South Carolina State House | January 24, 2018 11:00 a.m.
Thank you, Dr. Clark.
This is an importa
nt day, and I appreciate everybody being here from all those little places that you spoke of all over South Carolina. I have to say that I am so proud of the people of South Carolina, proud of what we are doing in our state, proud of how far we have come. Over three hundred years as you know, and we’ve been through it all, the ups and downs. I really do believe that this is our time. I think the stars have lined up, as they say. I know that the eyes of the country, the eyes of the world in many respects, are on South Carolina. I see in economic terms—businesses—everybody wants to come to South Carolina. There’s a reason. There’s a reason, and the main one is—it’s not the port, it’s not the the technical colleges, it’s not the research universities, it’s not all those things, the mountains, the rivers—it’s the people of South Carolina. When I talk to other people from other countries especially, they say the people of South Carolina are different. And I believe we are. And this, what we are expressing today, is one manifestation of that difference.
I like to look at things in perspective. When you look at how things throughout history…I try to learn as much and I think I forget more than I’ve learned…still, in history you can see that there have been great changes, great movements that have taken time. When it is all over and people look back, they say, “How did those people ever believe any other way?!” And that applies to a lot of things like voting, like ownership of other people, like the divine right of kings and queens, and those kind of things that we look at today and wonder how was it ever otherwise in how we see the light today. I think that this is one area—of human life—that some point in our future—it won’t be tomorrow but it’s coming—there will be a day when everyone will understand clearly that the right to life is the most important right there is, that life begins at conception, it is a God-given right, and we must do all we can to protect it.
You know they say, a lot of those realizations throughout history—and there have countless, all over other countries, not just here—and these were smart people, the smartest, the most educated, the most talented, they all on many things were dead wrong. Sometimes for centuries after centuries. So I am confident—and I see people here that I remember from years ago that have been laboring in this vineyard—my hat’s off to you. Remember this: You cannot beat the man or the woman who won’t quit. You can’t beat someone who won’t quit. So I urge you: don’t quit. We are doing the right thing. It’s a marvelous cause, and I’m looking forward to the day when we can look back and say that the people of South Carolina were in the vanguard of leadership in changing this notion in the United States and in the world about the right to life.
Thank you.