Recently I was asked by a colleague my thoughts regarding an adoptive couple who wanted to stand outside an abortion clinic and tell each woman that they would adopt the unborn child if she would choose adoption over abortion.
After considering the family's plans for a moment and all the negative press that they could receive, I said it was all right but still wanted to double check on the legal ramifications.
Then this weekend I was reading a book on virtue, and came across this quote from Ruby Bridges' mother. For those of you who were not alive in 1960, let me explain who is Ruby Bridges.
In 1960, at 6 years old, Ruby crossed through threatening mockers before and after school, as she was among the first black children to go to an all white school in New Orleans. At school she was taunted by her classmates. Adults expressed their desire to kill her and her family; yet with strength and dignity she went to school and then home again.
People got to wondering how such a child could have such strength. She had a strong church, pastor, and a very loving mother and father. But that did not completely explain why she could do what she did and not break down. Then an investigator asked her less than educated mother why Ruby could do this, and this is what she said:
"There's a lot of people who talk about doing good, and a lot of people who argue about what's good and not good," then she stated that "there are a lot of people who always worry about whether they are doing right or wrong. Finally, there are some other folks: They just put their lives on the line for what 's right, and they may not be the ones who talk a lot or argue a lot or worry a lot; they just do a lot!"