LITTLE NOTES

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Contents © 2004
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

LITTLE NOTES
March 2004

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Enright recused himself after issuing the August ruling and the case was turned over to Judge Richard Haden. On December 5, 2003, Haden ordered the foundation to pay more than $30,000 to Planned Parenthood, despite the pro-life firm's assertion that it has six boxes of evidence supporting its claim that the abortion provider broke state law.

In October 2002, Enright ruled that the United States Justice Foundation filed a frivolous motion to dismiss a suit in which Planned Parenthood sought an injunction against pro-lifer Cheryl Sullenger for allegedly harassing employees and customers at its Mission Valley clinic in 1999. In that case, Enright awarded more than $60,000 to Planned Parenthood.

Enright was appointed to the San Diego Municipal Court in 1995 by former California Governor Pete Wilson, a Republican. Two years later, Wilson appointed Enright to the San Diego Superior Court.


ROGER HEDGECOCK, the nationally-known San Diego talk show host, was the featured speaker at the second annual Appeal for Life celebration at Santa Sophia parish in Spring Valley on Friday, January 16. Donations for the event benefited Santa Sophia's Community for Life committee and the non-Catholic Pregnancy Care Center in El Cajon. The event also featured songs and a personal testimony about the ravages of abortion by Catholic music artist Donna Lee.

Hedgecock, who grew up in Point Loma and graduated from St. Augustine High School, began his talk by recalling his personal experience of becoming a father. The birth of his first son James, he said, evaporated his previous "adolescent male mentality." He went on to describe the transformation of his personal views on issues such as environmentalism, feminism, and abortion, saying of the last, "I don't think we have a more important value to reconstruct, rebroadcast, reaffirm, to recommit, than the value of life. I don't think there's a more important fight to be fought, and no more important projection of America in the world than the value of life."

During the question and answer period that followed, Hedgecock was asked to reconcile these pro-life views with his support of pro-abortion Catholic Arnold Schwarzenegger over pro-life candidate Tom McClintock in last Fall's recall election.

To one questioner, Hedgecock replied, "I thought about that a lot, because it's a good question ... and the answer is this: The governor -- this governor, particularly --is not going to spend 10 seconds thinking about this issue, whether he's pro-life or pro-abortion, because he's facing a tsunami of problems that have nothing to do with that. They have everything to do with taxes and budgets and services.

"I'm not happy," he continued, "about the pro-abortion attitude that Schwarzenegger has, and I'm hoping he changes his mind. I remind people, however, that Ronald Reagan, who became a great champion for life, began his political career as a pro-abortion candidate. We can change not only our own selves, we can change the minds of these folks. So when we see -- and it really hurts me to see -- a Catholic espousing beliefs that are contradictory to core Catholic beliefs, to core Biblical beliefs, it is crucial in the presidential race that this be an issue."

To another woman who expressed dismay over Hedgecock's pro-Schwarzenegger stance, Hedgecock answered, "The practical reality was that Tom McClintock was not going to win."


"OUR MOTTO IS: MAKE THEM, PRAY THEM, GIVE THEM AWAY," says Greg Willits, executive directory of Rosary Army, "a Georgia based non-profit apostolate dedicated to making, praying, and freely distributing all-twine knotted rosaries.

"Each month," Willits wrote in a letter to News Notes, "thousands of people visit our web site, rosaryarmy.com, for the free rosaries and information available there. Last year we sent thousands of free rosaries around the United States and the entire world to anyone who requested one from our web site. Our goal is to remove every obstacle a person may have to praying the rosary, including giving them a free rosary of their own.

"In an effort to keep in motion the momentum set during the year of the rosary, we are constantly taking new steps to increase the numbers of those in our Mother's army for Christ who want to make knotted rosaries to give away. At the Eucharistic Congress in Atlanta, Georgia in June of 2003, our organization gave away nearly 800 rosaries in a single day. We've made custom rosaries for disabled people, sent bundles of rosaries free of charge to Catholic college students making missions to foreign countries and provided rosaries and supplies for soldiers, patients, religious orders, and lay people. Our rosaries have been sent to all fifty of the United States as well as Malaysia, Ghana, South America, Europe, India, Haiti, Iraq, and elsewhere. Our rosary-making workshops have taught hundreds of people to make these types of rosaries to freely give away to people within their own parishes.


INITIATIVE UPDATE. Two important memos regarding the Parental Notification initiative -- one from the seasoned pro-life attorneys at Life Legal Defense Foundation. The other from the diocese of Sacramento.

Life Legal's February 6 memo: "Over the past few weeks, Life Legal Defense has received several inquiries concerning the Parental Notification Initiative (PNI) currently being circulated. The inquiries raised serious questions concerning the wording of the PNI.

"In the meantime, however, it has become apparent that, for reasons unrelated to the merits of the PNI, the effort to put it on the November 2004 ballot is no longer viable. Simply put, the PNI has been submerged under a tide of other petitions also currently being circulated in hopes of qualifying for the November ballot. These other initiatives, many backed by large financial interests, have sharply driven up the cost of getting signatures through paid signature gatherers, a necessary component of every initiative drive. The unusually large number of initiatives chasing the relatively fixed pool of professional signature gatherers has doubled, even tripled the per-signature cost. (See the Law of Supply and Demand). We understand that, to date, only a small fraction of the required number of signatures has been gathered, leaving it up to the volunteer effort to gather the bulk of the signatures by April 15, a practical impossibility.

"In light of these factors, Life Legal Defense believes that it is in the best interests of the pro-life movement at this time to focus on preparing for an initiative drive later this year, when the field is not as crowded. We hope that the proponents will use the intervening time to address and resolve the legitimate questions raised concerning the wording of the initiative."

From the diocese of Sacramento on February 18: "Many of you have been anxiously awaiting to hear word that the California Catholic Conference and the California Bishops have given their blessing for signature gatherings to take place for the Parental Notification Initiative. I am sorry to have to inform you that this initiative drive has been tabled for two years. "The primary factor for this decision was the knowledge that there were an abnormally high number of initiatives seeking to qualify for the November election. This makes the cost of paid signature-gathering prohibitive not to mention the anticipated high hurdle of an expensive public education campaign to pass the PNI into law. While the Bishops and the CCC have no difficulty with the initiative, the consensus was that the timing was just not right. "If you have any questions, you are welcome to email or call me at my office (916)733-0140. I sincerely regret that many of you will be disappointed. However, you must have faith that the right decision was made. Kathy M. Conner, Respect Life Coordinator, Diocese of Sacramento."


WHO NOT TO VOTE FOR. Planned Parenthood of San Diego mailed out its March primary voter guide mid-February:
Senate: Senator Barbara Boxer
House of Representatives:
District 50: Francine Busby
District 51: Congressman Bob Filner
District 52: Brian Keliher
District 53: Congresswoman Susan Davis
State Senate:
District 39: Christine Kehoe
State Assembly:
District 66: Laurel Nicholson
District 74: Karen Underwood
District 75: Karen Heumann
District 76: Tricia Hunter
District 76: Vince Hall
District 76: Jennifer Osborne
District 76: Lori Saldana
District 76: Heidi von Szeliski
District 77: Chris Larkin
District 78: Patty Davis
District 78: Arlie Ricasa
District 78: Maxine Sherard
District 79: Juan Vargas
Mayor of San Diego:
Dick Murphy, or Ron Roberts
San Diego City Council:
District 1: Scott Peters
District 3: Toni Atkins
San Diego City Attorney:
Deborah Berger,
or Mike Aguirre
San Diego Unified School District:
District A: Miyo Ellen Reff
District E: Mshinda Nyofu.

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