In addition to being the music director at Kennedy Catholic High School, I play electric guitar for the "Steubenville Band", a group led by Adam Bitter that provides the music for the Steubenville Mid-America Youth Conference every summer. 
We were asked by the Archbishop and the Office of Youth Ministry to provide music for "The Way, the Truth, the Life" which was the trip to Washington D.C. for the Pro-Life March that took place in front of the nation's capital building on Monday, January 24th. In addition to the march, teens and chaperones listened to inspiring talks, participated in discussion groups, attended mass, Eucharistic adoration, and received the sacrament of reconciliation.
Our trip started with mass at Incarnate Word Parish in Chesterfield on Friday night. The teens then boarded buses that would take them to D.C. I boarded a van with John Schellhorn, our bassist, and Charlie Dent, our drummer. After a delicious dinner at Steak and Shake, we set out on our 16 hour trip to Washington. It's a good thing that we three have been friends for years since we were stuffed into a minivan with our equipment for that amount of time.
Upon our arrival at 4 pm on Saturday, we set up our gear, took showers, and tossed down a couple of cups of coffee. We went onstage at 8, providing praise and worship music for the excited group of 500 teens. Our guest speaker for the evening was Sam Malek, owner of More Than Coffee, which is located on Manchester not far from Kennedy. Sam shared his story and struggles while getting the teens attention with his way of "keeping it real". Sam also spoke of giving people with disabilities jobs at his shop, enabling them to find work at other businesses afterward.
Sunday morning brought mass which was celebrated by Kennedy alum Fr. Brian Fischer along with other priests. After mass, the group had the day to tour the sights of Washington. I, 
along with my daughter Shelby, went with our Seven Holy Founders Youth group to Arlington National Cemetery where we visited the graves of the Kennedy's and the tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. The ceremony of the changing of the guard was solemn and quite inspiring.
After Arlington, we headed for the Smithsonian History museum. Of particular interest to me was the display of a violin, viola, and cello all made by Stradivarius from the 1600's. After eating lunch, we headed for the capital mall, visiting the World War II memorial, the Vietnam wall, Washington monument, and the Lincoln Memorial.
Sunday evening started with more praise and worship music from us, and then a talk by Fr. Dave Pavonka, a Franciscan priest who helps with the summer Steubenville retreats that are presented by Franciscan University. Fr. Dave talked about the sanctity of life, along with the sacrament of reconciliation. Comparing it to an experience he had washing his clothes at a trail stop on a pilgrimage, just confessing some sins to "get rid of the smell" instead of truly "coming clean" and saying what is in your heart. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament with music by us followed. During adoration, over 500 teens went to the sacrament of reconciliation with all the priests that were on the trip, including Bishop Hermann and Bishop Rice. It was a truly moving experience for me seeing all of those teens going to reconciliation.
Monday started with everybody packing their bags and leaving the hotel in the buses to go to a local church for mass, this time celebrated by Bishop Edward Rice. In his homily, Bishop Rice quoted President Kennedy's inaugural address, in which he said that man now has the power to abolish all forms of poverty and all forms of human life, and sadly, the second part of that statement had become true. The other quote in the homily was "the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God".
From mass, we went to lunch, and then to the March. Once again, to see the thousands upon thousands of people (1,000 teens from our archdiocese alone) march for support of basic human existence for the powerless such as the unborn and senior citizens made me proud to be an American where we can express our ideas without fear of reprisal, and sad that many in our government who have the power to initiate change basically ignored this protest, along with many in our national media. 
After the March, we headed on our trek back to St. Louis. The March took place on my birthday, January 24th, and as I look back, it was exactly the place I needed to be on that day. Hopefully one day Roe vs. Wade will be overturned by the Supreme Court, along with other laws that make the killing of the unborn, the elderly, and the death penalty. Until that time comes, I will be proud to stand and march along with the many people, among them the teenagers of the Archdiocese, for life.
