Historical Mothers’ Day 2022 Attack on Wisconsin Family Action

 

 

Leftist Attacks Won’t Intimidate the Pro-Life Movement
By Julaine Appling, WFA president

Early Sunday morning on Mother’s Day, a leftist anarchist group attacked our office in Madison, Wis. They broke windows and threw two Molotov cocktails into the office, lighting a fire. Making their views abundantly clear, the arsonists graffitied the outside of the building with the message, “If abortions aren’t safe, then you aren’t either.”

God was watching over us that morning because thankfully, no one was in the office at the time. But imagine if anyone had been. They would have been seriously injured. Additionally, one of the Molotov cocktails did not ignite — an error on the attacker’s part that saved our building. Otherwise, it likely would have burned to the ground.

This act of violence was intended to terrify us into silence, to make us afraid to go to work, to go home, to convene in public with like-minded family, friends, and colleagues. Even worse, to terrify us (all of us who share these opinions) enough to alter our core beliefs and values. Threats like this, right here at home in America. Because I have a different opinion from abortion activists and the violent Left. Because I proudly lead Wisconsin Family Action, an organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the values of marriage, family, life, and religious liberty.

Over the past 36 years, Wisconsin Family Action and its sister organization Wisconsin Family Council have effectively informed citizens about legislative issues, advocated on critical policy issues affecting the family, and prepared citizens for elections, all as the law provides.

Sadly, the cost of dedicating your life’s work to your beliefs — at least if you are a conservative — is to be attacked, injured, or worse.

This is the entire goal of the Left: to silence, by any means possible, those who stand in its way. Destroy small businesses, churches, and organizations like Wisconsin Family Action because of our beliefs.

The hypocrisy is staggering. Liberals demand tolerance, but only if you agree with their policies. If you disagree with them, then violence is the answer. If you disagree with them, as the arsonists in the attack on my office stated, “you aren’t safe.”

Just look at the violent protests taking place at Supreme Court justices’ homes. The Left’s goal in these protests? To make it clear to the justices not only that they aren’t safe, but also that neither are their families. Federal law prohibits picketing at any judge’s residence, yet nothing is being done to stop the picketing and intimidation. Because threatening violence and scaring Supreme Court justices to influence their vote is an acceptable tactic to the Left.

And liberals have made it clear this is just the beginning.

The group responsible for the attack on our office just announced that every pro-life organization in the country could be attacked next. That the assault on Wisconsin Family Action was just “the first of many.”

How did America get to this point? Liberal leadership.

This is what happens when leadership is missing or when leadership implies that violence is an acceptable tactic to employ. In 2020, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers basically looked the other way when violence erupted in Kenosha and Madison. That kind of nonresponse fosters attacks like the one against Wisconsin Family Action, leaving Wisconsin citizens who disagree with his policies extremely vulnerable to similar violence.

In fact, Governor Evers’s initial response to the attack on Wisconsin Family Action said nothing about demanding a full investigation and criminal prosecution. Though he mentioned us, he condemned “violence and hatred in all its forms,” then told his supporters he’d keep supporting abortion.

But let me be clear: The violence needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.

We cannot deal with political disagreements in this country by resorting to violence. Just because liberals don’t get their way doesn’t give them license to threaten bodily harm or to burn and destroy property.

We cannot deal with political disagreements in this country by resorting to acts of lawless violence. One of America’s best attributes is her freedom of speech, but that freedom doesn’t encompass a license to those of the discord to threaten bodily harm or to burn and destroy property.

But did the attack intimidate us? No. It strengthened our resolve. We will repair our offices, remain on the job, and build an even stronger grassroots effort. We will continue to work every day to give a voice to the voiceless and stand up for what’s right.

We will not back down. Too much is at stake.