President's Message: Proudly Speak Out for Life

In this issue of the RLM News you will find space devoted to our upcoming 29th annual conference to be held in Kalamazoo on September 27th and 28th. Our conference theme this year is that often quoted message from one of our nation's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. It was a foundational message for our special form of government and continues to inspire us today.

Thomas Jefferson wrote, "The care of human life and happiness, not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government."

Since the U.S. Supreme Court decisions giving us abortion on demand, we have learned that in order to have that "good government" we must be actively involved in the whole legislative and political process. That means self-education, lobbying our elected officials, and convincing our fellow citizens of the importance of voting for candidates who are committed to the Jeffersonian principles of protecting life.

In 1988 when we were finally successful in stopping the use of state tax dollars for medicaid abortions, we emphasized the Jefferson quote. We repeated it again in 1998 when our campaign to prevent the legalization of assisted suicide resulted in a huge victory.

By working together with one unified voice across this state, our grassroots movement has proven that it has the power to magnify efforts on behalf of the unborn and those threatened by our culture's romance with death. Our pockets of prolife activists within communities throughout Michigan are carrying on the Jeffersonian message of protecting, not destroying, innocent, defenseless human life.

Recently, I attended a meeting where the prolife speaker urged us, as we approach the 30th anniversary of the 1973 abortion decisions, to establish "a pride in being prolife." At first I wondered about his statement. But I realize that sometimes it's hard to be publicly prolife. We can become overwhelmed with the criticism of our efforts, the bias reporting in the newspapers and the television broadcasts and the indifference within the public. We possibly forget the worthiness and nobleness of our cause of saying without equivocation: abortion is wrong; there must be positive ways to solving problems than the taking of an innocent life.

I invite you to join me in Kalamazoo on September 27-28 to celebrate our pride in being prolife while enjoying a time of fellowship, a time of education, and a time of re-commitment to the Jeffersonian message. You will leave this conference with new ideas and new approaches to spreading the message of hope and life. See you in Kalamazoo!

 

Back to Table of Contents