Dow's proposal gets 'stamp of approval'

By Mary Field

Did you ever feel driven to sit down with a piece of paper and tell an elected official exactly what you wanted them to do for you?

Well, a local man did recently, and it worked.

What began as a church endeavor for 27-year-old Steve Dow of the town of Martell, turned into a proclamation by Gov. Tommy Thompson last week.

Dow, who considers himself a "regular Joe," wrote a proposal and sent it off to Thompson, suggesting the governor set aside a day to celebrate the "sanctity of life" in Wisconsin.

Last Tuesday afternoon Dow received word from the governor's office that approval had been granted "nearly word-for-word" declaring Saturday, Jan. 22, "Sanctity of Life Day" in Wisconsin.

The date is significant because it is the 27th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision which legalized abortion. It is also significant because the states of Wisconsin and Illinois recently upheld a ban on partial birth abortions.

Last October 26, Dow was following the news that the state had upheld a ban on partial birth abortions. As a member of the Worship Committee at Luther Memorial Church, he received the quarterly newsletter which published a list of materials that Lutheran's could use to observe "Sanctity of Life Day."

A lifelong Christian, Dow started thinking about what he could do to further recognize the importance of the date. So he drafted a proposal and sent it off to the governor, requesting that Jan. 22 be set aside to honor the theme of sanctity of life. He enlisted the help of the Wisconsin Right to Life Committee, who added a cover letter to the proposal, signed by Susan Herro, president of the group. Herro then mailed the proposal to the governor's office in December.

He claims his greatest political ambitions have been limited to listening to Rush Limbaugh.

"I am not a political person," he said. "I just have strong convictions."

Dow is a stay-at-home father. He and his wife, Nancy, a scientist at Dia Sorin Inc. in Stillwater, Minn., have 2-year-old twins. They are united in their pro-life views, he said.

Dow believes he was "guided" into his political position. He is the youngest of four children and feels that his upbringing was of strong moral guidance.

"We learned what was right and wrong and why," Dow said. "The fact that I was studying Wisconsin's ban on partial birth abortion was not a coincidence when this idea came to me, and the fact that the Lutheran Quarterly Newsletter gave me ideas on how to proceed with my ideas is not a coincidence. Some things are meant to be."