Our Own Version of “A Nation At Risk” -- Part Two of Two

Back in 1983, even though I was a number of years removed from my brief stint as a teacher, I was still trying to keep up the literature on education reform. I remember vividly the stir that “A Nation At Risk” created.

The report, subtitled “The Imperative For Educational Reform,” was a scathing indictment of the American educational system. I mention it only because of something George Will included at the beginning of his syndicated column today about this week’s 25^th anniversary of the report.

Will quoted what is no doubt the single most memorable sentence in a report chock-full of blunt language: “If an unfriendly power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

It is long since a cliché that the report constituted a shot heard round the nation, that it changed the conversation about education, and that (for better or worse) it sparked a flurry of remedial actions.

My point in bringing up “A Nation At Risk” is simply this. As much as we might wish to blame it on someone else, the responsibility for the damage done to the fabric of our families and our culture by 50 million abortions is ours.

No foreign power toppled nearly a century of largely protective abortion statutes in 1973. It was our catastrophically myopic Supreme Court, egged on by the power elites in the media, academia, and many immensely powerful philanthropic organizations.

A daily blog and a monthly newspaper can hardly be compared to the product of a blue-ribbon commission underwritten by tons of money and welcomed into all the right circles. But everything TN&V and NRL News attempts to do, when combined with the impact of hundreds of pro-life newsletters across the nation, represent in their own way a clarion call to action.

All of us together help educate the public to the mountains of documentation that already exists illuminating how abortion has hurt women, corrupted the relationship between the sexes, and hardened us as a society. Together we are helping the public understand the immense self-inflicted damage that is abortion’s ongoing legacy.

And what if the average person actually grasped what abortion really is—the most hideous example of child abuse imaginable?

When you can, be sure to read your own local and state pro-life publications and make your friends, family, and colleagues aware of the great store of educational materials NRLC makes available. You will be surprised how much difference you can make.

Part One