Photolog of 7th Annual Walk for Life West Coast 2011

I hope I got some good pictures.

So this morning, I packed a breakfast and a lunch, two lenses and my camera. I woke up late so I had to run my way over 2/3 a mile in less than 15 minutes carrying my 17lbs of equipment to the Caltrain to take the 1 1/2 hour ride up to San Francisco. Then I had 20 minutes hard fast walk 1 1/2 miles so I could catch the first speakers. Quite a trek in order to get to the 7th annual Walk for Life 2011 on this anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

LAYOUT

The Walk for Life rally started out at Justin Herman Plaza in blue (for Our Lady). The Pro-Abortion rally (if you can call it that) in red took place across the street in a portion of the Harry Bridges Plaza along the north side. There was an elder lady posted close by the Pro-Life platform with a sign indicating where the "Pro-Abortion rally" was located.

Both sides were lined up with the normal street craft fair that takes place on weekends (you can see their white awnings in a bunch of pictures) so it was a rather tight fit (at least on the Justin Herman Plaza side).

The Walk proceeds from Justin Herman Plaza, across the Embarcadero south bound lane, heads towards the Ferry Building passing in front of the Pro-Abortion picketers and travel north on the Embarcadero north bound lane.

CROWD

This picture was taken from the far west side. On the left you can see the Vaillancourt fountain that Bono spray painted "Rock & Roll stops the traffic" during a concert singing "Pride (In the Name of Love)". The Ferry building is in the background straight across. In the far upper right, is the platform for the speakers. You can barely make out the banner there. Click on the picture for a better view.

SPEAKERS

David Beiret the National Campaign Director for 40 Days for Life.

Abby Johnson former director of Planned Parenthood and author of Unplanned (get it at Ignatius Press located in San Francisco). I particularly wanted to hear her speak. She made quite the headlines for walking out on Planned Parenthood some time ago, and and has since become a champion for the Pro-Life cause.

There were several more speakers, but I wanted to work the crowd a bit and make my way to the front for the start of the Walk.

THE WALK

Abby Johnson and David Beiret heading the charge.

THE PEOPLE

"I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been" - Johnny Cash. Pro-Life Men in Black. I wonder if they drove in on a Cadillac, yeah!

Love Lets Live

Pro-Science Pro-Life. Checkout their web page: secularprolife.org

The Dominican Friar's pledge is to act cool, to look cool, and to be cool.

Sisters of Life

Orthodox Christians for All Life, Because All Life is Sacred

Trust in Jesus

Life not Death

Lord Forgive Us and Our Nation

Adoption: The Loving Option

Seas of Love

Families are Fun. Not sure if this guy is having any though, hrmm.

Pretend I'm a Tree and Save Me

Crucifix

Maltese Cross. Somehow, I think the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta would be represented by something more than this tiny flag hanging from pvc pipe. Come on guys, you're an order made up of royalty.

Abortion Makes a Female a Perpetual and Re-usable Sex Object

Praying My Rosary For the Blessing Inside Your Ovaries

You and Your Child are Precious

Unique DNA from the Moment of Conception

Leading prayers Institute of Christ the King of Sovereign Priest. Sporting the Vatican flag. Nice.

Santa Cruz Pro Life. "Hey where is everyone? Have big sign but nowhere to go." These guys showed up late. I think they're lost.

THE PRO-ABORTION PROTEST
The pro-abortion league were there in small numbers maybe 20 people at most. I've skated around the plaza there regularly for Friday Night Skate and know what a good number would look like.

So the crowd of people in front of my camera are crossing the street and not part of the pro-abortion group. This is your standard pedestrian traffic coming from the piers or getting food from the Ferry Building or enjoying the weekend street craft fair.

Those signs are pretty much all of what was the pro-abortion rally, but it was more of an insult fest anti-life picket. They're railed up against the street trying to get the attention of the Pro-Life rally on the other side. I intended to get a picture of these guys but the Walk was about to start and I didn't want to move from my great vantage point. I intended to swing around once the walk began, but these guys quickly disappeared soon after. Their signs ranged from the anti-Catholic to the wacky political. You should be able to read some of the signs by clicking on the picture.

Insults like this was common from the peanut gallery. Anti-Christianity seemed to be a common theme. I caught the tail end of a conversation between a priest and a passerby:

priest: well, God loves you anyway

passerby: no, I don't think so
(whispering to her friend as they walked away) can you believe that?

Go figure.

These elderly George Tiller fans stuck around after their pals abandoned them.

She really loves her coat hanger, kept waiving it in front of everybody.

This one couldn't stop yelling. Overpopulation was a big theme.

NOT!

Udate: So I was watching a video of the Walk and it looks like what happened to the rest of the Anti-Life protesters is that they had sprinted ahead to regroup so they could keep pace of the front line and harass them the entire way up. (I pretty much stayed in one place waiting for the Walk to pass me by so I didn't see any of this.) The numbers are a bit more than what I quoted, maybe something a little over 50 Pro-Abortion protesters?

The Pro-Life attendants numbered somewhere around 50,0000.