An Irresistible Force Meets an Old Man
Have you ever seen or heard of something you would love to do—something that would make a huge, positive impact on an issue near and dear to your heart?
The Iowa Right to Life organization recently sent an email advertising for a new Director for their wonderful cause. My first thought was, “Wow, what a great opportunity to make a real difference in the world!”
Having ridden this old rock we call Earth around the sun nearly 88 times, I knew my chances of landing this position were about as likely as an Iowa snow blizzard occurring in the middle of the Sahara Desert in midsummer. However, God moved me to respond to the ad. What follows is my application for the Iowa Right to Life Director position.
I wish I were about 60 years younger. I would fill out your application in a minute. As a person born in a home for unwed mothers in Sioux City in 1938, I thank and praise God every day.
My life has been wonderful, filled with many adventures and many wonderful people. If you ever need an old man to serve as a spokesman for what you are attempting to do, please feel free to call me at 903‑746‑2355.
Please keep up your hard work. There are far too many children who never get the opportunity that I had. My birth mother came from a very difficult background and had absolutely no way to take care of me. However, she carried me for the necessary nine months, and I was born a healthy child.
The nurses allowed her to hold me for a few minutes. Then I was whisked away. She knew she would never see me again. She named me Roger Blair.
My next move was from the Florence Crittenden Home for Unwed Mothers in Sioux City to the Christian Home in Council Bluffs. Today, that home is known as Children’s Square USA. Its mission has shifted from adoption to supporting young people facing difficulties.
A wonderful Fremont County farm couple, Elmer and Altha Lightfoot, adopted me. They were unable to have a child for medical reasons. My name was changed from Roger Blair to James Ross Lightfoot.
And as the old saying goes, the rest is history.
It is a wonderful history, including service in the U.S. Army, work as a Customer Engineer for IBM, and service as a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. My search for belonging eventually led to a nineteen‑year career as a broadcaster at KMA Radio in Shenandoah.
Another chapter of my life opened in 1984. I jumped into something I knew nothing about; however, enough people had faith in me that I spent the next twelve years as a U.S. Congressman. It was a wonderful opportunity to help many people.
We were in the middle of the Carter years. Inflation was through the roof—borrowing operating money cost 20 percent. Businesses were closing their doors, a bank in southern Iowa was foreclosed, and farmers were losing their farms. Worst of all, suicides began when farmers who lost their farms could no longer withstand the strain.
Two outstanding men on my staff, Ron Waller and Jim Boggess, spent entire nights with farm couples who were contemplating suicide. They saved many lives. Anna Belle Anderson, Corrine Gilbert, and all the other women in offices across my congressional district helped hundreds, if not thousands, of people navigate problems involving both their personal lives and the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, back in Congress, I was a freshman Republican. The U.S. House of Representatives had been in Democratic hands since Eisenhower was president. The chances of accomplishing anything legislatively were somewhere between slim and none.
Despite the odds, my staff and I put together a bill that would give lenders—farmers in particular—relief from high interest rates and waive certain rules. This would allow farmers, bankers, and agricultural suppliers the opportunity to sit down together and work out their problems free from excessive government regulation. I believed then, as I do now, that if these good people could work together without the government constantly looking over their shoulders, many financial problems could be resolved.
It was a good bill that could help many people in rural America. But how does a freshman member of the minority party have any chance of getting new legislation passed? It would be like trying to climb a thousand‑foot pile of fine sand in the middle of an Iowa summer.
However, this was back when Congress still worked. Charlie Stenholm, a Democrat from Texas and Chairman of the Agriculture Committee, liked my bill. He removed my name from it and incorporated its language into the Agriculture Bill, which ultimately passed Congress.
I could not have cared less about not receiving credit. I went to Congress to get results, not headlines. Many farmers across the nation found relief and were able to stay in business, as were the country banks and stores that survived this difficult chapter in rural America’s history.
My reward was seeing smiles return to the faces of Iowa farmers who had been hanging on the edge of survival. A second reward was my friendship with Charlie Stenholm, who went to heaven in 2013.
After twelve years, I retired as a strong believer in term limits. I believe many of the problems we face today could have been prevented by term-limits. The old dinosaurs now running our government are a primary reason that nearly 30 percent of new members of Congress leave after only a few years of service. Frustration at being unable to accomplish anything sends them home. It is sad.
For the next fourteen years, I served as Vice President of Forensic Technology Inc. (FTI), headquartered in Montreal, Canada. FTI developed a system that has become the world standard for ballistic forensics. When I joined the company, only a few IBIS systems had been deployed.
At the time, the FBI had a system that it was giving away to police labs. FTI had a small contract with ATF and the NYPD. Congress decided it would not pay for two systems. I had the honor of negotiating an agreement between ATF and the FBI to use the FTI system while incorporating key FBI system features. Congress now pays for only one system—the gold standard for ballistic forensics worldwide.
Today, IBIS is used in 88 countries and is the only system used by ATF and INTERPOL.
My wife, Nancy, who has had my back for fifty years, and I retired to her home state of Texas in 2007.
If a young pregnant woman considering abortion were to read this and change her mind, we would all be rewarded. God would be pleased, and so would I. She will never know what that baby in her womb might become unless that child is allowed to be born and take its first breath.
I was allowed to take mine. God is thanked for it first thing in the morning every day.
Please continue your work to help children be born rather than destroyed before they ever have the opportunity to take that first breath. God bless you and all that you do.
James R. Lightfoot
jimrosslightfoot.com
[email protected]
James Ross Lightfoot (born September 27, 1938) is an American businessman-broadcaster who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa for six terms. He was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 1996 and for Governor of Iowa in 1998.