COEEF

RUT 3 – Four days in a row at the gym. I can get all the way up the stairs now without resting on the landing. Anyway, I had an epiphany (A comprehension or perception of reality by means of a sudden intuitive realization) today while I was on the tread mill. Well, not really an epiphany, I just wanted to use a big word. It was more like a random thought. Now, I don’t really want to turn this Blog into a political forum, but I thought since I am posting on the Blog, and my children are the main readers of the Blog, I would try to post some items related to my thoughts or ideas on different subjects that otherwise would go by the wayside. Anyway, let me take you into my mind a bit.

I have to go back a few days first. I was listening to the Doug Wright show on KSL the other morning. Those of you who live in Utah understand that it is the political season here when the legislature meets for a month or so and creates a bunch more laws to make our society a better place to live – sometimes. Anyway, there have been some controversial bills put before the legislature during the session, and one in particular was a bill that turned back the clock on the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. I’m not certain of all of the particulars of the bill, but it supposedly attempts to outlaw most abortions in the state of Utah.

Anyway, Doug Wright, the KSL personality, was taking calls about the bill. First, he made it very clear that he is against the bill because of the estimated $5,000,000 plus that it would cost the state to defend it in court, and because in the opinion of the Utah Attorney General there is no chance of the bill being deemed to be constitutional. Doug Wright’s position appeared to be that there are plenty of other programs that the money could be used for much more effectively to help both unborn children as well as living children in the state. He made it clear that he is in favor of outlawing abortion, but that the bill before the Utah Assembly would not accomplish that.

He took a call from an individual who was completely opposed to Doug’s position. The gentleman stated, “if we save one life with the $5 million, it is worth the money.” Doug tried to help him understand that the money would not go to save a single child, but that it would be wasted in unwinnable court battles. The gentleman continued his verbal support of the bill.

The whole conversation made me think quite a bit. The reason for this RUT is not to discuss my feelings or opinion related to the legalization of abortion. The point I want to make to my children, and I guess anyone else who will listen, is that sometimes we do what we think are the right things, for the wrong reason.

What became very clear to me while listening to the caller on the radio was that he was more interested in “saving” the mother of any unborn child than he was in saving unborn children. He was more concerned about imposing his will on any woman that might feel it necessary to have an abortion than he was in saving the life of unborn children.

I contrast the attitude I heard from this caller with the one I have found in someone I truly respect. I’ve had the opportunity of meeting and spending some time with Norm Purdue. Norm is a pretty ordinary guy, who worked hard all his life to provide for his family. He took his family to Ethiopia several years ago on a service vacation to help work on villages in Ethiopia. Norm found a country with a huge problem. Girls were having children by the time they were 13, and they were dying of AIDS by the time they were in their late teens.

Norm came back to the states and decided that he could do something to help these girls. He took a unique approach to the problem. He also found that the girls in Ethiopia are generally uneducated. His position was that if we can educate them, they can change their lives. Also if they are educated, they will educate the next generation of children, both male and female, which will have a profound positive effect on the entire country.

From Norm’s desire to save these children, he started the Children of Ethiopia Education Fund (COEEF). His organization is now directly responsible for educating over 500 girls a year in Ethiopia. The interesting thing is that it costs about $200 per year to provide books, uniforms and tuition to educate a girl in Ethiopia. Just for fun, let’s do the math. How many girls could Norm save with $5,000,000? The quick answer is 25,000. But as girls get educated, they will tend to educate others, and so the number grows. COEEF’s website can be found at www.coeef.org. Have a look at it, and if you have a desire to save the life of a child, and you can pull together $200 extra dollars, I would suggest you strongly consider sponsoring one of Norm’s kids in Ethiopia.

Later…