Ralph Nader saved my life.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. Before I get to that story let me ask you a question. What do you think of when you hear the name “Ralph Nader?”

A presidential candidate, the guy who ruined Al Gore’s chances, or the guy that made “pregnant chads” a common phrase, might be some of the concepts that come to mind.

Considering the coverage the Mr. Nader received in his third bid for the Presidency, it’s obvious why you and many other Americans might default to this description.

But Presidential candidate is pretty much one of the last things that he has attempted in a long career of fighting for justice.

While George W. was fumbling his way through his father-subsidized Ivy League education, Ralph Nader graduated magna cum laude from Princeton, and later from Harvard Law School.

As he entered the real world, life set the stage for him to become a consumer advocate, author, speaker, organizer, and yes, candidate.

It was the work he did after his graduation when he arrived in Washington, that led to the salvation of my life. At Harvard he started to research the unorthodox topic of car safety.

While we are used to government regulation on what the auto industry has to put into our cars to make them safer, Nader lived in a different world.

His research found that the automobile industry was designing cars for style, cost, and performance.

OK, this may not sound all that unreasonable. But the result was denial of putting safety features that their own engineers developed, in vehicles, for fear of sacrificing some of the style, or worse, cost.

This was in the face of 5,000,000 reported accidents a year that resulted in nearly 40,000 parents, children, aunts, cousins being killed, and 110,000 loved ones permanently disabled.

In a book titled Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile, Nader targeted GM and other American automakers, leading to General Motors trying to discredit him. He sued them for invasion of privacy, and won, gaining not only a hefty settlement, but also the confession of the GM President on the points Nader made, to a Senate Sub-Committee.

The following auto safety laws have saved thousands of lives, including mine, on a snowy Interstate 70, nine miles east of Hays, KS.

The Jeep Wrangler I was driving hydroplaned, spun, hit the median and flipped. As we skidded upside down into oncoming traffic, I realized the seat belt was holding me in a like a roller coaster harness.

When we came to a inverted stop on the far shoulder, my passenger and I hung for a couple of seconds, our heads just inches from the road. The roll bar and seatbelts were the only things that saved us from being smeared on the asphalt, and certain death.

I walked away with a bump on the head, no concussion, and bruises.

When I talked to my parents after that everyone was assured to our health and safety, I remember her telling me to thank Ralph Nader for saving my life.

Last night I got a chance to do that.

But Nader has done much more than just make our highways safer. Using the money he won from the GM suit, he literally launched the modern consumer movement.

He quickly gained a reputation for standing up to predatory corporations, and has attracted justice-minded people from around the nation to Washington, D.C., to help him work towards citizen protection.

They have fought insurance companies, trade agreements that allow other countries to evade our environmental, labor and consumer protection laws, corporate lobbyists and politicians who attempt to block safety standards, or to deny fair access to court for injured parties.

He has also launched Public Citizen, an organization that has become consumers, eyes and ears in Washington. It contains six branches that protect Americans on a daily basis.

My point with all of this information is that many people can’t get past the Nader they were fed during the eight months.

Since he was announced as a speaker on this campus, I have heard students refer to him as a Republican tool and even a communist.

Their ignorance is obvious in the face of the most general biography.

Ralph Nader has affected every one of us in ways millions aren’t aware of. Without him we would have no governmental protection agency for the environment, workers, or consumer product safety.

Last night illustrated that he isn’t talking about abstract theories towards a “utopian” society.

He addressed the aspects of American life that can be changed. Seemingly little things, that aren’t just aimed a oil producers in the Middle East, or former Communist nations, but are targeted at making our lives safer and happier.

So just to set the record straight, SLU didn’t invite some weird, radical politician to speak last night.

What students and faculty were privy to, was a way of looking at our society from the standpoint where the consumer holds the power of their destiny and where citizens can battle against dangerous or poisonous systems.

That is what makes his comments great issues, and what make Ralph Nader more than some God-forsaken politician.