Grace Prep congratulations go to Jeremiah Baughman who has been named the runner-up in the highschool division for the 2008 March for Life essay contest. March for Life founder and President Nellie Gray says that Jeremiah’s essay was among 600 essays in both the junior and senior high categories. March for Life has published Jeremiah’s essay in its Annual Report that was distributed to thousands at the march on Tuesday, January 22, 2008. Jeremiah’s efforts have earned him $100 in prize money, and A Woman’s Concern, a local pro-life organization that Jeremiah designated, will also receive $100 from March for Life.

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A Unified Fight

            War. The sounds of the guns echo into the distance. The acrid smell of smoke and sweat filling your nostrils. A mortar shell whistles over your head, and shakes the ground beneath you as the explosion sends dirt and mud into the air. Your life is on the line.
But you take confidence in the team you have with you. You have a General above you who knows what to do and how to win; You have your peers with you to watch your back as you watch theirs; and you have your cause, the driving force that gives you the motivation of plowing headlong into the firestorm.
            Today, we are in a battle. We’re in it for keeps. The shot of words echoes through the Senate and the House. The explosions of debate rumble from sea to shining sea. But our lives are not on the line. No, we fight for those who cannot speak, for souls whose voices cannot defend themselves. This plight is our motivation; this calamity is why we lift our voices. And to this end there can be no exceptions. There can be no compromise.
            During the war for our country’s independence, there were thirteen colonies. Thirteen individual cultures which had their own differing governments, their own economies, their own specific religious beliefs, and their own unique identities. They had very little in common, except one core truth: They were all tired of the disrespect of England. But one colony, by itself, could not take on the greatest military power of the time. So they all found their common ground; they stopped fighting among themselves; they declared their independence; they took up arms together for one purpose, and it was their unity that gave them victory.
            In the Declaration that they made to Britain, they stated their reasoning for breaking off. They believed they had been mistreated, that their rights had been violated. As the Declaration states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” They rose up together because their rights to life and liberty and the quest for happiness were being trod upon.
            And yet today, the basic unalienable right for life is denied to some who cannot rise up to defend themselves. We must be their advocates. But just like the colonies, in order to have victory, we too must join together and find our common ground.
            During the writing of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson was an avid abolitionist and was very opposed to slavery. When he originally wrote it, he argued the rights of slaves within it. However, the delegates squabbled, debated, and finally came to a compromise. In the final draft, the issue of slavery was removed. The result? The country felt the effects of this compromise four score and seven years later. There can be no compromise.
            It is a soldier’s cause that give him motivation and his General who gives him direction. But without a solidified team with him, he cannot achieve victory. We’re in a war; the casualties number millions. We’re in it for the long haul. We’re in it to win it. Be the soldier; be the team. March for victory, and march for life.