Oct. 15 was a very sad day for Marietta when150 Republicans protested the Nuns on the Bus visit with signs calling them "Bums on the Bus," "Romney-Yes! Fake Nuns-No," and "Nuns on the gateway to hell tour."
The nuns responded to the protesters with love and compassion. Sister Monica McGloin's Marietta remarks have been reported on the Religion News Service - "We are 100 percent pro-life. As many of your signs are showing, we believe life begins at conception and ends with natural death. And we do not see focusing on one issue, one point of life, as a way that we should proceed. Pro-life for us means that we also concern ourselves with living wage, just wage, access to health care, education, food, housing, care for our seniors, Medicare and other kinds of health care programs that are supportive. Providing daycare for children so their parents can work." The protesters booed and heckled her remarks and waved their Romney signs.
Sister Monica went on to talk about supportive services to help folks remain healthy and for wholesome communities. And she questioned how tax cuts for the wealthy and trickledown economics could create jobs. By this point in her talk, the protesters were trying to drown her out with chants and cow bells.
The Nuns on the Bus is a national movement involving scores of real Catholic sisters traveling the country and standing up for the poor. They have visited hundreds of towns in several states and have never been met with protesters like they experienced here. Is this what Marietta has become? I encourage everyone to visit the Facebook page of the Nuns on the Bus Ohio and let these brave sisters know those 150 protesters do not represent the rest of us. Over 100 people came to support the nuns and nobody had a campaign sign. This was to be a nonpartisan, nonpolitical event.
Jim Rapp
Lowell
