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After that day, I could no longer merely call myself pro-life and leave it at that. I had seen for myself the evil that abortion truly is, and there was no way that I could just continue to be silent. From that day onward, I resolved to do something and get involved. From that day on I became truly pro-life. This may seem like a digression at first, but please bear with me for a few moments. Has anyone here seen the movie Amazing Grace? Well, if you haven’t, you should definitely see it. It’s a great movie. The main plot is actually not about how the song Amazing Grace came to be written, as the title suggests. The movie tells the story of a man named William Wilberforce who abolished slavery in his own country, England, with the help of a few devoted friends. Now, before I go on, you must understand how great this achievement was. Slavery was firmly rooted in England’s economy, and it seemed impossible to abolish the practice, no matter how horrible it was. William was one of the youngest members of the House of Commons; not exactly someone who would be readily listened to! And he was not only the youngest member, but also one of the only ones for abolishing slavery, if not the only one. Talk about seemingly insurmountable odds. People thought he was insane. But William knew that his cause was just and right; he continued to introduce his bill time and time again in the House of Commons, only to be defeated each time. He went all over England, showing the people the evils of slavery and gathering names on a petition. Though he got discouraged and almost gave up, William eventually got his bill passed and succeeded in abolishing the slave trade. It was a truly amazing feat - going from no support in the House of Commons and in England to passing his bill with an overwhelming majority and the whole of England behind him. I think that the parallels between William’s situation and our own today with regard to abortion are obvious. Both are the major civil rights issues of their own times. Both times a certain group of people was persecuted because they were not considered human beings by their fellow man. And both practices were and still are evil. So, what can we teens learn from the heroic actions of William Wilberforce? We can’t run for office. We can’t vote yet. We can’t have any direct influence on public affairs. So what can we do? We have the job of making our generation, the future of this country, the most pro-life generation ever. Like William Wilberforce, we can go out into our world and bring people to the side of life. We can hand out pro-life literature and try to show people what abortion truly is. We can have debates in school, write articles for the newspaper and challenge the position of our pro-abortion opponents. We must know our opponents’ arguments and refute them with the facts. We can participate in a walk for life, as you are today, and help local pro-life organizations in whatever way we can. It is important to volunteer and become members of organizations like WVTFL in order to make our voices heard. Finally, you must remember one thing: you have the truth on your side, so present it with confidence and never give up. Each one of you can contribute to the cause of life in your own way. I’m not saying that it will be easy; it wasn’t easy for William Wilberforce, even though he knew he was right. But we have to keep fighting as he did and not become discouraged. With our hard work and efforts, just as slavery was abolished, the culture of death can be defeated in our country and the world. Thank you so much for your time and attention. I truly appreciate all of your efforts to protect life in all its stages.
Jessica Deal |
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