Since I started writing for United Families International, I have gotten to meet some really great people. For the second time this year, I was invited to help take BYU- Idaho family science students on a tour through the Utah State Capitol and to give a quick speech. I really hate speaking in public, but said yes because it is worth it to hear the other speakers.
So, I bought new clothes (a 3 year old second hand skirt would just not do), prepared a little talk and got to meet a lot of great people. Because the student group is from BYU- Idaho, all of the speakers included religion into their talks. We got to hear from Lt. Governor Bell, Carol Solberg, the President of United Families International, State Senator Margaret Dayton, United Families International Kelli Houghton, Laura Bunker, President of United Families Utah, and RoseMarie Murray also from United Families International. All of these people are absolutely amazing!!!!
I wanted to write a few things the Lieutenant Governor said. He said that even when you are talking about law to other religious people in government, you cannot use religious language. You have to use social science because that is all anyone will listen to. If you want people to listen to you, you have to let go of religious speech. But then he said that he has learned that law, real laws, are from God and morality is from God and one cannot really separate reasons for morality in the law from religion. He then went on to say that government is really all about relationships between people-- it is relationships that form communities. He talked about the culture war. He said that he has realized that you cannot give an inch to the liberal side because they do not compromise ever. He said once you start to compromise and give on your position it becomes a slippery slope. To illustrate "slippery slope" he told about how a few years ago girls started wearing leggings under short skirts. That seemed fine because really they were just covering more than what a short skirt covers. Then girls wore leggings under long shirts that covered less than short skirts and now girls just wear leggings. He emphasized again, the importance of using social science speech to convince law makers, and not giving into to the other side. Anyway, I am sure I have not given his speech justice. It was amazing and I feel really blessed to be in a state with government officials that are truly good and interested in the happiness, success, of the individual citizens. AND it is great to have a personal knowledge of this.
I was excited to meet Carol Solberg. She raised 13 children and now she is President of the United Families International. She runs UFI. She travels overseas to try and get family friendly language in United Nation documents-- which is near to impossible. She is amazing!
Kelli Houghton travels to UN conferences too. She started out as just a mom. Laura Bunker and Rose Marie Murray are moms of older children that spend tons and tons of hours lobbying at our state legislature to protect the families of Utah. They work closely with lawmakers and are very well respected. All of the time it takes to do what they do is donated. They are not paid for any of it. Lawmakers need them. They are fighting against paid Planned Parenthood presidents, presidents of the ACLU, and other well funded liberal groups that are there lobbying for sexual freedoms that kill the unborn, and put sexual rights ahead of freedom of speech and religious freedom.
Margaret Dayton is amazing too and she gets beat up in the media all of the time for being out spoken about the traditional family and the Constitution and founding fathers.
I feel quite lucky to be able to know all of these great women. I hope to be like them someday.
In my speech I started with this 1981 quote from Boyd K Packer:
One cannot degrade marriage without tarnishing other words as well, such words as boy, girl, manhood, womanhood, husband, wife, father, mother, baby, children, family, home.
