My mother-in-law, my girls and I had the privilege to attend the Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally downtown on Friday. I missed the last rally and was really bummed about it so I cleared my calendar to make sure I could attend this one. As a practicing Catholic, I think it is very important to attend these events to show support for the cause. I know a lot of people work during the week and can’t attend, which means it is more important for people like myself, to be there.

The rally was supposed to be held in the Old Courthouse but they are remodeling the courthouse so the rally was pushed outside in the grass area between the courthouse and The Arch.

How fitting, on the day of the rally, the unveiling of the Dred and Harriet Scott statue was taking place later in the afternoon at the Old Courthouse. Dred and Harriet Scott were two courageous slaves who sued for their freedom.

And here we are, 166 years later, fighting for our freedom again.

There was a good crowd, about 200 people in attendance to rally for the cause. I was disappointed by the numbers, knowing how many Catholics there actually are in St. Louis, however I know the event was not publicized. It wasn’t in my church bulletin and I only found out about it through a blog and did some further research to find the location and time.

None of the news stations were there to cover the event and from my knowledge, none of them gave it any air time on the evening news. But hey, that’s politics.

Regardless, I’m glad we went. Even though my girls are too young to understand, I think it is important for them to be apart of this important point in our history. We need to fight the HHS Mandate. If we lose, five years from now, what will the new mandate be? Will we be forced to use birth control? Ten years from now, will we be banned from daily Mass? Twenty years from now, when my girls are old enough to be mothers, will they be forced to have their tubes tied after giving birth to their first child? We don’t know what the future holds but we do know, this is the first step to a scary future. We must defeat this to save our religious freedom.

Today is an important moment in history. Just like it was an important moment 166 years ago with the Scotts. We can’t allow the government to win and rob us of our freedom.