Wrong Again, Jimmy Boy

          Gotta bring Jimmy boy in from left field again. It is true, of course, that “Many presidents have foreign born parents” (James Sefcak, Yuma Sun, May 14, 2014). We are a country of immigrants, after all.   The difference, sweetie, is that the parents of the presidents he listed were citizens and residents of the United States at the time of the presidential birth.
       The founders thought it necessary to insure that there was no question of a president’s allegiance to the idea that was America.  They apparently believed that blood is indeed thicker than water.
        Onyango Obama had no such allegiance to America and Barack’s brother Malik is a Muslim Brotherhood operative and investment adviser.   It may be only coincidental that the IRS quickly grants 501(c)3 Status to groups who support the Muslim Brotherhood, but is scrupulous about granting such status to Tea Parties.

I Am Woman

         The “Reverse the Roles” cartoon in the April 11 edition of The Yuma Sun perpetuates a pernicious myth.  In the first place, it is a misleading, false factoid; and it’s embarrassing when our President and leaders in congress perpetuate it.  The 23-cent gender pay gap only reflects the difference in earnings among all men and women working full-time. It does not account for differences in occupations, positions, education, job tenure, or hours worked per week. When all these relevant factors are taken into consideration, the wage gap narrows to less than five cents. That’s a pretty narrow difference when you consider that women take more sick days in deference to family and children.

               The myth the cartoon perpetuates is especially pernicious because it attempts to make victims of women.  We are not victims.  We make choices, and for the most part, we celebrate those choices.  “I am woman, Proud and free, 

More to me, Than what you see. 

  I stand alone, A world apart, 

Just holding fast, To wayward heart.

 I am healer, Poet too, 

I see colour, Rainbow hue. 

I am fire, Burning gold, 

Cold as ice, If truth be told. 

  I am spirit, Pure and bright,

 Rising up, To meet the light,

 I enter there, The realms of love,

 It’s all around, Below, above.

 My kindred souls, Enfold me there,

 Full of joy, Bright and free, 

For I am woman, I am me.” 

       

 Linda Harnett

Another Blast from the Past Post Election Diatribe

         President Nixon resigned in shame because he participated in a cover-up trying to protect his staff members who had made a ridiculous blunder breaking into the Watergate Office.  If the tapes show one thing, it shows that Nixon did not participate in the break in.  He was shocked when he learned they had done such a stupid thing.  But he did try to cover up the evidence to protect his friends. No one died, but he was guilty of a cover-up.

        President Obama should drop out of the campaign to show his shame for having allowed four to die in the Benghazi attack.  He knew very well what had happened. The State Department had emailed the situation room of White House within two hours of the attack. The CIA station chief sent messages describing exactly what was going on.  They were watching on video it in real time.  They even knew the guy in charge.  He not only claimed credit, he was there in the crowd waving his personal flag.  

           But disturbances in Libya would look bad for the Obama re-election because he was running on the pretense that he had made friends with those in the Middle East. His whole election depended on the myth that “General Motors is alive and Al Qaeda is dead.”  The attack illustrated an undeniable fact that Al Qaeda is not dead. (And by the way, we learn that GM is on life support.  The stock has dropped by 50 per cent and is again on the brink of bankruptcy.)

       After the White House was notified by both the State Department and the CIA, the attack went on for 5 more hours, lasting a full 7 hours. The Seal Team guys were killed late in the last hour.  The president had plenty of time to react, but he quickly arranged for a fake, “It was the terrible video” cover-up, and jetted off to Las Vegas.

         There are some who would say that we don’t know if the fake movie story was his idea.  The buck stops with him.  He’s responsible. Furthermore his blaming the video brought it to the attention of other Islamists and created a firestorm across the Middle East.  He’s responsible for that, too.  After that as well as all those indefensible things he said in the debate,  I don’t know how anyone can vote for him.

      “Sequestration was not my idea.”  Yes it was.  You proposed it. Reed took it to the house.

       “Because of what she did, the unemployment rate for veterans is lower that it is for the rest of the country.”  Absolutely not.

         “I did not propose a Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq.”  Yes you did.  You worked on it for almost a year, but couldn’t talk them into it.

         “Exports to China have doubled under my watch.”  Absolutely not.

         “The Arizona law lets officers stop people just because they look illegal.” Nope.  It doesn’t.

         “I sat down with Republicans and Democrats and begged them to fix the system.”  Nope.

         “If elected, I can promise you that I’ll always listen to your voices.”  But when we asked, we were told, “Why should we sit down with them.  We already know what they’re going to say.”

          You had four years to show us change; we've lost hope.

Educational Reform: Back to the Future

     I taught in schools in several states as I followed my husband’s job opportunities, and my experiences make the case for a No on 204.

       My first teaching job back in 1963 was in a 5 classroom school east of Kansas City, Missouri.  We had no principal, no superintendent, no secretary, no counselors.  We had 5 teachers, a cook, and a custodian.  It was the best run school I ever taught in.  That little school was our school and we were proud of it, and we ran it well. 

       A limited administration staff is absolutely necessary in larger schools, but my subsequent experience taught me that the deeper the layers of administration, the weaker the bond between teacher and student, teacher and school board, teacher and parents.

         Adjusted for inflation, the per-student cost of education tripled across the 40 years of my teaching experience, but that influx of money has had a negative impact on the quality of education in our schools.  Federal and state interference has simply complicated the system and created deeper levels of bureaucracy.

            We do need educational reform, but we need to start at home, in our neighborhoods, and with our local school boards. We need to funnel a larger portion of our education dollars into the classroom.  The tax increase will only more deeply entrench the toxic bureaucracy.  

My prayer is that America can be again that land where anything is possible.

         After I retired the first time, I toyed with the idea of pursuing another degree, this time, having been a bit of a buff, in political science.  Northern Arizona University had changed a lot since the 60’s having belatedly taken on the 60’s malaise.  My professors were stunningly negative about America.  On one occasion the professor was ragging on the Horatio Alger theme assuring the students that it was nothing but a myth.  The idea that in America someone could work their way from rags to riches was a pipe dream.

        The discussion prompted me to do some research, and at the next class session I presented the professor with a paper about the ten richest men in America.  With the exception of one, all of them were self-made men and women.  Some of the stories were absolutely inspiring.  

       The professor’s response?  “You must realize that your personal prejudices influence your research results.”  

       I said, “Those are all facts. Perhaps it’s your assumptions that are based on personal prejudices.” 

       Needless to say, I didn't pursue the degree.  I returned to Arizona Western College for another stint in the classroom.  Yesterday, perhaps in defense of our president’s recent comment, said that successful people don’t do it alone, that we all depend on members of our communities. There is a germ of truth there, but I think it is important to recognize the rewards of hard work and determination.

         We’re all familiar with the self-made men of the past: Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Carnegie need no introduction. Fredrick Douglas, the runaway slave through monumental amounts of hard work, tenacity, and passion soon rose to prominence, becoming an outspoken abolitionist, a spectacular orator, a bestselling author, and a newspaper publisher.  Booker T. Washington, freed by the passage of the 13^th amendment got his start in the coal mines and the salt mines and eventually became a leader in education founding the Tuskegee Institute. Thomas Edison expelled from school after 3 months and having lost nearly all of his hearing at a young age, did not let this disability hinder him. He sold candy and newspapers aboard trains as a youth, and when he saved the life of the station master’s son, got a job in the telegraph office.

           Many of our modern leaders came from humble beginnings; Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and especially Clarence Thomas who was abandoned by his father and left homeless after a fire.  He worked on his grandfather’s farm from sunrise to sunset. 

              But there are some lesser known success stories as well.  Fred DeLuca of Subway fortune worked in a hardware store to put himself through college and only made enough to buy lunch at fast-food restaurants like McDonald's. This experience and his interest in medicine gave him the idea of running a "fast-food venture that provided a healthier, less fattening bill of fare." A friend loaned him 1,000, and he was off and running.

                John Paul Jones DeJoria, the hair products billionaire, was born the second son of an Italian immigrant father and a Greek immigrant mother in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. His parents divorced by the time he was two years old. DeJoria spent much of his youth in a street gang but made a life changing decision when his math teacher told him he would "never succeed at anything in life.”

              Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul, and the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants refused to let poverty write his story.  He sold newspapers on local street corners at a young age and owned his own business by the age of 12.  He dropped out of the City College of New York and started a business selling toiletry kits and eventually started a charter tours business.

Ralph Lauren was born Ralph Rueben Lifshitz.  His parents were Ashkenazi Jews who had emigrated from Belarus.  His father was a house painter. The family lived in a small apartment, with Ralph sharing a room with his two brothers. He worked after school as a stock boy and sold handmade ties to his classmates.

              Ray Kroc, was a high school dropout. When he was 15 he lied to the military to become an ambulance driver. After the war he spent 17 years, travelling the country selling milkshake machines and became intrigued by a hamburger restaurant in San Bernadino, California owned by the McDonald brothers. Although Kroc was by then a 53 year old man suffering from diabetes and arthritis and missing both his thyroid and gall bladder, he had a vision of turning the restaurant into a global fast food empire.

              Larry Ellison was born in the Bronx to an unwed mother.  He dropped out of college when his adopted mother died. Through hard work and self-discipline, he managed to save $2000 which he used to found Oracle, the company that made him a billionaire many times.

           Sean Combs known as P. Diddy was born in public housing projects in Harlem. Sean’s father was shot to death when Sean was only 2. At age 12, Combs, who was too young to officially have his own paper route, found a way around the rule by taking over the routes of several older boys and giving them 50% of his earnings. He was soon making over $700 a week as a paperboy. After high school, Mr. Combs interned at Uptown Records while he attended Howard University, but he dropped out and took an executive position with the company. Fired from the label in 1993, Combs formed his own company-Bad Boy Records and the rest is history.

            My prayer is  that America can be again that land where anything is possible.  

Separation of Church and State?

         Until the Civil War, on Sundays in Washington the state became the church. Within a year of his inauguration, Jefferson began attending church services in the House of Representatives. Madison followed Jefferson's example. Worship services in the House were acceptable to Jefferson because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary. 

       Preachers of every Protestant denomination appeared. As early as January 1806 a female evangelist, Dorothy Ripley, delivered a camp meeting-style exhortation in the House to Jefferson, Vice President Aaron Burr, and a "crowded audience." Throughout his administration Jefferson permitted church services in executive branch buildings as well. The Gospel was also preached in the Supreme Court chambers.

        Jefferson's and Madison were ardently opposed to a “national” religion, but in their support of church services on public property, Jefferson and Madison consciously and deliberately were offering symbolic support to religion as a prop for republican government.  George Washington obviously agreed, as he said “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” 

         Now, apparently, at least in Phoenix, we are not allowed to have Bible studies in our backyards.  Do you think it’s time to take a stand?

 http://www.reagancoalition.com/articles/2012/20120625002-michael-salman.html

A Throwback Thursday Post.

I share Gregory Gardner’s lament for the passing of the “idea that is America” (Obama won but nation lost,” November 17, 2012); and like Ted Vadman (November 28) I too am concerned about our nation’s future.  However, I don’t blame Barrack Obama. We’ve been a slippin’ and a slidin’ down this slope for a long time. We just haven’t recognized it, but Russia’s Pravda did: “The Communists have won in America with Obama.” (“Obama’s Soviet Mistake,” November 19, 2012).

Our founders knew two things for sure: 1) that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights and 2) that men were not angels and given the opportunity we would be ruled by our lesser angels, greed, envy, and sloth; so they created a very complex system of checks and balances to protect those God given rights from being usurped.

Progressives didn't buy into that. In 1911, Wilson said we should ignore the preface of the “The Declaration of Independence.”   Our rights are not endowed by a creator, but conferred on us by a just government. Progressives believed in the essential goodness of the human race and they thought that because they lived in “enlightened times,” they would be smart enough to create government programs that would erase the ills that beset us and allow us to live happily ever after in a blissful utopia.

Publius in Federalist 6 warns us against “that far gone utopian speculation,” suggesting that although we may have made a lot of progress in many areas, at heart, nothing has changed.  We are still ruled by our passions.

But for a hundred years our federal government marched onward toward that Utopian dream.  Teddy Roosevelt gave us the “Square Deal,” FDR gave us the “New Deal,” Johnson gave us the “Great Society” and pledged “Total victory over poverty.” Nixon gave us the Environmental Protection Agency,  George H. W. Bush gave us the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Bush the younger gave us the Patriot Act and No Child Left Behind. 

Adjusting for inflation, total government spending in 1900 was $100 per capita.  Today we spend $10,000 per capita attempting to achieve that utopia.  The result?   Families are crumbling, schools are failing, and our country is imploding. 

               I don’t doubt the good intentions of those early progressives.  They were honest and open about their socialist intentions, but with the Johnson administration, those lesser angels began to hold sway. Politicians began to see the real advantage of using the federal government to buy votes.  We know that Lyndon Johnson was not altogether altruistic when he boasted, “I’ll have those [slobs] voting Democratic for the next 200 years.”

               Woodrow Wilson’s dream of de-legitimizing the sovereignty of the family, of “marrying the interests of every individual to the state” has come to fruition, and the avalanche of accumulating debt and regulation has brought America to her knees. Without a miracle we will have left our children with a third world economy, but there is hope.  As Xavier Lerma points out in that Pravda article, Russia came back. “Millions suffered tyranny, torture and death for almost 75 years …but Russia survived with a new and stronger faith in God and ever growing Christian Church.”