2) It was a delicious meal with superbly professional service at a venue where we had never been, the Scott Conference Center down in the old Ak-Sar-Ben area. Very nice.
3) It gave us another opportunity to support a very important organization. Nebraskans Concerned for Ethical Research is a statewide advocate for biomedical research that promotes the life, dignity and rights of every human being at each developmental stage. As such it emphasizes research that promotes the most promising medical treatments...treatments that save lives, restore health and encourage solid hope. And which harm no one in the process. I've been honored to have been on the Advisory Board of NCER since their founding ten years. They have accomplished much but much is yet to be done. Support for this fine organization is definitely in order.
And 4) The speaker for the banquet was the popular writer and conservative visionary David Limbaugh. Limbaugh's column has long been a favorite for Claire and I. His lucidity, wit, relevance and moral sensitivity make his commentaries some of the most valuable around. These qualities have also made his books into bestsellers, books like Crimes Against Liberty: An Indictment of President Barack Obama a copy of which Claire got signed by Mr. Limbaugh last night.
Limbaugh's speech last night was terrific. He concentrated on the life issues (abortion, stem cell research, euthanasia) and not only gave several examples of the the severity of the culture wars in which we're engaged but the extremely high stakes we're fighting for in the "social issues" arena. It's a fight for the sanctity of life cause, he explained, but one which will determine the fate of all of our liberties. Limbaugh was very passionate and his speech contained not only the polished language and insightful examples which came from a prepared script but moments of compelling spontaneity. "I can't help but editorialize even on my own stuff." he said to a very appreciative audience.
Here's just a few of the things I wrote down from Limbaugh's remarks:
* The militancy of Barack Obama in promoting abortion, embryonic stem cell research and "care containment" legislation that will inevitably result in "death panels" of bureaucrats is rabid and unrelenting.
* The so-called "social issues" are getting short shrift in the current debates because of the imminent panic over the country's economic meltdown. But those issues are at the core of our nation's survival.
* Testimonies from abortionists about their grisly business emphasized that we must not allow the media's non-coverage of the facts about abortion to detach us from its horrible realities.
* The suppression of evidence is a full-time occupation for the left -- covering up the realities of abortion, post-abortion problems, breast cancer links to abortion, the ESCR controversy, the coercive nature of liberals, the lawless extremities taken by liberals in forcing their immorality upon America, etc.* People don't think anymore. Things that shouldn't pass the laugh test are swallowed whole by mind-numbed Americans.
* The goal of many of the leaders of the left is the complete removal of Christianity from public life, exchanging chaos for the noble traditions of Western civilization.
* Human dignity and liberty and responsibility are all based not on government decree but on transcendent realities. They come from our Creator God. The "grand moral struggle" we are now engaged in against the culture of chaos and death is a religious one -- and it must be fought with spiritual weapons by spiritually-appropriate methods and blessed by God Himself.
Now you wish you were there at the Nebraskans Concerned for Ethical Research banquet too, don't you? Well, it's not to late to receive some of its benefits and its opportunities. You can, for instance, find out more about NCER (and possibly send along a small holiday-time contribution) right here. And David Limbaugh's website, featuring his columns and books, is right here.
