'Life is precious'

COEUR d’ALENE — Warren and Theresa Holcomb didn’t think long when asked why they took part in the Coeur d’Alene Right to Life March and Rally. 

“We think life is very important,” Theresa Holcomb said.

“All life is precious, right from conception to death,” Warren added.

The Coeur d’Alene couple was among about 350 people who attended the life rally on a cold, crisp Saturday morning.

A crowd gathered in a parking lot at the corner of U.S. 95 and Dalton Avenue.

There were adults and kids, many carrying signs that said, “Choose Life,” “Pray for Life,” Pro-life Generation,” and “Life is Precious.”

As they walked to Neider Avenue and back along U.S. 95, many drivers honked in support. Some prayed as they walked. Others waved and held their signs high.

Since 1979, the Coeur d’Alene rally has coincided with the National March for Life. Every year, pro-lifers gather in Washington, D.C., and march on Capitol Hill on the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion in the U.S.

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, spoke to the crowd about the “Day of Tears” resolution she sponsored at the Legislature. It says that Idaho and other states have proclaimed that Jan. 22, will be a day people are encouraged to lower their flags to half-staff “to mourn the innocents who have lost their lives to abortion.”

She said since Roe v. Wade, nearly 62 million babies have been aborted in the U.S.

Souza said she is a mother and grandmother and was a nurse for 10 years.

“I take that knowledge to the whole issue of life and when life begins,” she said. “And in my eight years now in the Senate, I have stood on the floor of the Senate to support every single pro-life bill that we have considered. It is so critical that we stand together. And I want you to know that with very few exceptions, all of the Republicans in our Legislature always vote pro-life.”

Richard Hawk, Open Arms Real Choices Clinic executive director, said people must pray, work and march to end abortion, which he referred to as a “very barbaric and savage history for our country.”

He said it won’t be easy to chart a new course, but he believes there is “a growing awareness that life in the womb is in fact a preborn baby. It’s not just a blob of tissue.”

“May God bless our collective efforts as we ensure that equality begins in the womb,” Hawk said.

Mark and Rusty Langhans joined the march.

“I think babies are very important,” Rusty Langhans said. “And I think that life is important — any kind of life. I don’t believe in abortion.”

“I just have a fundamental problem with killing babies. That’s where it is with me,” Mark Langhans said.

Robert Palus of Coeur d’Alene was there, too.

“I think that life is a very precious thing and how we treat life from its earliest stages to the last stages of natural life reflects how we treat each other as a society,” he said. “The way to improve society is to treat life as precious in all stages.”

Malcolm Dimkoski of Hayden said people have to take a stand and they can’t be shy about it.

“We’ve got to go public. We have to say it. We have to say it openly. We have to say it proudly. And we have to say it incessantly,” he said.

Palus believes they will succeed.

“If we continue to pray and act in a loving manner for all of our fellow people in this world, we will continue to move toward a more loving world and to respect life,” he said.