January 24, 2009 11:30 AM
March for Life 2009 - photos
Did you go to the March for Life? Then look for your family or group here.
Did you wish you could attend the March for Life? Then take some time to feel like you were there.
Do you think the pro-life movement is about angry, aging white men? Then you definitely need to see it for yourself - these are your friends and neighbors, co workers and fellow students.
Click below for an up-close and personal look at the REAL face of the pro-life movement - through 477 photos of the 300,000 marchers at the 2009 March for Life:
The annual March for Life is the most under-reported event in the nation.
This is my fourth year redressing the lack of Dinosaur Media coverage with an online photo journal. If a picture says a thousand words, then people can see the truth about Pro-Lifers here: a dazzlingly diverse movement filled with youth, vitality and joy.
Following 2007 and 2008, when marchers each year numbered 200,000, we wondered what would happen in 2009 - two days following the inauguration of the most proudly pro-abortion president in this sad episode of our nation's history.
This year there were 300,000!
I stood on a column in front of the Department of Labor for 2 1/2 hours shooting over 700 pictures. I have cut them to 477 - preserving such a large number for the sake of documentation and so that marchers can find their groups. They are in the exact order in which they were shot - except for the little surprise at the end, which I took on the Mall during the speakers before the March began.
Enjoy! And please pass it on -
~~~~~~~~
For previous years, see
March for Life 2008
March for Life 2007
March for Life 2006
Posted in Pro-Life Issues | Permalink
Comments
Great pictures Barbara, made me feel like I was there. Hopefully, I'll be there next year!
Posted by: Margaret | January 24, 2009 12:37 PM
That is so exciting to hear that 300,000 people were there. It was my first march and it felt like a lot of people to me, but I had no way of telling the actual numbers. Where do you find the data on the attendance? When I came home that day, I checked with WTOP and they said "tens of thousands" attended. More like hundreds of thousands!
Posted by: Elissa | January 24, 2009 2:54 PM
That is so exciting! My sister was there with all her wonderful Catholic friends. :)
Someday I hope that our family can go and up the numbers a little. :)
And you are so right about the reporting. If 300,000 people marched for *any* other cause (well, any liberal cause) it would be *all over the place* "Half a million people marched today....." ha! the bias is so blatant. :(
Posted by: Margaret | January 24, 2009 7:37 PM
Thank you Barbara!
Glad to see your coverage, and also - just foud you on Twitter!
Just added your link to the search keywords #M4L #pro-life #marchforlife #prolife
Hopefully that will get word out to more people.
Also - is there anyone you know of (besides yourself) that's covering the event on such a broad scale? Is there any way we can ask people to contribute to either a common location or pool of pointers (or common keyword?) Does Google do the trick?
Posted by: Chris Arsenault | January 24, 2009 8:00 PM
THANK YOU, BARBARA!!!!! I've been waiting for this -- any news on the March for that matter. As expected, there was nothing in the media about this event. That it was held in Washington DC, 2 days after the inauguration, with hundreds of thousands of people, focusing on such a controversial issue... didn't matter to them. Tens of thousands huh?
Okay, now I can view the photos and post 1 or 2 on my blog. I'll link back to this post.
Again, thanks! Every year I take part in the March for Life in spirit because we don't have such an event in my country, and the US is too far away from where I am to be able to go there.
Congratulations on your award :-)
Posted by: sunnyday | January 24, 2009 8:11 PM
My dad used to organize the bus to the March for Life each year for my parents' parish. He is now in a nursing home with severe dementia due to strokes. I knew I had to go to the march this year. It is so wonderful to see people of all ages there-and as you noted-full of joy with smiles on their faces.
Until I can go back next year my memories of this year's march will give me strength to carry on the fight.
With President Obama's decision yesterday I am almost glad me dad is unaware of what is taking place. He and Mom were so active in pro-life work for years. This would break his heart.
Awesome pictures! Thanks for taking them and posting them.
Posted by: Theresa | January 24, 2009 9:18 PM
Amazing pictures, Barbara! I had no idea that there were so many people there this year; that's really encouraging. I would love to have been there!
Denise
Posted by: Denise | January 24, 2009 10:57 PM
We just got back from the march. I stumbled across the photos during a google search. I found several of our group as they passed your location - is it alright if I take them from the website and use them in a slide show that I'm preparing for our youth group?
You are going great work.
Posted by: cliff | January 24, 2009 11:36 PM
And I found my daughter's college roommate and her son! Please let us know if downloading/using is OK. You did an AWESOME job!!
Posted by: Salome Ellen | January 25, 2009 8:12 AM
These are great Barbara! I found some of my kids and me at picture #35! God bless you!
Posted by: Maria | January 25, 2009 8:32 AM
Yes, by all means feel free to use any images - they are there for us all. For online use, please credit Barbara Curtis and link to MommyLife.
Posted by: barbara | January 25, 2009 8:45 AM
Thanks so much for these photos, Barbara. It was a great March for Life. As always, the crowd was upbeat, friendly and loving.
My family and I are in photo #342!
Posted by: Molly | January 25, 2009 1:17 PM
I've been reading your blog for a while now and have found it to be very encouraging. I was no less encouraged today to look through all of the pictures from the March for Life. I got choked up seeing all the young people who were there. It gives me such hope. The little boy with the sign in the last photo was priceless!
Posted by: Rachél | January 25, 2009 5:00 PM
Barbara, thanks for taking all the pictures and for news on the March. I enjoyed looking at the pictures. I wish I lived a bit closer and could have been there. Thank you to everyone who marched and was a voice for the unborn.
Posted by: a red voice | January 25, 2009 10:41 PM
Although I can access your blog, the Social Security Administration has blocked your pictures with an annotation that sites that promote hate or violence are blocked!
They do block ALL video out of bandwidth concerns, but usually one can see still photos.
I'll be able to look at your photos from my home computer tonight.
I was there.
Susan Peterson
Posted by: Susan Peterson | January 26, 2009 11:52 AM
Those pictures are simply beautiful! Thank you so much for posting them. :)
Posted by: Timothy | January 26, 2009 12:13 PM
Thanks for posting these! I was there with my husband and our first child, still in utero and due this side of Mommy August 4. Can't wait to look at the photos tonight from home.
I can't find the estimation of 300,000 anywhere; all of the news biggies quote 'tens of thousands.' Where can we find the proof?
Thanks,
Tara
Posted by: Tara Sz | January 26, 2009 1:28 PM
I found the group I was with, the people I rode there with in the car and metro, the banner I was trying to keep up with, but not myself. I must have been in one of the ones that got edited out.
I was marching with the "Orthodox Christians for LIfe." I myself am Catholic, but one of my sons is Orthodox and I got to know this church through him and have marched with them for several years.
I was at the first March for LIfe in 74, with a one month old baby who now has five children herself. In 77 I was there eight months pregnant and drew a lot of positive comments.
Back then I thought that by now, there would be no need to march.
Alas.
Susan Peterson
Posted by: susan Peterson | January 27, 2009 1:11 AM
My family joined the 30,000 pro life advocates at the Walk for Life - West Coast in San Francisco on Saturday. It was AWESOME!
I have posted a slide show of photos at the end of my most recent blog post here - www.bethlambdin.net - if anyone wants to see the Walk for Life in SF.
We plan to make it an annual tradition
Posted by: Beth Lambdin | January 28, 2009 1:12 AM
What an inspiration you are to this mother of a mere 5 (sheesh)
Wonderful photos!
God bless!
Posted by: Anne Marie | January 28, 2009 10:20 PM
