Appreciative of the founding fathers well ordered sense, Veritas was represented in Des Moines on Saturday participating in rallies in support of the right to life and the right to liberty which is the basis of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, enshrined in the collection known as the Bill of Rights.
Midwest March for Life participants begin assembly at the Iowa State Capitol
Five hundred people attended the first annual Midwest March for Life sponsored by Iowa Right to Life Committee. Governor Terry Branstad and Bishop Richard Pates of the Diocese of Des Moines served as Co-Leaders of the event which incorporated a symbolic enactment of the the Biblical account of Joshua’s army of Israelites surrounding the walls of Jericho. Participants stopped on each side of the Capitol building and listened to brief presentations at each facing. The assemblage then solemnly marched across the way to the Iowa Judicial Branch building housing the Iowa Supreme Court and Court of Appeals for concluding remarks for that portion of the days events.
Participants then assembled at Veterans Auditorium for a luncheon featuring remarks by Governor Branstad, Lt. Governor Reynolds, Bishop Pates and others. The list of other dignitaries speaking at various times during the day’s events included:
Iowa State Senator David Johnson
Sue Thayer, Former Planned Parenthood of the Heartland Clinic Manager
Rev. Keith Ratliffe, Maple Street Missionary Baptist Church
Pastor Al Perez, Miracle Life Family Church
Tamara Scott, Concerned Women for America, Iowa Republican National Committeewoman
Troy Newman, Pro-Life Nation
Jenny Condon, Executive Director, InnerVisions HealthCare
Jenifer Bowen, Executive Director, Iowa Right to Life
Pro- Second Amendment Assemblage Same Day
Defenders of Second Amendment rights begin to gather on the west side of the Iowa Capitol as part of a demonstration sponsored by the Iowa Firearms Coalition.
The right to keep and bear arms is the hallmark of a free people. The Constitution anticipates that tyranny would not necessarily be something of mere historic concern for our country . . . precursors to tyranny in the form of political expediency and acquiescence are always present in the body politic, like cancer cells are said to be in every person. Political forces that are capable of finding a right to kill unborn members of the human family in the “penumbra” of the Constitution such that the individual right to exist can be nullified by others, are just as facile in denying that the right to bear arms is not an individual right, and subject it to attacks and erosion that make it more and more ineffective as a bulwark against the state’s own power.
We were pleased at the coincidence of these two human rights affirming events. At least 600 people attended the second event.
