NRL News
Page 1
April 2009
Volume 36
Issue 4

NRLC 2009 Will Prepare You to “Stop the Abortion Agenda”
“Oh, My Goodness, What Can I Do?”

BY Dave Andrusko

It took all of about 45 seconds for me to re-learn my lesson. Early in the day, late at night, the particular time matters no more than the particular topic under discussion. In the end it’ll all come round to the same imperative: “Stop the Abortion Agenda.”

“We are going to have to deal with pro-abortion President Barack Obama for four years,” said a determined NRL Convention coordinator Jacki Ragan, “and the better taught, trained, and motivated pro-lifers are, the more we can minimize the damage he intends to inflict to the cause of unborn babies.”

Thus it comes as no surprise that the theme of National Right to Life’s national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, June 18–20 is “Stop the Abortion Agenda.” And what a thousand-plus grassroots pro-lifers will experience when they arrive at the Blake Hotel is the kind of total immersion they can find nowhere else.

On pages 14–15 you’ll find many of names of the speakers who have confirmed. Jacki highlighted just a couple, including bioethicist Wesley Smith; the Reverend Doctor Tadeusz Pacholczyk, director of education for the National Catholic Bioethics Center; photographer Michael Clancy (who snapped the famous picture of Samuel Armas); and Kate Adamson, an incredibly motivational speaker who overcame total paralysis from a devastating double brainstem stroke.

There will be also be a time set aside for “My Chance,” a hauntingly beautiful pro-life song sung by Jaime Thietten that recently won the “2009 Song of the Year” at the Indieheaven Momentum Awards in Nashville.  Jaime’s website is www.jtmusic.net/home.

In addition, NRLC will premiere a powerful new DVD, The Terri Schiavo Story, for convention attendees. (See story, page 4.)

I asked Jacki what makes attending the June 18-20 gathering so important.

“Ever since Obama was elected—but especially since he took office—I have received calls from all kinds of people saying, ‘Oh, my goodness, what can I do?’” she said. “If you’re going to empower people, nothing compares to having their undivided attention for three days.”

And what an educational and motivational package. There will be seventy-two workshops, five general sessions, a prayer breakfast on Friday morning June 19, and a closing banquet Saturday June 20.

“And that doesn’t even include the separate three-day track for Teens for Life and all the materials that pro-life advertisers will have to equip you for the fight ahead,” Jacki said.

She reminded me that many people will come with their families: “They will be glad to know that there will be child care available at every significant event.”

Jacki repeatedly emphasized the importance of registering no later than May 8. “There is a real discount on hotel rooms that you will lose if you haven’t taken advantage of the early deadline,” Jacki said.

Ever concerned for the budgets of grassroots pro-life people, Jacki said to remind NRL News readers that they can call the Queen’s Airport Shuttle when they arrive at either 704-752-9858 or dial 58 on the courtesy phone. “Be aware that it is much cheaper to go as a group in the shuttle, rather than as an individual,” she said.

The web site at www.stop theabortionagenda.com/convention is a great one-stop location. “Everything you need to know about registering, what all will occur at the convention, the schedule, all of it is there in one place,” Jacki said.

Any last thoughts, I asked? “Yes,” she responded quickly.

“There is a huge difference between doing the best you can with what you have, and doing the best you can after learning from the finest pro-life speakers and educators in the land,” Jacki said.

“If you’ve been at every one of the previous 36 NRL conventions or none, you have to be in Charlotte June 18–20.”