Randy, Randy! Wherefore art thou, Randy!

As I watched Randy Terry speaking with Dan Rather on 60 Minutes II, I was very disappointed. His waffling on the humanity of the Unborn – not to mention his ill treatment of a former compatriot, Michael Bray – was nothing short of disgraceful.
Was this the same Randy Terry who inflamed the hearts of American anti-abortionists to action with the stirring cry, “If abortion is murder, then act like it!”?
How could he now say that “to advocate the murder of murderers is whacked . . . it doesn’t make sense”?
Is Randy really unable to make the logical leap from “defense of others” for the born to the same rights for the Unborn? I doubt it. Has he changed his mind about the humanity of the Unborn? I doubt that, too.
The man is not stupid or dense.
I have to say that, despite my initial reactions to Randy’s performance, that it is premature to mark the demise of the noted co-founder of Operation Rescue. The disappearance, maybe, but not the demise.
Randy has been all but absent from the anti-abortion struggle for many years. His latest incarnation is as a would-be Congresscritter (Motto: “If abortion is murder, then contribute to my campaign!”). The rescue “hobbyhorse” he once rode has been turned in for a more respectable political “hobbyhorse.”
Even here, Randy began with the U.S. Taxpayer Party – the only Party with a no-exceptions-on-abortion platform (and a platform which is enforced), but switched to the Whig . . . er, quisling Republican Party when the happy-faced-fascist Southern Poverty Law Center started to target USTP with a hate campaign.
However, it is hard for me to be as critical as I am prone to be about Randy. He has contributed greatly to the anti-abortion movement. It was he, not me, who went to jail just because someone else showed Bill Clinton a real dead baby. It was he, more than any other for a long time, who was the target of federal government ire. (And he still is with Senator Schumer’s latest idea of exempting anti-abortionists from bankruptcy “protection.”)
Even when he had pretty much made abortion just-one-of-many issues upon which he spoke; he still drew national attention to the child pornography being sold in major chain book stores throughout the country.
There’s something of the old conscience-rouser in the man yet.
On the other hand, I think he has left “his first love,” so to speak; his calling.
On the 60 Minutes II segment, Randy was still trying to cling to his core assertion that the Unborn were fully human – while running the PR scam of looking “reasonable” by denying that the Unborn are at least theoretically entitled to the same kinds of protection afforded him and every other Born.
I hear the babies say, “Et tu, Randy?”
Judging by the way that Randy was stumbling around at the question, I would say he is not fully convinced in his own mind. If you are on the political “hobbyhorse,” though, you have to “play the game” – or so they tell me.
However, “playing the game” is no excuse. Randy knows better than that. You can’t promote the truth with lies or evasions. When you have the pulpit, you had best use it to advantage with the truth told in succinct, accurate, quotable statements.
Pithy comments were Randy’s stock-in-trade – and got him in more than his share of trouble in the past.
Was that trouble the cause of the pitiful, squirming performance we saw?
I wish it were not so, but I think it is.
Maybe Randy thinks he is well-hidden in the tall grass of radio shows and “respectable Republican” (also pitiful) political campaigns. It is possible he thinks his new “hobbyhorse” will hide him. Perhaps he even is under the delusion that he can live down his former radicalism and convince pro-aborts and other country club Republicans to back him.
It ain’t gonna happen.
Randy’s best bet is to accept the cards dealt to him and play them out.
I still believe that God has a lot more use for Randy – but as a radical, not as someone on the fringe (see my column from last issue).
It pains me to see a great figure wither the way Randy did on 60 Minutes II.
It pains me to be so frank about his shortcomings.
It pains me not to have Randy (the real Randy) out on the battle lines.
It pains a lot of babies not to have him out there, too.
Randy, Randy, Wherefore art thou, Randy?