By Dave Andrusko
Margie Montgomery, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, interviewed at NRLC 44
As we have all this week, NRL News Today continues post-convention coverage of NRLC 44, the three day convention in Louisville described by many as the best convention ever, today and tomorrow.
Living up to that characterization is a tall order. I’ve had the privilege of being at every National Right to Life Convention since 1980 and it seems as if each convention surpassed the one before. However here are five quick reasons why the June 26-28 convention at the historic Galt House Hotel may well rank at the top of the list.
#1. The historic Galt House Hotel. We were told by Kentuckians that the pro-life educational event of the year—what Dr. Jean Garton aptly described as “the annual gathering of America’s pro-life ‘family’”–most assuredly must be held at this beautiful hotel. They were so right. The setting was beautiful, the staff ultra-courteous, the rooms for the general sessions and the workshops just gorgeous.
#2. Virtually every workshop I attended was packed. Not close to being packed from front to back, but packed. Ditto for the five general sessions, the Prayer Breakfast, and the closing Saturday night banquet. Whether you are a speaker or a member of the audience, it is very, very difficult to exaggerate the importance of having rooms filled with pro-lifers who listen attentively and then ask thoughtful questions.
Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, the featured speaker at “What if ALL Women knew ALL the Facts?,” one of the many packed general sessions at NRLC 44.
#3. The caliber of those who spoke. We’ve talked about them coming into the convention and since. To list some (even many) is to risk downplaying the contributions of dozens and dozens and dozens of others. But from the initial General Session that tackled “The Real War on Women” to the final Banquet that closed the 44th convention, you simply couldn’t ask for more knowledgeable, engaging, thought-provoking speakers.
#4. Along the same lines, these articulate pro-life champions were given topics of real substance to explain to their audiences. I have never attended an NRLC convention that I did not come away much more equipped than when I arrived. But that was never truer than last week.
#5. The go-the-extra-mile philosophy of our host—Kentucky Right to Life. What an effort they made to make us all feel at home, to fill us in every sense of the term. This really was Southern hospitality at its finest. Thank you!
What a challenge for Louisiana Right to Life which will host the 2015 convention July 9-11 in New Orleans. But I have no doubt that Louisiana, like Kentucky, a solidly pro-life state, will be up to the task