By Dave Andrusko
Each year New York Times columnist David Brooks selects what he believes are the best magazine essays of the year. Like many people, I try to read as many as possible, having learned that his choices are almost always excellent.
No, I’m not going to offer my opinions what are the best pro-life essays for 2011. There are a ton of them, some of which, I would modestly suggest, have appeared either in National Right to Life News, our newspaper, or National Right to Life News Today, our Monday-Friday online newspaper.
But as we approach the end of the calendar year, I would ask your opinion on a related issue. On a typical day I post eight to eleven items, most written by National Right to Life staff, a few reposted from other thoughtful pro-life writers.
My question to you is, what subject matter do you like to read most? One way of answering would be to ask yourself, after perusing the headlines, what stories do you turn to first? Let’s categorize Friday’s and Monday’s stories and see what we get.
There are many stories about the campaign for President, specifically the ups and downs of pro-life Republican candidates, and a continuing update of pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s public support, or lack thereof.
You’ve find a trove of articles about Planned Parenthood and the oft-times bizarre assertions by their pro-abortion colleagues-in-arms.
We write a lot about people and personalities who demonstrate the best in pro-lifers. Conversely, it seems almost as if a day cannot go by without the anti-life set taking after crisis pregnancy centers; we keep you updated on the legal response to these assaults on a regular basis.
And there is always a lot going on in the states. NRLC’s 50 state affiliates are busy thwarting pro-abortionists at the same time they pro-actively advance pro-life initiatives. And there is “Pro-Life Perspective,” the daily program hosted by NRLC President Carol Tobias available at www.prolifeperspective.com.
What about the unfortunately very unhappy stories of medical neglect? We see it as our duty to inform you when the vulnerable are treating badly, but also when there are developments which could lead to better treatment, especially those with severe brain injuries.
The list goes on and on. Nary a day goes by that we don’t discuss the wonderful medical advances made possible by the use of ethically-acceptable adult stem cells. Or (as do today) we write about incredible personal testimonies—in this case a gospel singer who found out (at age 47) in a conversation with his mother three months before her death that she had (unsuccessfully) aborted him!
Please drop me a line about these or any other kinds of stories, won’t you? It’ll be big help. daveandrusko@gmail.com.
Thanks!