How Far We've Come.

Sometimes kids say the darndest (and most revealing) things. There we were just finishing up supper when out of the blue my youngest daughter begins to tell me about a writing assignment she's just completed for school.

It's one of those exercises that ask the student to read a statement and then explain why they agree or disagree. Evidently the observation they were to respond to was along the lines of you can't be a hero unless you're experiencing fear.

"I disagreed," my eighth-grade daughter said. "What you guys do about abortion doesn't make you afraid."

As I recalled this later, her remarks sparked several related thoughts. To begin with, while it's true pro-lifers do not ordinarily face situations in which we are convinced physical violence is imminent, that does not mean that we never experience fear.

I remember like it was yesterday two incidents that go all the way back to the 1970s. I was in graduate school, working full time, and had time to be only marginally involved with a campus group called "Save Our Unwanted Life."

Like every other group, we had to send a representative to the student-run organization which had wide (if not complete) discretion to dole out monies to petitioning student groups, money that was came out of the fees all students paid when they registered. I drew the short straw. When I spied the president I knew I was in deep, deep trouble.

For those too young to remember, in those days pro-life groups on secular campuses were as rare as hen's teeth. Ultra left-wing, militant (with a capitol M) pro-abortion feminists ruled the roost. They were not shy about letting anyone who dared to differ (particularly men) know that we had no business uttering a single word on the abortion issue.