History of the Choose Life license plate in America

Dear Readers,

I have never ever done anything like this before, but events and circumstances (including the prompting of many of my family, friends and Choose Life license plate supporters) compelled me to jump in. The common thread was, "Someone must tell this miracle filled story so the world will know." So today I begin to tell the story of God's hand in the creation of the Choose Life license plate in America.

This blog style will be pretty "vanilla" as blogs go, as this is the first blog I have ever done, but maybe as my "learning curve" begins to flatten I may surprise myself.

This will be a "labor of love" as that is what we have called it many times over the years. It will take a long time to tell, as we want to record as much as we can remember. If you are old enough to remember the serial radio programs, that seemed to go on and on week after week and always left you wanting more, then you will love this blog. On the other hand if you were a Dragnet fan and agree with Jack Webb when he said in every program, "Just give me the facts..." then you may as well sign off now. This will be filled with facts, but it will also be filled with all that God allowed us to see of His hand in this incredible national effort.

I would say it all started with the vision God had given County Commissioner Randy Harris in late 1996 in Ocala, FL. It really took wings on February 4, 1997, when the Commission approved Randy's resolution to petition the State of Florida to create a Choose Life specialty license plate. But...since Randy allowed my wife Jill and I to join his team, I need to tell how God started preparing us many years earlier.

Jill and I raised two daughters through the 60's and 70's, but somehow remained oblivious to the fact that abortion was becoming rampant across America. But in of all places, while in training in Atlanta, GA in the early 70's, I overheard two fellow employees discussing abortion. I listened and asked them a few questions, but one simple answer really stuck in my mind. "Is it a human life or not?"

Now fast forward to the mid 90' when Jill and I learned a young girl, we will call her Mary, in our Single Young Adult Sunday School Class at Trinity Baptist Church was pregnant and planning to have an abortion in a few weeks.

I don't want to dwell on the events leading up to God calling us into Single's Ministry, but it too is filled with many "coincidences" (meaning, when God chooses to remain anonymous).

After learning Mary's situation from her mother who told me I could not let Mary know I knew, as she had promised Mary she would not tell anyone, I began to ask prayer from all my friends. The following week I even scrapped the regular Sunday School lesson and made up a lesson about the the importance of life, hoping to touch her heart. But, after the class Mary got up and walked out without saying a word. However, another young girl came to me crying and told me she had an abortion right after graduating from High School and she had never told anyone. I told her about Mary's situation and she said we had to stop her. We cried together as she poured out her heart of pain. She said the abortion was the worse decision of her life and she wanted to tell Mary what she went through. We took Mary to lunch the next Sunday and when we told her why we had asked her to dinner, she told us she had thought of an abortion, but had changed her mind. Case closed, that's what we thought...but God was saying "not so fast Russ."

From 1989 through 2000 Jill and I were leading a Single Young Adult bible study at our home. I remember one Monday night in the early 90's, with about 40+ in attendance. I had earlier begun to talk more and more about the "Life" issue regularly at these studies. One night a young man named Robby asked, "Russ, if you had been in Nazi Germany during WW II, would you have hidden the Jews being killed during the Holocaust?" I reluctantly admitted to him I was not a hero and probably would not have my family's life for people I didn't know. Robby said, "There is a holocaust going on in America and you do not have to risk anyone's life to help stop it, all you need to do is stand up and speak out." Again I felt God was calling me to do more for the millions of children who were being killed before they had a chance to live. But remember I said I was no hero and I still wasn't. At that time I was a Collection Group Manager in the Internal Revenue Service and felt I may lose my job if I became involved in what everyone called the "anti-abortion movement." So I ignored His calling. But I did start to read more about life issues and think more and more about the culture of death that seemed to be permeating all aspects of our society. I did pray for direction. I had even considered resigning from and getting fully involved in some effort to make a difference.

God answered in an incredible way. In 1995 I was 52 years old and could not retire from the government until I was 55 with 30 years of service. For the first time in the history of the IRS collection division, they offered early retirement to anyone with 30 years at any age and I knew what I was supposed to do and jumped at the offer. Now I didn't have an excuse for not getting fully involved in the life issue, right? Wrong, when someone is a coward, they always have excuses. Someone told me, "A hero dies but once, while a coward dies a thousand deaths." Instead of dying to myself as the bible commands, I continued to struggle with what I knew He wanted me to do.

In November 1996 I attended a Men's Retreat with my church, River of Life Community Church. The speaker Alex Tipton challenged us to give God the "excitement of life" and the "best of who we were." I knew I was not doing that and told my pastor that night I was resigning from all my duties at church and for three months I would pray and ask God how I could do that. January, just two and a half months later, on the anniversary of the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision, I was introduced to Randy Harris and he told me about his vision to create a Choose Life license plate for Florida to help save babies lives. I told him the government would never let him do that and he smiled saying, "I think I have the folks in Tallahassee who can get the job done." From that moment on, I knew this was my calling and Jill and I decided this is what God wanted us to do for the rest of our lives. I told Randy if he was going to do this, I wanted to be involved. Two weeks later, on my birthday February 3, 1997 he called and asked me to make telephone calls and to fill the County Commission meeting hall the following day. They were going to consider his resolution about the Choose Life license plate. On February 4, 1997 the hall was filled with supporters, the five commissioners voted unanimously approving a resolution directing "...the County Administrator to contact the Legislative Delegation for the purpose of requesting support for a special license plate which can be purchased voluntarily by Florida residents at an increased price above the normal rate, with such additional funds being returned to prospective counties for distribution to an agency or agencies that will utilize such funds to assist in adoption." And the Choose Life license plate was born!

In the coming weeks, months and years, I will attempt to chronicle what happened since that momentous date.