FAB Note:  Sorry for the hiatus.  We’ve been on the road for more than a month, both on CBR projects and on personal business.  We’ve always thought it better to do good work than to just talk about it.  Now that we’re back home for a few days, we can talk some now!

Marriott Opryland CAP: The work goes on!

On our 5th and final day of the launch (just final day of the launch, not the last day of the project!), we were greeted by the most powerful and coldest winds we had seen to date!  Weather Underground reported winds gusts as high as 43 miles/hour!  Yikes!

But God did not forget us.  He sent us warm encouragement in the person of Carly Hill, the Managing Editor for YoungPatriots.com, a website for … well … young patriots.  She spent quite a while with us and posted this report.  (See video below.)

A few days later, Lyndon Allen returned to the Marriott Opryland with a team of Nashville volunteers to continue the project.  (See photo below).

Video report:

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Volunteers continue the project:

Lyndon Allen returns to Marriott Opryland with a team of volunteers. It had warmed up by then.

Pictures work magic on the hearts and minds of passing motorists and their passengers.

Another day of exposing abortion in Nashville.  We were set up at the Marriott Opryland Hotel & Convention Center for Day 2, where it much colder than yesterday due to a cold breeze coming down from Canada.  In fact, we heard reports that it was so cold down at the State Capitol, the politicians had their hands in their own pockets.

At this location, we had no opportunities to engage people verbally, but we knew the pictures were working their magic.  We could see them working in the expressions of passing motorists and their passengers.

In fact, Georgia Project Director Lincoln Brandenburg reminded us just how effective the pictures could be with his story of a recent encounter with a member of the Georgia Tech Students for Life.  This active pro-lifer from Connecticut became pro-life at the tender age of 12, when she saw one of our truth trucks in the run-up to the 2004 elections.  She recalled that her mother complained about the picture on the truck, but it caused the youngster to become a life-long (so far) pro-life activist.  The pictures do work.

CAP signs on display at Marriott Opryland Hotel & Convention Center.

The Corporate Accountability Project (CAP) at Marriott/Opryland was a huge success on Day 1.  Our team of volunteers displayed signs for about 6 hours, as scheduled, from about noon until dark.  They were very enthusiastic about the experience, and most promised to return again to help as the picketing continues over the next 4 days.

We reached thousands of people, especially those lined up at the traffic light, waiting to turn left into the Opryland complex.  Several people in the turn lane took pictures as they waited for the light to change.  Friday is a huge day, because so many people arrive for their weekend stays.  In this case, people were also arriving for the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) Convention.

We got many thumbs-up from passersby, but only one or two “flying buzzards.”  (The difference between thumbs-up and the other finger is what we call the “digital divide.”)

Our presence was covered by WZTV-17, the local Fox affiliate.  Their concluding remark was the biggest laugh-line of the day (if you are into macabre humor); they identified Planned Parenthood as an agency that “provides services to expectant parents.”  Who writes this stuff?  (Oh, yeah, Planned Parenthood writes it.)

CAP signs were visible to thousands of motorists entering and passing the Marriott Opryland Hotel & Convention Center.

CBR Corporate Accountability Project at Marriott Dana Point, California

Date:  February 27, 2013

The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) will display large abortion photos at the entrance to the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, now part of the Marriott International hotel network, beginning March 1–5, 2013, during the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.

Marriott International has admitted in writing that it permits its own hotels and those of Marriott franchisees to donate to Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider.  Marriott has also acknowledged in writing that Marriott money has been donated to Planned Parenthood, but refuses to ban this inhumane practice.

The Marriott hotel network consists of many corporations that collectively form a single, integrated, business entity.   CBR’s anti-abortion pickets will become a regular presence at the Opryland Resort & Convention Center until Marriott International prohibits Planned Parenthood donations from any of its Marriott hotels or those of its Marriott franchisees.

The first time a corporation donates to Planned Parenthood, that corporation becomes, by definition, a Planned Parenthood corporate donor.  That donor status places that corporation on a Planned Parenthood donor boycott list.  Corporations on that boycott list are subject to picketing.  Every Planned Parenthood corporate donor, however, qualifies for removal from the donor boycott list by simply promising to never give again.  Marriott International explicitly refuses to make that promise.  They will, therefore, be picketed until they change their minds.  Marriott guests are entitled to know that Marriott International permits its hotels and the hotels of its franchisees to donate some percentage of their room rates to organizations which kill babies.

CBR staff and volunteers will maintain a lawful presence at the entrance to this property in the same manner in which CBR will soon display identical aborted baby photos at Marriott properties across the country and around the world.  Many Marriott guests at other locations have thanked CBR for exposing Marriott’s refusal to prohibit Marriott hotels from supporting Planned Parenthood.  Many have assured CBR that they would not return as guests until Marriott International reforms its socially irresponsible philanthropic policy.  A simple management directive would serve this purpose with regard to its own hotels.  A similar prohibition could be imposed by a letter to franchisees, announcing that donations to Planned Parenthood will henceforth be regarded as tarnishing the Marriott brand, in violation of Marriott franchise agreements.

More information regarding this project may be obtained by contacting Fletcher Armstrong, PhD, at P.O. Box 20115, Knoxville, TN 37940, or by phone at 865-776-1312, or by email at fletcher@CBRinfo.org.  Inquiries may also be directed to Gregg Cunningham, at P.O. Box 219, Lake Forest, CA 92609, or by phone at 714-240-6976, or by email at CBR@CBRinfo.org.