Last night in New Brunswick, NJ, I attended my first NJRTL dinner. On social issues, I consider myself more libertarian than conservative, so what I wondered what I might hear of interest from the personal liberty perspective.  I knew from past experience with the organization this event would not be some gathering of “right-wing extremist” as most of the liberal press would surely want me to think.  Beyond that, I was not sure what to expect and was looking for areas of common ground.

The first featured speaker, James O’Keefe, who exposed ACORN as a far-left wing organization through his investigative journalism set the tone.  He was, I would guess, invited to speak at this event because of his work exposing Planned Parenthood as being a willing participant in population control, and perhaps most deplorably, how it has targeted it efforts at the black community.  James, posing under cover as a white bigot, caught several of their counselors on film openly supporting his character’s (notional) blatantly racist scheme to fund abortions in black communities.  (Check out his Project Veritas videos on YouTube to learn more.) It was immediately apparent that the far-left’s support for Planed Parenthood is as dubious, as any of their liberty-curtailing causes.

The headliner speaker was Andrea Tantaros from Fox News’ ‘The Five’ and ‘Outnumbered’. She told a moving story of her younger brother Daniel, who was born with severe mental disabilities resembling autism.  She described how when her mother was pregnant with him she was counseled  to have an abortion, as if it was the only sensible option when pre-natal problems were detected.  Her mother refused, trusting instead that her faith in God would get her family and her unborn son though whatever trials were to come.  Andrea’s brother was born, and did in fact suffer from brain damage.  The family accepted the child as a full member of the family and never looked at Daniel as a burden.  She went on to tell how as a child, she would put on pretend news casts, complete with commercials with her younger brother serving as audience, and when needed, participant.  She recalled her brother’s fascination with water and how it manifested in odd ways, such as overflowing tubs and a tendency to drink extraordinary amounts of it.  Being one to always look for the silver lining, her response was, “at least we don’t have to worry about dehydration with him.” She became visibly emotional when she mentioned his passing in 2013.  She summed up her remarks by saying she does not feel angry at people who choose to terminate a pregnancy when a severe prenatal defect is detected, rather she feels sad that those families will never know the same kind of joy that her brother brought to her and her family while he was alive.

The radical Left’s agenda last night was not just exposed as being one to stifle the liberty of political thought, but the liberty to choose life.  Without life, there can be no Liberty, no pursuit of Happiness.