John Adams

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."

-John Adams

Wisdom from Plato.

"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics: you end up being governed by your inferiors."
-Plato

pie-crust is made to be broken

As a woman who loves to bake and often fails miserably at it, the title of my post today frustrates the "I-want-to-be-the-best-wife and chef" part of me. THAT, my friends, is why I steer clear of making my own pie-crust. Inevitably, in an attempt to wrap tinfoil around the edges, pieces begin to crumble, and I follow quickly behind and begin to do the same.

The same thing happens to us when promises are unfulfilled. Virtually no feeling is more frustrating than being the victim of a broken promise--whether it's small (like someone promising to pay you back for the soda and never doing it) or life-changing (like a broken vow of marriage resulting in divorce). Charles Spurgeon said this about making vows and not keeping them:

"Those who are quick to promise are generally slow to perform. They promise mountains and perform molehills. He who gives you fair words and nothing more feeds you with an empty spoon. People don't think much of a man's piety when his promises are like pie-crust: made to be broken."

Every current and future politician on Capitol Hill needs to meditate on, memorize, even tattoo this quote on their bodies (That's a sight I would like to see... no just kidding, I would not). Can you imagine if we had a government of people who feeds us with fair words--not empty promises that lead to letdown or skepticism?

This is a particularly poignant quote this week as Scott Brown was elected as senator of Massachusetts after more than 4 decades of MA being a blue state. It couldn't be any clearer what the people think: they are sick of empty promises by politicians. They are sick of men and women who tumble headlong into Washington, thirsty for power, and ignore what the people want.

Glenn Beck made an interesting observation last week on his show when he was interviewing Sarah Palin. Have you ever seen a politician who returns from his tenure in Washington and you think, "Wow, you are a BETTER person than before!"

Politicians like that don't exist anymore because they are politicians--they proudly consider it their job to legislate, govern, and often meddle. What would Washington look like if people were elected who went reluctantly, knowing that power can ruin a person--but they go because the people think they're best suited for the job. They know that people should be free to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and they know that government's only role is to defend and protect. George Washington accepted the Presidency reluctantly following the War for Independence. Where are those people?

If you're interested, read the following article by John Stossel enumerating Obama's Broken Promises. I say all of this with a grain of salt, knowing that some promises are better left broken--in some cases, Obama's administration is trying to pin us to the ground and feed us poison. And we're only in year one...

http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/01/20/obamas-broken-promises/

Cast Down Your Bucket

Race relations have never been more polarizing than now. In a time when electing a black president should equalize us all and improve the relationships between the races, it seems that, sadly, we have become more aware now of racial tensions than ever before.

According to many liberals in the political word, nearly every accusation, critique, crime is motivated by race. Joe Wilson's outburst during President Obama's address is a perfect example. Nevermind that his accusation had nothing to do with Obama being African-American. But he lives in South Carolina, so that MUST have been his motive. He CAN'T have been genuinely concerned that the President was lying about illegal immigrants and healthcare reform. The gravity of the accusation was immediately overlooked by the assumption that Wilson must be racist. Of course, this conveniently served to distract the public from the real issues. But today, it seems that pulling the race card is usually intended to distract.

In light of all that's transpiring in the political and social world today in regard to race, Booker T. Washington's autobiography Up from Slavery is perhaps the most poignant expression of what race relations should be. I finished reading the book two weeks ago and have been mulling over what to write about since. I feel compelled to include an excerpt from his most famous speech to the South in 1895. How widely different from the speeches on race relations we hear today.

"To those of the white race who look to the incoming of those of foreign birth and strange tongue and habits for the prosperity of the South, were I permitted I would repeat what I say to my own race, “Cast down your bucket where you are.” Cast down your bucket among these people who have, without strikes and labour wars, tilled your fields, cleared your forests... and helped make possible this magnificent representation of the progress of the South. Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will buy your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in your fields, and run your factories.

While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law-abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen. As we have proved our loyalty to you in the past, in nursing your children, watching by the sick-bed of your mothers and fathers, and often following them with tear-dimmed eyes to their graves, so in the future, in our humble way, we shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defence of yours, interlacing our industrial, commercial, civil, and religious life with yours in a way that shall make the interests of both races one.

In all things that are purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress."

What a promise that Washington made as a representative for African-Americans! True racial reconciliation is not giving one race more advantage over another (*ahem* the college admission process), or reminding white people habitually of the sins of the past, but Washington says it well when he says, "We shall stand by you with a devotion that no foreigner can approach, ready to lay down our lives, if need be, in defence of yours..." That is Christlike behavior to emulate, no matter what race you are.

Washington himself was a part of the system of slavery. He recalls the day when he and his family were freed:

"The wild rejoicing on the part of the emancipated coloured people lasted but for a brief period, for I noticed that by the time they returned to their cabins there was a change in their feelings. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them. To some it seemed that, now that they were in actual possession of it, freedom was a more serious thing than they had expected to find it."

If anyone had the prerogative to harbor resentment, anger, and hatred towards the doers of slavery, Washington did. His comments about this are astounding:

"I have long since ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. No one section of our country was wholly responsible for its introduction, and besides, it was recognized and protected for years by the General Government. When we rid ourselves of prejudice, or racial feeling, and look facts in the face, we must acknowledge that, notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, the ten million Negroes inhabiting this country, who themselves or whose ancestors went through the school of American slavery, are in a stronger and more hopeful condition, materially, intellectually, morally, and religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other portion of the globe."

Booker T. Washington's belief in the sovereignty of God also amazed me:

"I condemn [slavery] as an institution, as we all know that in America it was established for selfish and financial reasons, not from a missionary motive--but [I] call attention to the fact to show how Providence often uses men and institutions to accomplish a purpose. When persons ask me in these days how, in the midst of what sometimes seem hopelessly discouraging conditions, I can have such faith in the future of my race in this country, I remind them of the wilderness through which and out of which, a good Providence has already led us.

These sentiments of a man who felt true discrimination astound me. Few, if any, experience it. What a wonderful example of forgiveness and reconciliation. If you've never read this autobiography, I highly recommend it.

FAIL!

Another modern day educational crisis...

They must be teaching this new spelling in the same institutions that teach:

1) The Puritans were boring, dull, and parsimonious.
2) The government's job is to "take care of us."
3) There are two Thanksgivings.
4) The founding fathers were Deists who wanted a secular form of government.
5) The War Between the States was entirely about slavery.
6) We are derived from primordial soup.
7) The straight white man is evil.

Et cetera...

Don't cry over spilled milk!

The 912 Project!

Here a few highlights of our journey to Washington DC for the March on Washington. I've also included Glenn Beck's 9 Principles that have become our rallying cry over the past few months. Do you agree with these?

1. America is good place, not perfect, but good.

2. I believe in God and He is the center of my life.

3. I must try to be a better, more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness and not a guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have. I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree or share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them. They answer to me.

Here we are waiting on the Tea Party Express Bus to arrive at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. This was Friday night, and at this location alone there were thousands of people--and there were events going on around the city just like this one!



When we arrived at Freedom Plaza after taking the Metro, we flooded into the streets and marched to the Capitol. One observer said he had been standing there for 45 minutes and a steady mass of people had been walking down the street the entire time.


More pictures of the crowd:


When we arrived at the Metro Station to go TO Freedom Place, we were met with hundreds of people going to the same place and waiting to buy tickets. It took us about an hour to get through this line and onto the metro.





One of my favorite signs, partly because of my former love of Family Matters--I grew up watching Steve Urkel! :-)

Hope and Change?

Can we still echo the sentiments of our Founding Fathers? Or are they lost in decades of governmental control, unnecessary taxes, and increasing dependence on the government as our "caretaker?"

Get involved. Do the research. The preservation of our country depends on it. It was a dangerous dictator who once said, "How fortunate for leaders that men do not think!"


"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." -Thomas Jefferson "Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; and to give his personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given their consent."

John Adams, Thoughts on Government, 1776

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer."

Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, November 1766

"Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty. "
Thomas Jefferson

Fail!

I'm not positive, but there's a chance that might be an Obama '08 sticker...

It must be one or the other.

Just last week, President Obama called on religious leaders to take on the healthcare debate by transforming it into a moral and ethical issue. And such a tactic is potentially effective if people begin to believe that the it's the government's responsibility to do so--that is what he wants, right?

But can Barack Obama legitimately call on the moral code of Americans and simultaneously tell world leaders that we are "no longer a Christian nation?" Something's gotta give here. The atheists in pluralist America would (or should) be deeply offended by being told it's their moral obligation to reform healthcare by promoting this public option. What if my "morals" are widely different than President Obama's morals? This is the problem we face by abandoning our explicitly Christian heritage.

And how is healthcare reform a "moral obligation," but protecting the lives of unborn children is not?

Thoughts from a History teacher...

In his inaugural address over 200 years ago, Thomas Jefferson, probably not a believer, said this about government:

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."

As Barack Obama swore an oath today to "protect, preserve, and defend" the Constitution this morning in front of millions of people (odd in itself since he believes the document is "fatally flawed")*, so many Americans echo the cry of Jefferson in what constitutes "good government." Imagine a world where government allowed its citizens to live without interference--in business, in healthcare, in education. Two hundred years ago, those men who shaped our government desperately wanted a government institution that punished evildoers and protected its people--that's it! There are countless examples of presidents like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson vetoing bills that they deemed "unconstitutional" because they were outside of the federal government's jurisdiction. Look at just a few of the quotes from our founding fathers and former presidents:

"I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit."
-- President Grover Cleveland vetoing a bill for charity relief (18 Congressional Record 1875 [1877]

"Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
-- Ben Franklin, Respectfully Quoted, p. 201, Suzy Platt, Barnes & Noble, 1993

"I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity. [To approve the measure] would be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."
-- President Franklin Pierce's 1854 veto of a measure to help the mentally ill.

How vilified would our President be if he refused to give government money towards healthcare? He would be seen as arrogant, selfish, and evil. The media would destroy him. And yet so many of our former presidents feared gratuitous interference by the federal government.


Nevertheless, Neal Boortz, however polarizing he is, made a good comment about today's historical events:
"The institution is larger than any man, and any man in that office deserves our respect: Perhaps not our support at all times, but always our respect."

It is good to be reminded of that, and despite my disapproval of virtually everything Barack Obama says, he is our President and he deserves my respect.

Reverend Joseph Lowery, however, does not. As a white person (which makes me evil, in case you did not know), I took serious offense at his closing remarks this morning during his benediction following Obama's speech:


"....help us work for that day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right."

His assumption is that over the course of history, white men and women have rejected what is right, what is moral, what is just. If we have still not "embraced what is right," then what exactly was happening when thousands of American men gave their lives to prevent the Nazi world from taking over? And what was happening when William Wilberforce abolished the slave trade in England in the 19th century? Or when Jim Elliot selflessly gave his life to evangelize to the Waodani people in Ecuador?

The list goes on, folks; he should have thought more carefully before he said what he said. But of course, the media refuses to address these issues--for now we must continue to idolize Barack Obama by shooting footage of weeping women waving their American flags with Obama’s picture plastered over the stars and stripes. We must continue to honor him, not because of the “content of his character, but because of the color of his skin.” Martin Luther King, Jr. would be ashamed.

*http://www.examiner.com/x-1597-Charlotte-Law--Civil-Rights-Examiner~y2008m11d3-Obamas-AntiCivil-Rights-Movement)