Rally Reports Roll in from Across the Country

Posted by Matt Yonke (March 28, 2012 at 4:44 pm)

Here at National Rally Headquarters we’ve been receiving reports from last Friday’s Rally for Religious Freedom from all across the country.

The sheer amount of reporting, both from the press and the local Rally Captains and attendees has been so huge it couldn’t possibly be cataloged in a blog post. So we’re going to bring you a selection of reports to give you a glimpse of the scope of this historic event.

Today we’ll look at San Francisco, California; Owensboro, Kentucky; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Goshen, New York.

One of the larger of the over 140 Rallies took place in San Francisco, California where over 1,000 came to Rally outside the HHS building.

You can see video of all their featured speakers here, but don’t miss the moving speech below from Fr. Joseph Fessio:

Author and speaker Mary Beth Bonacci emceed the event which was organized by Pastor Walter Hoye of the National Black Pro-Life Coalition, a member organization of the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Coalition.

The San Jose Mercury News covered the event here with some great photos and video.

Owensboro, Kentucky

Owensboro, Kentucky came on board late in the game, less than a week before the Rally day, but they still managed to bring out 350 people to their Rally!

This only shows how badly the American people were looking for an outlet to voice their opposition to the Obama HHS Mandate’s encroachment on our Religious Freedom. From a blog post by organizer Birgit J:

Morning broke with a 60% chance of rain! As I gathered my cache of handmade posters, umbrellas, and other necessities I shrugged and decided that the Holy Spirit would handle this too. Right on schedule I headed into town and, as the black clouds began to gather, I prayed the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Out loud I said, ‘Jesus, we’re doing this for you! Please hold off the rain, not for us but for your glory’. I made a quick call to my husband, who is in New York for business, and arrived a few minutes early. As our faithful helpers arrived, the clouds parted and the sun began to shine!

Soon the stage was up, balloons were tied, flags were waving and the people began flocking in. The noon siren sounded and it was time to begin. We had a nice variety of participants from various churches, schools and organizations.

Surf KY News Group gave the Rally a nice promotional piece the day before the Rally took place. Check that out here.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Known as, the birthplace of Freedom, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania quite appropriately turned out to be one of the largest Rallies in the country. The Rally Team there drew more than 2,300 people to historic Independence Hall where the Constitutional Convention was held in 1787.

National Public Radio covered the Rally there along with several others. Although underestimating numbers, the coverage was good, including the beautiful photo above. Here’s an excerpt from that story:

Hundreds turned out in Philadelphia, including Episcopalian Robert Mansfield, an Iraq war veteran.

“We didn’t travel 7,000 miles to have the government tell us how we’re going to practice our faith. If they’re coming after the Catholics, they’re coming after us next,” Mansfield says.

Goshen, New York

Finally for today, we turn to Goshen, New York, one of several Rallies planned on Long Island.

A reporter from Business Insider Magazine had asked Rally Co-Chair Eric Scheidler in the lead up to the Rally day what would happen if “. . . an enterprising liberal journalist would just travel to Goshen, New York and take pictures of what might be a pretty underwhelming scene, and make fun of it.”

Eric replied that even if they did, the huge crowds at the other 140 some cities nationwide would prove the reporter was spinning the story to fit his agenda.

But the zeal of Long Islanders for religious freedom solved that problem, because over 500 came out in Goshen, a town with a population of about 6,000! The Times Record Herald did an excellent report on the Rally and you can find videos of the Rally in Goshen here.

Keep an eye on the Stand Up for Religious Freedom blog for more as reports continue to pour in!

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