I am going to separate out several items into three individual TN&Vs for your reading convenience. Part One is a reflection on the kind of wonderfully encouraging email responses I have received as we have explored the hard cold truths about health care restructuring that lie beneath the warm, fuzzy, and whole misleading surface rhetoric.

Part Two is a heads-up on an article that will appear in the September issue--an overview of the superb educational resources from the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund. (Trust me, they are better than ever!)

Part Three is a link to National Right to Life News, where you can easily and quickly order a subscription to the "pro-life newspaper of record."

For those who like to comment briefly, you can contact me at Tweet@daveha. If you have a more in-depth comment, please write daveandrusko@gmail.com.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am old enough to still be slightly in awe of the speed and reach of e-mails and to remain completely in awe of the power of social networking, particularly Facebook and Twitter. As we shall see momentarily, it is the genius of our Movement that our grassroots has proven adept at combining these whiz bang technologies with an indispensable quality no other movement has: boots on the ground.

Literally as I was writing the first paragraph to Part One, Jacki Ragan, who runs NRL's State Development and Organization Department, walked by. I asked her what she would have for the September edition of NRL News and our conversation was off to the races.

"If you hear anyone say that the grassroots 'aren't what they used to be,' send them to me," she said emphatically. "They are doing everything you could possibly ask to let their elected representatives know exactly what they do not want in any health care 'reform.'"

Okay, like what? "Our people are attending townhall meetings; stopping by the offices of their congressional representative and two senators politely but firmly asking for answers to their questions; writing letters to Congress and faxing their thoughts; energizing other pro-lifers; writing letters to the editor; calling into radio programs…." At this point Jacki paused for breath.

"I have not seen the grassroots this energized since 1994," she said.

So where do things like email and Facebook and Twitter come in? Let me back up one second, first.

To begin with, pro-lifers are visiting our web page [www.nrlc.org] and especially www.nrlactioncenter.com in massive numbers. There they learn what Obama and the equally pro-death Congressional leadership don't want you to know about how the various plans promote abortion and threaten rationing.

They also read what you are perusing right now: Today's News & Views for daily updates. The good news is they are also reading NRL's Communications blog at http://nrlcomm.wordpress.com. And then there is the wonderfully helpful http://stoptheabortionagenda.com.

And then not only are they reading and putting into practice all the helpful suggestions found at these sites, they are linking them on their Twitter and Facebook accounts. The capacity of social networking sites to distribute the message is almost unlimited.

For example, let's say you are someone with 500 Facebook friends, a number which is not unusual. A link to TN&V pops up on your page, which is accessible to all 500 of your friends. Because they can do the same thing, a message already going out to a large number of people is distributed to a much, much, much larger audience.

Again, think about this in combination with the teaching impact of National Right to Life News, which goes out to 360,000+ families. The synergy is hard to match.

Last thought for today. I received a phone call and an email today that kind of brought it all together.

The phone call was from a woman, a long-time reader of NRL News, who had attended a congressman's townhall meeting. When someone stood up to announce that they didn't want their money paying for abortions, most of the crowd stood up and cheered.

The email echoed a number I had received in the last month. It made my day.

"Pro-life issues have weighed heavily on my heart for some time now, and I would like to become active in your efforts."

In honor of the theme of this edition, be sure to pass this email along to all your contacts.

Part Two
Part Three