We knew it was going to be a tense event long before the day arrived but a conversation that occurred as the flag display was forcibly being destroyed made it all worthwhile. Sharon Wright is the president of the Powell River Pro-Life Society and was instrumental in getting everything ready for the flag display. A number of months ago they had requested an event permit to host the flag display in the Loggers Memorial Bowl at Willingdon Beach. The process required them to appear before City Council and explain the specifics of the event. Soon after their presentation to Council the event was approved, the planning started, and it all culminated in a peaceful demonstration on Saturday, June 23rd.
Peaceful until a number of malicious counter-protesters began violently ripped out the flags. As one commenter said on social media, “Anyone else see the irony of flags that represent unborn children being torn out of the ground? Not the brightest counter demonstration.” It should be noted that the aggressive actions of a few were not reflective of the rest of the pro-abortion supporters on hand that day. Most of them were respectful, and a number of quality conversations took place. Nevertheless, due to the aggressive nature of those ripping out the flags many of those who were taking a stand for pre-born human rights by volunteering at the flag display were quite distraught and visibly shaken.
One of the volunteers moved to tears was Sharon Wright. She walked to the fringes of the display to compose herself and what happened next was nothing short of divine intervention – just the conversation that Sharon needed to experience. We asked her to share her conversation with us on Facebook Live.
Transcript: A woman and her grandson were pulling up the flags, and we didn’t want the protesters pulling up the flags, so I went up to her and I said, “I don’t even know if you’re one of us or one of them,” and she said, “Oh, I’m just one of them but my grandson wanted to pull up the flags.” And I said, “Oh, that’s fine.” They were very nice and had smiles, and she came up afterwards and she says, “Can I have a card?” and then she said to me, “I wasn’t one of you but I am now. Just by your demeanour and your kindness…I just want to thank you for how you reacted to the situation.”
If you want to see the rest of the Facebook Live and the despicable actions of the protestors who attempted to interrupt our video click here.
The contrast between those taking a stand in support of pre-born human rights and those in favour of their continued destruction was apparent to everyone who walked by the display that day. The visible hatred, also modeled to the many children who were present, was responded to with love, compassion, and a deep sense of caring for the neighbour – virtues that we should all aspire to.
The aborting of 100,000 pre-born children every year in Canada makes it necessary to do something; to stand up for their rights. We will not, indeed we cannot back down in the face of adversity, no matter how much hate comes our way. As Winston Churchill once said, “You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.” To Sharon and the Powell River Pro-Life Society, thank you for continuing to stand up for all members of your community, both born and pre-born!
