Reflections of a College Kid.(National Right to Life Committee member, Derrick Jones)(Brief Article)(Column)

Like most college kids, I'm no stranger to the "all-nighter." Those marathon nights are spent agonizing, racing against the sunrise to cram for an exam or write a 10-page paper that's due at 10 a.m. I've spent many nights in the computer lab frantically trying to put the words aimlessly floating in my head into coherent sentences on paper. Tonight, thankfully, is not one of those nights. However, I am in the computer lab and the sun is going to rise soon, but the paper being written is not mine: it belongs to my best friend.

I know what you're asking: "Why are you in the computer lab at 4:30 in the morning and not in bed so you can be more productive at the NRLC offices when the sun does rise?" Well, the paper being written is one discussing the moral aspects of embryonic stem cell research.

It's due tomorrow afternoon, and my best friend needed my help, and my background as an active pro-lifer, to more fully develop his arguments and prepare for a short oral presentation in class on his topic. His paper and his presentation have the potential to change one of his classmate's hearts on the abortion issue and bring another member of the Roe generation (those of us born after 1973) into the ranks of the pro-life movement.

As my best friend sits next to me updating and revising his paper, I'm reflecting on the topic. I'm reminded that the pro-life movement is not just a day job, nor is it something that can be contained within the walls of an office. It's not a "job" at all but a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year vocation.

As active pro-lifers, we are constantly called to do whatever we can to advance the cause of life, whether it be educating friends and neighbors on the horror of partial-birth abortion, volunteering at crisis pregnancy centers, donating money to pro-life causes, or, in the case of high school and college students, taking advantage of papers, class projects, and presentations to educate our classmates on topics related to abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia.

In that vein, let me just offer a hint of what I'll be discussing next month. It is an incredibly powerful image created by a ...