March is a Polite, Orderly Gathering
January 30, 2020
WASHINGTON (CNS)—What you don’t comprehend about the marching portion of the March for Life until you’re in it is — even though it appears somewhat unorganized at the start — it’s an intensely polite and orderly experience despite its immense size.
For many participants, it’s a pilgrimage. There are no raised voices, there are occasional chants from student groups, it moves very slowly — a brisk walking pace would seem like a sprint — and there appear to be as many thousands of people lining the sidewalks as there are on the street.
The throng at the pre-march rally on the National Mall doesn’t give a true sense of the sheer bigness of the march itself. Many groups, all with placards, join it midway through, and quite a few others, rather than try to squeeze in on the street, accompany it on the sidewalks.
No one tells the groups how to assemble. They just quietly line up.
A handful of Knights of Columbus kept the front of the march somewhat tidy with rope barriers as they cleared spectators back to the sidewalks, but no one announced an order to begin.
The police squad cars started to roll, there was a mighty whoop, and the walk to the Supreme Court was underway.
“People just know there was a calling to come together,” said first timer Drew Timmermeier, a freshman at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. “It was a simple message.”
The Owen and Hendershott families from St. John Neumann in St. Charles attended their 11th march this year.
Rebecca Hendershott says they “go for all the lives that are lost to abortion, and all the babies and children that are looking for a forever home.”
— Sharon Boehlefeld contributed to this story