Presidential Message: Our response: Stand ready, firm

As I was reading the newspaper one Saturday morning, a headline caught my eye: “Shall we dance or wrestle with life’s difficulties?” In the column that followed this headline, George Cantor, editorial writer for the Detroit News, used a quote from Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor.

The quotation according to Cantor is: “The art of life is more like the wrestler’s art than the dancer’s,” said Marcus, “in respect to this, that it should stand ready and firm to meet onsets that are sudden and unexpected.”

Although Cantor’s column had nothing to do with abortion or our own prolife movement, much of what he wrote is applicable to how we as individuals and as an organization face the unexpected in our quest to restore civil rights to unborn children and help women facing those abortion decisions.

With this beginning of a new century, a new presidential administration and a new congressional session, our hopes are high for a renewed emphasis on the value of life. In looking to the future, we should not overlook all of our past successes. We should be thankful for:

• the passage of eight life affirming legislative packages in the past legislative session
• the continuing decrease in the number of abortions
• a 56 percent decrease in teen abortions
• prolife majorities in our state house and state senate
• the gain of a prolife U. S. House seat.

But with success, often comes complacency or in some instances even despair because the success isn’t complete. Abortion is still legal after 28 years; we have failed to end partial birth abortions; the abortion-free insurance bill didn’t make it past the governor’s desk; a prolife U.S. Senator was defeated in his re-election bid.

Yes, we are often faced with the unexpected, sometimes are caught unaware, and may be disappointed with some outcomes. Life will continue to bring us the unexpected and the sudden. How we handle these events will be a measure of our resolve and commitment to our goals. After so many successes and with so many possibilities ahead, we cannot “dance away” from setbacks.

Instead our response will be to “stand ready and firm.” Firm in our determination that the legalized killing of our progeny cannot be the solution to our personal, social or economic problems. Ready to seek positive, compassionate, life affirming solutions to the problems and difficulties facing women in crisis pregnancies.

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