Thanks heavens for “Coopxration” and the Power of One

By Dave Andrusko

Editor’s note. My family and I will be on our vacation through August 27. I will occasionally add new items but for the most part we will repost “the best of the best” — the stories our readers have told us they especially liked.

As a member of the great Movement for social justice of our time, you don’t need great peripheral vision to find inspiration. It seems as if all you need do is open your eyes to find still another wonderful way of understanding what it is we fight for and, in the following case, the Power of One and the irreducible significance of all.

A friend and I were once talking about the church she attends which is not far from where my wife and I live. Having been myself reared in a Lutheran Church, I took a peak at the church’s webpage.

The pastor’s page quoted an old story, author unknown, titled, “Coopxration” and then went to explain how that applies to every member of his congregation.

Well the lesson applies just as well to every member our Movement.

The anonymous author of “Coopxration” tells us he used an old typewriter that worked quite well except for one key. Whenever he hit “e,” he’d always get “x.”

Thus, the first paragraph read, “This is a fairly old typxwritxr, but it works quitx wxll xxcxpt for onx of thx kxys. I’vx wishxd many timxs that it workxd pxrfxctly. It’s trux that thxrx arx forty-onx kxys that function wxll xnough, but just onx kxy not working makxs a diffxrxncx.”

The local pastor wisely commented

While each key of a keyboard is unique and individual, by itself it remains one letter. Only when used together with all the other keys will a word, a phrase, a sentence and paragraph communicate a message.

For us, the lesson is as obvious as it is powerful, as unassuming as it is mind-opening. Just as every unborn baby counts, so, too, does every member of our grassroots army.

If you are ever tempted to think otherwise, consider that each of us, in our own small way, makes or breaks the Movement. Put another way, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

Like many of you, I move in many volunteer circles. I never, ever fail to be amazed how often volunteers assume their contribution is “no big deal.” But–whether multiplied by tens or hundreds or thousands or even millions–the impact is incalculable.

“Volunteer power”–the selfless contributions of people just like the ones reading this post–explains why we can defeat the armies of death who have hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal.

They have the money, but the babies have you.

And the Power of One can also be understood as the Importance of One–the ones for whom we have struggled decade after decade after decade: those whom I have many times called the Littlest Americans.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, more clearly divides the membership of the pro- and anti-life forces than whether they are convinced that every single human life matters. Not just the “planned and the perfect,” but every one of us.

Pro-abortionists are incredulous at the idea that in a world of seven billion people, any one individual life matters. It boggles their utilitarian minds.

By contrast pro-lifers are driven, sustained, and motivated by the sure knowledge that were there 50 billion people, every last one would be of infinite significance.

Thanks goodness for all that you do. Thank goodness that in our Movement there are no broken keys.