THE SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS

By Dave Andrusko, NRL News Editor

This may initially read like a plug for National Library Month but stay with me. To be sure, it's a measure of my own shortcomings but honestly it wasn't until a visit yesterday to the local branch that I discovered just what an vast array of information tools even many small libraries now stock.

I had a number of fairly complicated items to research - - everything from soccer scores in Europe to reviews of novels by Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien to a keyword search on Al Gore and abortion - - but one computer terminal turned out to be the only portal I needed.

Perhaps because the capacity (to me at least) was so impressive it occurred to me that there were far more patrons than I would have imagined busily working away in our community library.

Although the situation has improved, too often the portrait of pro-lifers in the popular media reduces us to little more than stock figures: out-of-touch reactionaries fighting a losing cause. It would seem, therefore, that one of our primary tasks is to help people "unknow" what they think they know, both about the most hardy band of steadfast reformers of the 20th century and the vulnerable people they strive to protect. At the very top of our remedies for this is frequent exposure to NRL News.

Now as editor I fully understand that NRL News is on the web and that many libraries now have a computer terminal or even several of them. But it is also true that there are hundreds of patrons for every computer; that many libraries that have not fully entered the information age; and that countless people still delight in sitting down to leisurely read a newspaper.

This is a team effort. Our job at this end is to provide the rich intellectual fare that will stimulate the reader to think. We believe we accomplish that by producing a genuinely unique publication, one without peer anywhere. Then, when you generously give a gift subscription to the "right to life newspaper of record," it's like providing meals on wheels for the mind.

When library patrons read the incredible variety of in-depth articles on the wide range of life issues found in NRL News, people (especially youngsters) are doubly blessed. Unexpectedly, the unborn and the medically dependent elderly will come alive to them, on the one hand, while the veil of ignorance about pro-lifers as people will be lifted, on the other hand. Pretty impressive, all in all, for $10 a year, $6 off the normal price.

School is about to begin, or may have already in your area, so we need to move fast. Please fill out the form on this page and send it immediately to us along with a check to the address found on the form.

An alternative that we'd strongly ask you to consider is to call the information in to us at (202) 626-8800, ext. 128. We'll take down the name and address of the library (and librarian, if known), process your payment via credit card, and send out the first issue first class the same day!

Hurry, won't you? As the articles on pages 2, 18-19 make abundantly clear, young people will flock to our camp, if only they know we exist!

Thanks.

LIBRARY SUBSCRIPTIONS OF NRL News are only $10.00

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Please make check payable to NRL News and send to:

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