press in the post-Saddam era.
During dinner, which was very good, by the way, I went over to Blackburn and thanked her for helping us stop the state income tax, that those were great days, that I don’t ever want to do it again, but that I am glad I did it, for which she offered a string of “thank you’s.”
There were about 250 people in attendance at the banquet, including the Tennessean folks. I met the letter editor Liz Sharer, who is a great lady.
The dinner started at 6:30, and around 8:15 the floor was opened up for the writers’ forum, where they placed three microphones on the floor, and whoever wanted could come up and give a short speech lasting no longer than one minute.
Given the distribution of applause and the content of the speeches, I’d place the ratio of liberals-to-conservatives there at about 70% to 30%. I sat with one of my co-workers, a fellow conservative and three-time three-star letter-writer, and we both agreed on a 70-80% range of liberal attendees.
I went with a prepared statement, because I didn’t want to jumble my words. It didn’t take long prior to the banquet to choose a topic, because I knew I’d be standing up for the one political and moral issue that’s dearest to me. I also knew I’d be violating the left’s most cherished institution in the process. There were so many things I wanted to say, but with no more than a minute, I knew I’d have to stick to one issue, I’d have to make it pithy, and I’d have to make it powerful.
Anyway, there were perhaps 25-30 speakers before me, and then I got up. Here is my statement:
I’m Mark Rose, from Mt. Juliet. Thank you, Tennessean, for providing dinner for all of us, and for providing a forum on your editorial page for us to air our ideas.
I want to leave you with a quote from conservative columnist Peggy Noonan, who writes on the various factions that make up the Democratic Party, and the tie that binds them all together: abortion rights.
Here’s what Noonan says:
“Democratic officeholders either agree with and fear the clout of the abortion-rights groups or disagree with and fear them. So the pro-abortion forces keep the party together, but they also tie it down. They keep the Democratic Party on the defensive — the lockstep pro-abortion party that won’t even back parental notification, the party of unbending orthodoxy that will fight tooth and nail against banning abortions on babies eight months old, babies who look and seem and act exactly like human beings because they are.”
“No party can long endure, or could possibly flourish, with the unfettered killing of young humans as the thing that holds it together. … Someday years from now we will see abortion’s final victim, and it will turn out to be the once-great Democratic Party….”
As expected, my comments were followed a smattering of applause, but also several loud boos — more than any other speaker I heard before leaving later on. The boos were reassuring, because I knew I’d hit a nerve. However, three people came up to me and thanked me for my comments. One gentleman said “Thanks for standing up.” Another said “I enjoyed your comments.”
There was one pro-life speaker, Betty Romeo, the Respect Life Coordinator at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, who had preceeded me by several turns. She was a little more tactful, but no less pro-life, than me.
Five speakers after my turn, a gentleman who gave a speech on something unrelated to abortion preceeded his comments by stating “I want to say something about abortion. Men have been making decisions about women’s bodies for too d*** long.”
There were four or five additional speakers who referenced abortion from the liberal side, including one animal-rights fellow who said the pro-life argument “rang hollow” in light of all the animals that are tortured and abused, and that they don’t have a voice, either. He made it a point to look over to the side where Betty Romeo and I were stationed.
One gentleman did take up for us, though, clarifying that it’s not about men telling women what to do with their bodies, but that it’s about the life within the mother that’s an entirely different human being.
At any rate, I stayed around until 9:00, long enough to hear my co-worker use his minute to speak rather articulately on the absurdities we have seen the last few years from the judiciary. By then, the long lines leading up to the microphones had dwindled.
On the way out, I stopped by to say hello to Bobby Patray of the Tennessee Eagle Forum, then by Betty Romeo’s table to ask her how it felt to be in a hornet’s nest. “I’m used to it,” she said. “I do this all the time.”
God bless her, because it’s not an easy thing to do.
