By Jim Ross Lightfoot ——Bio and Archives--March 24, 2024
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Happy Sunday! Sunday! It's time to share another excerpt from my book, Climbing Mountains with God. This week, we will have a small part of Chapter Nine. As I missed sending a story last week, this one is a bit longer than usual. I hope you enjoy and come away with an understanding of my strong feelings about an issue that comes up in every session of Congress.
Here is a part of that story.
Let me share with you a non-agricultural example of PAC activity. I support the pro-life movement as a matter of high personal interest. In Chapter One, I told you the story of 19-year-old Helen Blair.
Here is a quick summary of that story. I was born in the Florence Crittenton Home for Unwed Mothers in Sioux City, Iowa. My birth mother was a 19-year-old girl who knew she had no way to support and raise me. She gave me birth and turned me over to an adoption agency, knowing I would find a good home. She named me Roger Blair. That is the name on my first Birth Certificate.
I found a good home with a wonderful farm couple. They changed my name to James Ross Lightfoot. Today, Mom and Dad are Angels in Heaven. On a personal note, I miss them very, very much.
I would not have a great wife, four beautiful children, and five fantastic grandchildren and be sitting here writing this book had my birthmother selected the abortionist’s knife and had me killed before I even took a breath of fresh air, or like under current law, where the murder can take place after I am born.
At my age, I thank God for waking me up, looking at the green side of the grass. Each new day is a new blessing.
You can rest assured that thanking God for my life is my first prayer as soon as I wake up.
I’m not bashful regarding making my beliefs on abortion known if pro-choice folks decide to push on me. It is a fight I never start but am more than willing to finish.
Pro-life and Christian groups support me in standing up for their beliefs. These folks have a couple of small PACs.
The pro-choice folks have much more money than those who identify as pro-life. Abortion is a multi-million-dollar business.
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One last item on the abortion issue before moving on.
A call comes in with an invitation to appear on the Phil Donahue TV Show. Donahue wants to do a program on the abortion issue as it is a hot topic in the news. I will be paired with Congresswoman Barbara Boxer from California. Ms. Boxer is a strong proponent of abortion.
My staff all said in loud voices, “No! Don’t do it, boss!”
Since the abortion issue is such a hot topic in the news and we have been rocking along smoothly and level, the staff’s legitimate fear is that a misspoken word or phrase from me could bring my congressional career crashing down around my neck. Staff, honestly, felt doing the show was too risky of a move as we are experiencing nasty things from the pro-abortion crowd at home. The Des Moines Register, Iowa’s largest newspaper, strongly supports the pro-abortion people. My picture is not on the piano of anyone working at the Register!
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The bottom line is that the staff nailed it.
Putting things in proper perspective and appearing on the Donahue Show is a huge risk I don’t have to take. The staff is 100% correct.
But something is ticking in my head that keeps telling me I should do the show. Nancy and I discuss it at great length. She tells me that if I feel like I should do the show, call the Donahue folks back and make the proper arrangements.
I make the call.
Nancy and I fly to New York City compliments of the Phil Donahue Show, and they put us up in a nice hotel for the night. The following day, a limousine picks us up for the ride to the TV studio. Nancy and I feel like, as they say in the South, we are in tall cotton. I have always believed my face is made for the radio, so being a “TV star” is a brand-new experience at the........