Restoring Education Central to American Greatness http://davidanorris.posterous.com David A. Norris Blog posterous.com Fri, 01 Feb 2013 07:16:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-57382 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-57382

American Principle Four (Part II)

 

All Men Are Equal

In the Sight Of God and the Law

 

"that all men are created equal ..."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

The Bible's Priesthood of Believers doctrine points to the direct God-to-man relationship that has liberated countless millions of people from exploitation by truth trashers.  People cherish a system that defines the truth as a gift from God, unchanging and always applicable.  They appreciate a system that respects the right to enjoy the fruit of one's labor and freedom to exchange enhanced products for prosperity.  Recognized anew during the Great Reformation (1500-1570), it is part of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  The God-to-man relationship is a protective covenant.  People may choose to avoid deception imposed by authoritarians by going directly to God's Word and, when interpreted as such, learn the TRUTH.  Protected by the religious liberty amendment, until twisted by judges, the First Amendment freed the people from the tyranny of ideological truth trashers.

 

When adopted both religiously and educationally, Priesthood of Believers diminished the ability of truth and knowledge trashers and generated the greatest expanse of human ingenuity and prosperity in history.

 

The Judeo-Christian faith is not a religion that is forcefully imposed on the people.  Acceptance is a personal choice.  Paralleling Biblical morality, the Creator-based Declaration of Independence serves as America's impartial Civic Religion for public life.  Immigrants come to America by the millions because they can be free from the inequality of authoritarian rule.  For some readers, this may seem beside the point, but the Judeo-Christian Bible, though thousands of years old, has been the most popular book throughout history, by far.  Pilgrim's Progress, a book composed of Christian allegory by John Bunyan, was published in February, 1678.  Written almost 350 years ago, Pilgrim's Progress is thought to be second only to the Bible in existent numbers today.

 

Only when public alarm leads to changes in the judicial branch, and the meaning of the First Amendment again becomes law, can education become free from the enemies of religious liberty and citizen self-government.  This would put an end to the use of government-powered lawsuits by men intent on defiling society.  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press …" (from the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America).

 

 

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Sat, 29 Dec 2012 08:25:00 -0800 Introduction VI http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-vi http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-vi

"Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants," Justice Brandeis

http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/brandeis/node/196

 

Secular militants claim to be patriots because, as they say, dissent is American.   What they mean is evident from how they have gutted traditional American values in public education.  They demand freedom for themselves, but reject the American concept of academic freedom (the freedom to be honestly informed) and the freedom of others to make their own choices.  The soft underbelly of the secular left is the fact that they cannot withstand the competition of ideas.  For them, it is intolerable to allow students to be taught about the non-sectarian and impartial  God of creation upon which inalienable rights, citizen self-government and liberty depend.

 

An elaboration of “In God We Trust” is found in Proverbs 3:5,6:  “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

 

The “In God We Trust” worldview has been the foundation for public education, beginning in the original thirteen colonies and continuing for over 250 years.  The Supreme Court's ruling in the Everson v. Board of Education decision of 1947 began a dramatic shift away from “In God We Trust.”  See Chapter 6 for details about this Supreme Court ruling.  We review the civic religion adopted by immigrants from around the world in Chapters 1 through 4 and Part IV, Appendix B, Iowa's Bill of Rights, taken in part from the Declaration of Independence.  The strategy for restoring competition in education and choice by the people is outlined in Chapters 11 and 12.

 

The unionization of teachers and accompanying tenure law have enabled a small cadre of radicals to take God out of citizen-funded government schools. Newt Gingrich stated:  “Those who want absolute proof you cannot teach American history honestly and accurately without reference to God, go to the Lincoln Memorial and read where in Lincoln’s second inaugural, March 1865, he referred to God fourteen times and used two quotes from the Bible.”*

 

*http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/3597743

 

 

Lincoln_memorial_lincoln_contrasty

Lincoln Memorial Statue

 

 

 

There are millions of honest, hardworking teachers, but they have no more control over the lifeview being taught in the soft sciences than do parents.  An entirely different system for educating American youth is needed that would bypass the leftist teachers' union monopoly.  Funds for education provided by Americans must be routed through the parents, similar to the G.I. Bill following World War II.  This bill provided that education sought by veterans be paid from taxpayer revenues, and the veterans had the freedom to use the tuition grant in a public or private institution of their choice.

 

 

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Tue, 18 Dec 2012 09:33:00 -0800 Introduction III http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iii http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iii

Historically, public schools salvaged many students from homes where parenting was failing. Now students from good homes are abandoning the values that made America such a great nation.  This problem is ongoing even though most teachers are doing their best to counter the incursion of secular absolutism (atheism) in the soft sciences of our schools.

 

John Adams' quote:  "But if we had not, our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys, and trustees. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country."  John Adams was a direct descendant of Puritan colonists from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  A Harvard graduate, he served on the First Continental Congress and helped to draft the Declaration of Independence.  John Adams was vice-president under George Washington and the second president of the United States  (A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).


 

Truth or Consequences

 

Knowledge of and acceptance of the Bible, the Great Reformation (1500-1570) and American history empower conscientious individuals to be self-governing and, on a broader scale, inspire communities and the nation as a whole to overcome the tyranny of moral confusion.  Identifying with the first principle (God of Creation is Man's Benefactor) enables believers to avoid the deception and confusion advanced by truth-trashers.

 

Strangely, even the German atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche, accepted the message from human history and understood the source of freedom for his way of life.  He wrote:  "Remove Christianity and the ideas fall too."*

 

*http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2008&month=11

 

The American Founding Fathers understood human history and identified the distinction of good as self-evident Laws of Nature and of Nature's God.  It is the governing character of these principles (laws), such as humility, the Golden Rule, and the Ten Commandments, that leads to lasting success.  This is the sure foundation upon which man's right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" rests.  Called "virtue" by America's Founding Fathers, the impartial and divine element frees man to do what is right.  "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17).

 

 

 

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Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:43:00 -0800 Introduction I http://davidanorris.posterous.com/restoring-education-central-to-american-great-25997 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/restoring-education-central-to-american-great-25997

The 2012 first edition blog of the above book picked up over 9,000 repeat users.  Directly and indirectly, we were able to answer several hundred questions.  Encouraging responses came from many.  Perhaps the most exciting was an email from Judge Robert Bork's secretary.  

 

As reported in the Ames (Iowa) Tribune, a March, 2008 legislative proposal for union contract negotiators that would make it even harder to fire harmful teachers caused "grave concerns" among school administrators.  Margaret Buckton, chief lobbyist for the Iowa Association of School Boards, said, "Attempts to remove a teacher can last years and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."  "Grave concerns" is right.  Documented in the Restoring Education Central to American Greatness book, a significantly higher percentage of public school teachers send their children to private schools than do non-teacher parents.  They see the harmful impact that secular absolutism is having upon students' minds and values.  Power-hungry ideologues are now soliciting and ruining a new generation of Americans "with words calculated to destroy the youthful faith in their heritage" (Grand Jury Presentment, 11th Judicial District in and for Story County, Iowa, December, 1968).  Undoubtedly, restoring education central to American greatness is now the greatest singular need in America.

 

The Founding Fathers knew from history that centralized power left unchecked leads to tyranny.  They instituted the Second Amendment to keep guns in the hands of the general public to discourage the use of guns by radical politicians, but this does not keep them from being habitual truth-trashers.

 

To justify taxpayer funding, American history and the Judeo-Christian influence upon the Founding Fathers must be unabashedly taught.  Only with this knowledge can new generations of Americans identify truth-trashers and prevent the deceptive advance of oppressive government.  Those demanding curriculum diversity that undermines the absolutes gleaned from history (traditional American foundations) can pay for their own schools and seek a following, just as must other separatist groups.  The demand of traditionalists is based upon the justification for any education tax being placed upon Americans in the FIRST PLACE.  No other argument is needed, but it must be firmly and uncompromisingly imposed.  "A house divided against itself cannot stand" (Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858).  A nation cannot survive if its citizens continue to fund revisionist morality and anti-American rhetoric masquerading as education.

 

Subjects Covered By

Restoring Education Central to American Greatness

 

Part I: Government

Chapter 1

  • Immortal Principles Central to Liberty and American Greatness

Chapter 2

  • The Sovereignty of Man under the Impartial God of Creation over Government

Chapter 3

  • Man May Prosper in Freedom If He Chooses to Honor the Will of Creation’s God

Chapter 4

  • America’s Civic Religion and the Deeper Personal Faith of Our Nation’s Founders

Chapter 5

  • Government by Written and Permanent Law

Chapter 6

  • Defilement of the Judiciary

 

Part II: Education

Chapter 7

  • Academic Freedom and Teacher Tenure History

Chapter 8 

  • Consequences of the Unionization of Government Teachers

Chapter 9

  • The Education Nightmare

Chapter 10

  • Education That Is Profoundly American

 

Part III: Liberty and Responsibility

Chapter 11

  • Appeasement Will Not Work

Chapter 12

  • Our Strategy for Victory: Political Action—Citizen Power

 

Book_image

 

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Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:34:00 -0800 The Sovereignty of the American Citizen http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-sovereignty-of-the-american-citizen http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-sovereignty-of-the-american-citizen

Those among us who choose to exchange declining relationships and health for the temporary excitements of moral revisionism is one thing.  Exercising that diversity in private is their right.  Those demanding the right, however, to take over behavioral curriculum in taxpayer-funded public schools is another.  The war they have imposed, by pressuring liberals in government, must be confronted and won.  America is a Republic!  The "living Constitution" idea of changeable decrees imposed by liberal judges (1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision) always becomes despotism because power in the hands of man, over time, becomes corrupt.

 

"Our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country" (John Adams, Vice-President under George Washington, and second president of the United States, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).

 

The sovereignty of man under the impartial and higher authority of creation's God over government is traceable from the Bible to the Magna Carta, 1215, signed at the point of a sword by a frightened king.  It is likewise traceable to the English Bill of Rights, 1689, signed by a would-be brutal king.  We then have the God-honoring American Declaration of Independence, 1776, the War of Independence, and then the Constitution highlighted by the First Amendment and the Bill of [human] Rights which details what servants in government must never be allowed to violate.

 

The Common Law jury system, resting final authority in the people, came alive in America on March 4, 1789, the date Congress set for the start of the new ConstitutionThis is the most important feature of the American Constitution.  George Washington became our first president under the Constitution on April 30, 1789.

 

Revelations of the American Judeo-Christian heritage are singularly qualified to foster personal responsibility, citizen self-government and prosperity.  People do not steal the fruits of other men's labor.  The community helps those few who are not able to work or are indigent for other reasons.  Reputations for honesty do not rest in the words of evil gossips.  Taxpayer-funded educators support the character of the traditional family.

 

God does not control men; He protects those who will listen.  By applying God-honoring interpretations of Scripture and being sensitive to His Spirit, man becomes self-controlled (Hebrews 13:18-20).  "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

 

First_amendment_in_yellow

Image from http://www.freethefirst.com/

 

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Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:37:00 -0800 The First Amendment is the Most Important Amendment http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-first-amendment-is-the-most-important-ame http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-first-amendment-is-the-most-important-ame

The most important of all the amendments to our Constitution is the First Amendment:  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

 

In the 1947 Everson v. Board of Education decision, the Supreme Court majority discarded the principle for control of government by law (government limited by laws instituted by citizen sovereigns).  They displaced it with control of government by man (top down authoritarianism).  Quoting Alexander Hamilton:  "Government is frequently and aptly classed under two descriptions, a government of FORCE [changeable decrees by authoritarian man], and a government of LAWS [governments that derive 'their just powers' from the consent of the governed], the first is the definition of despotism--the last Liberty" (Tully Papers, 1794).  These two approaches to governing society have been at war against one another throughout human history.

 

The Everson v. Board of Education decision clearly compromised "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" The judges altered the Constitution at the core of its meaning.  Power-hungry judges and politicians, along with fellow travelers in education, the media and monopoly union bosses, are now working overtime.  They are leveraging the judge-created right that empowers liberals to impose government establishment monopoly in public education, preventing the competition of ideas by moral religions.  The power to impose false renditions of truth upon  captive government classrooms and poison youthful minds is being used to confuse, marginalize and rule new generations.

 

"For many years psychologists and educators have recognized the processes by which thought and behavioral patterns acquired in youth become the basis for adult motivation.  In modern times thoughtful observers have become progressively aware that moral, social, and political concepts implanted during the time of mental immaturity not only participate in the conduct of later life, but, once acquired, such concepts become dominant and often unalterable in the adult" (Story County Grand Jury, in and for the 11th Judicial District of Iowa, 1969).

 

Firstamendment

 

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Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:39:00 -0800 The First Amendment http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-first-amendment http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-first-amendment

The most important of all the amendments is the First Amendment.  This is demonstrably true.  It was not until secular militants were leveraged by the 1947 Supreme Court's Everson v. Board of Education decision that the role of moral absolutes ceased to be standard in government schools.

 

On September 25, 1789, Congress requested unanimously that President Washington proclaim a national day of thanksgiving and prayer.  This is the same Congress that on the same day approved the final draft of the First Amendment to protect the people's rights to religious freedom from suppression by government administrators, judges and legislators.  President Washington proclaimed on October 3, 1798:  "Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor…  Now, therefore, I do recommend… that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed…  And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions… And to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue."*

 

The First Amendment was added to the Constitution to emphasize the proper use of the Constitution as a tool to protect and uphold religious freedom.  This freedom enables the religious denominations to compete in public, including education.  This, in turn, sharpens the importance of moral absolutes in the minds of citizens who are the sovereigns under God over government.  For most of our history, the Judeo-Christian basis for citizen self-rule has been vigorously taught.  Non-denominational prayers and the Pledge of Allegiance were practiced in classrooms.  For several decades now the moral religions, most directly Christianity, have been under systematic attack by liberal judges.  Americans can agree with the following quote as long as any conflict between amendments to the Constitution are reconciled by having the First Amendment, in its original meaning up until 1947, upheld as supreme.

 

"A constitution, like any other document, is to be read as a whole.  The court, in the language of the lawyers, 'will take the instrument by its four corners' and read each part in the light of the rest.  Since written constitutions come into effect through popular assent, the meaning intended by the people would be sought by the courts.  The common understanding of the words at the time the language was employed is therefore of cogent significance.  This consideration, however, will not prevent the application of the terms employed to conditions arising later and not contemplated at the time the language was adopted…  There is an ancient rule of statutory construction, coming down through Blackstone, that in seeking the true meaning of legislative language the court will take cognizance of the 'old law, the mischief and the remedy.'  The rule is useful in constitutional construction" (Rosco Pound, Dean of the Law School of Harvard University, Volume III, National Law Library, P. F. Collier & Son Publishers, New York, New York, 1939, 23-24).

 

*http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/GW/gw004.html


 

First_amendment

 

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Mon, 05 Nov 2012 08:58:00 -0800 Part Ten: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-nine-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-nine-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

End of Presentment II

 

"The 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure by the American Association of University Professors has no legal effect, but the AAUP publicly censures colleges and universities that they believe have violated [their version of] academic freedom.  However, nearly all [not all] of the colleges and universities have adopted this statement or a variation of the statement which is contained in the faculty policy manual of each college or university, and it is incorporated by reference in the employment contract between the university and each individual faculty member."*

 

The penetrating damage imposed because of tenure laws sheltering radical professors and teachers in the soft sciences must be [reversed].  The authority of taxpayer/parents to control what is taught in government institutions must be restored.  By routing education revenues directly to the parents or guardians, sanity will be restored to education.  The many thousands of honest and morally upright teachers will again have the unimpeded support of the citizen consensus.  Not only will what is taught be cleaned up, but also competition between education suppliers will reduce the cost [and increase the quality] of public education.

 

The voice in the chorus of concerned citizens is imperative.  What confronts the American family and voter electorate is a test of wills.  School administrators must be able to fire leftist teachers [without spending] years and… tens of thousands of taxpayers' dollars defending education from the [resulting] lawsuits imposed by ACLU lawyers and the imperial arm of radical judges.  To effect change, active citizen involvement in the political process must exceed the determination of those who are using political circumvention to destroy the family and liberty.

 

43056858587115878

*Dr. Ronald B. Standler, "Academic Freedom in the USA," http://www.rbs2.com/afree.htm

 

 

Image from http://www.gatewaychristianschools.com/forseniors.html

 

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Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:32:00 -0800 Part Nine: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-nine-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems-54938 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-nine-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems-54938

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

End of Presentment I

 

The purpose of universities was freedom for competition of ideas in search of truth.  What has happened is the advocates of atheistic-secular totalitarianism applied their art and removed competition from the soft sciences.  When citizen control of universities, college, and now virtually all lower-level public schools was hijacked by faculty independence (teachers union mechanization and teacher tenure guarantees), tyranny was bound to follow.  What we now have is tyranny against the moral fiber of our youth and nation.  This is the inevitable result of [imposing] "German graduate methods [faculty independence] onto American campuses in the late nineteenth century… academic freedom became a cause celebrate."

 

At the time of the Grand Jury study, we did not realize the linkage between the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and what appears to be their prosecution arm, the leftist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The book Freedom in Iowa, published by the Iowa State University Press, promoted the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, bringing this connection to my attention.

 

Teacher employee contracts, structured according to ACLU definitions for academic freedom and tenure, shift the decision-making authority for removing radical teachers away from the president of the university, who is hired by the public to superintend the institution.  It is now the aggressive tenured faculty, not the president, who have control over who teaches and what is taught.  Instead of being an administrator, the university president works full-time quieting campus disputes, promoting campus expansion, and raising money by lobbying alumni and legislators.  Sensing this kind of environment, the US Supreme Court held in a dispute that professors at Yeshiva University in New York City were managerial [administrators], not employees within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act, and hence the university administrators were not required to bargain with the union that represented the professors.  The Court noted: "Budget requests prepared by the senior professor in each subject area receive the 'perfunctory' approval of the Dean '99 percent' of the time and have never been rejected by the central administration.  The faculty… effectively determine curriculum, grading systems… matriculation standards" (NLRB v. Yeshiva University, 582 F.2d 686, 1978, affd 444 US 672, 1980).

 

The ACLU/AAUP version of academic freedom and tenure that enables radicals to reject the public standards for what is taught and not taught is not a legal concept.  Without the control of the citizens who established the schools and pay the bills, what is taught is wholly dependent upon the internal culture of the faculty at the universities and the government grade schools.  This problem is systemic.

 

Liberty

 

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Fri, 02 Nov 2012 13:29:00 -0700 Part Eight: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-eight-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-eight-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

Most Important Educational Change Needed

 

1.  Regents' policy changes which will sufficiently define and implement the elimination of moral pollution by faculty and paid speakers will by all suitable means encourage "moral… improvement" (Constitution of the State of Iowa, Article IX, 2nd School… Sec. 3).

 

2.  There is a need for increased emphasis on the American ideal at all levels of education.  We believe this ideal needs to be a continuing emphasis from kindergarten through maturity.  Our revolutionary concepts are a most exciting and important subject.

 

It seems rather clear that the nerve center for society, the power for social revolution, is inherent in the adult electorate rather than in the schools, and that the radical missionaries should be sent to the electorate, not to the captive audience of youthful minds.

 

The idea… that the people of this land should not be trusted with the complexities of education is absurd.  The greatness of America places the educational and political emphasis under the control of the people.  This approach is much safer than providing a haven [tenure guarantees] for… teachers.

 

Our soldiers have been dying for this ideal.  Education, as never before, should clearly teach it.  Even in imperfection, it has achieved greatness for Americans unparalleled in history.  Every individual is important, and the mature public make the decisions over government--something that atheistic, humanist-based governments do not and cannot provide.

 

Right of Taxpayers to Control Education Challenged

 

Who has academic freedom, the parent/taxpayer or the teacher?  Is the parent, who once had academic freedom, now to be deprived because a teacher was hired?  Most agree that anyone can teach what he pleases on his own, but must not [take advantage of his own] academic freedom by robbing taxpayers of their freedom to direct public education in the public's interest, based upon the learning process and established knowledge.

 

Problems Compound If Not Corrected

 

No single level of education should be considered in a vacuum…  But it is going on!  The students of colleges are, after all, the graduates of American elementary and secondary schools.  We, the adults and teachers of today, are the graduates of high schools, colleges, and universities in the recent past.  Not only are various levels of American education interrelated, but the problems also feed back upon one another to produce a complex of relationships that affect us all and must be handled wisely.  In professions such as medicine or architecture, failures soon become apparent and are corrected.  A faulty experiment impacting the socio/political mindset may not be detected for two or three generations, when it is too late to reverse and avoid disaster.

 

Academic_freedom

 

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Tue, 30 Oct 2012 12:01:00 -0700 Part Seven: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-seven-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-seven-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

Where to Go for the Solution

 

The frustrating inability of the public to correct the distortion of academic freedom is due, in the Grand Jury's view, to the failure of the people to see the continuation of the atrocious abuses by radicals as the breakdown in the responsibility-authority-control principle that it really is.  Any organization, educational or otherwise, is an attempt at cooperation.  Cooperation is not possible unless responsibility and authority go hand-in-hand.

 

The parents and taxpayers delegated a portion of their responsibility and authority, through an administrative chain-of-command, for the selection of educators who want to teach and [who] agree with public policy.

 

The system of organization varies in the several states, but in Iowa the Board of Regents [chosen by the Governor] is responsible to the public for education at the state universities.  It is…. the Board of Regents who must lay down corrective policy on behalf of the people.  If the problem is not corrected… the public must impose changes as necessary.

 

The taxpayers, having the final responsibility for the universities, quite properly should have the authority to change the Board of Regents' membership or take other measures if they find themselves in disagreement with Board policy.  If the established procedures for governing at this level leave the Regents insensitive to public interest, then it is time to update governing procedures.

 

The citizen public, having given the Board of Regents [in this case] the responsibility to implement public policy, must also leave them the authority to go to the university president, who has the executive responsibility of the university.  The university president, vested with the responsibility by the Board of Regents, has the authority to [replace] his aides if he believes they are not carrying out his ideas [in the public interest].

 

Academic-freedom1

 

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Fri, 26 Oct 2012 07:50:00 -0700 Part Six: Grand Jury Presentment on "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-six-grand-jury-presentment-on-problems-i http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-six-grand-jury-presentment-on-problems-i

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

Summary

 

The concrete evidence of failures is well illustrated by the article entitled "New Left's Boasts: We Are Organizing Sedition."  According to the article, the New York Times asked an Iowa State University student where he picked up his radical ideas.  The student referred to a teacher by name and concluded, "He was a history teacher here [Iowa State University] two years ago.  I took a course in Ideas of Western Civilization from him.  That got me started."  There is no doubt that some teachers are guilty of using their status to effectively subvert or undermine the morals and allegiance of some students.

 

Friedrich A. Hayek said, regarding sectarian missionaries, "The whole intellectual climate [is a] complete perversion of language…  Collectivism means the end of truth…  The most effective way of making people accept the validity of the values they are to serve is to persuade them that they are really the same as those which they, or at least the best among them, have always held, but which were not properly understood or recognized before."*

 

The atheistic humanist approach to education is illustrated by events at ISU.  Using scurrilous charges, tenured academic mafia undermined academic freedom and forced the discontinuation of a very popular university course dealing with creation science.  The course violated the secular dogma upon which the God-rejecting theory of evolution, anti-Americanism, and anti-morality are constructed.  The course, taught by a highly ranked professor administrator at Iowa State University, was discontinued, and the professors who bullied that decision into effect did not receive so much as a reprimand.

 

According to an article in the Ames Tribune, May 12, 2007, "Guillermo Gonzalez… [was] denied tenure this semester by Iowa State University."  In this event that became known to the public, Iowa State University denied tenure to gifted astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez, who made the mistake of writing a book that included academic support for intelligent design.  At the same time, the university promoted to full professor with tenure rights in the soft sciences an outspoken leftist, Hector Avalos. As a religious studies professor, he served as the adviser to the ISU Atheist Society.

 

Our investigation indicates that the main reason for the youthful rebellion and attitude of carelessness in student morals is their loss of confidence in the wisdom embedded in their heritage.  Failure to clearly implant these truths detaches future generations from past experience, the very basis of education.

 

In the field of morality, all basic truths have been apprehended.  All the changing conditions we hear so much about do not affect the validity or applicability of the central directives of human conduct.  These truths are demonstrated both by their benefits and by the consequences of disregarding them--those who do fall easily into lawlessness, and harmful addictions, et cetera.  There is no greater contribution a teaching institution can make to human progress and purpose than to endow students at all levels with this knowledge.

 

Those who place their present faith and future hope in law enforcement to conduct humanity to brighter times ignore a fundamental psychological truth.  Legal and material attempts to correct human conduct resulting form improper training must all end in failure.  It is impossible to superimpose an effective code of ethics through compulsion.  Police force provides nothing more corrective than temporary control of faulty behavior that is traceable to education's failure to implant established knowledge of morality and the precepts of individual responsibility.

 

Gonzalez

Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez

 

 

*Friedrich A. Hayek, The Road to Serfdom, Britain, Rutledge, 1944, 174).

 

Image from http://www.public.iastate.edu/~astro/fickwww/calendar2005/mather.html

 

Biography of Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez at http://www.discovery.org/a/4058

 

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Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:50:00 -0700 Part Five: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-five-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-five-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

Observations in the Problem Area

 

III.  Radicals use tactics that blatantly ignore the basic teaching standard of honesty.  It is not unusual to hear them proclaim the virtues of equality and love, and extol violence, hatred and the use of harmful drugs in the same speech.  In their effort to present a one-sided picture, they suppress opposing views.  One jury interviewee [a professor] stated his concern--if students hear a lie often enough, some will believe it!

 

IV.  Radicals' tactics are aggressive, domineering and, when needed, ruthless in character.  In such cases, students and other teachers with average courtesy are no match.  The most aggressive [teachers] prevail over those who feel obligated to spend their time teaching and learning rather than contending with and being buffeted by verbal terrorism.  One of the radicals' tactics is rule by policy committee domination.  They pressure administrators to relinquish their duty in a specific area and turn it over to a committee.

 

These practices by employees all fall below what the taxpaying public, in our opinion, expect and have a right to expect of the teachers they hire.

 

4yi_0126_grand_jury

Image from http://gambar2anehmuantepsi.blogspot.com/2012/04/grand-jury-responsibilities....

 

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Thu, 18 Oct 2012 07:42:00 -0700 Part Four: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-four-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-four-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

Observations in the Problem Area

 

II.  They have a general goal of destroying and tearing down traditional values. [Hateful talk leads to hateful acts, and immoral advocacy leads to immoral acts.]  Radical salesmen appeal to idealistic students with words calculated to destroy their youthful faith in their heritage.  The following quotations [provided by the County Attorney to the jury] are from one of many paid speakers at ISU.

 

"I spend about 90 percent of my time now on college campuses.  This is the most morally polluted, insane nation on the face of this earth and it is your job to change it."

 

"And I say to you youngsters in the process of trying to make this peacefully orderly transition of bringing up the constitution over the capitalists, if they offer you too much resistance, then destroy them."

 

"Let's always remember that flag still ain't nothing but a rag, like all of the other flags on the face of the earth."

 

This was not an isolated example but [was] typical of much of the educational approach we observed.

 

In the area of society and human nature, such denial, when implemented, detaches future generations from past experience.  Oddly enough, that is the very reason taxpayers fund colleges and universities.  Tolerating such foolishness gives a teaching license to those who promote illicit sex, the use of decimating drugs, flag burning, and other immoral behavior [that questions] historically known good.

 

Such a position on fundamental tenets raises a very interesting question.  If the desirability of sexual virtue and the undesirability of co-habitation in single student dorms is, as they say, a matter of opinion--if in fact sexual virtue and many other tenets such as basic honesty are not established knowledge suitable for classroom doctrine--what is the good of having humanities [soft science behavioral studies] courses at all?  When a radical teacher lectures, what is he accomplishing with taxpayers' money?

 

Picture_of_iowa_flag

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Mon, 15 Oct 2012 07:34:00 -0700 Part Three: Grand Jury Presentment of "Problems in Higher Education" http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-three-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-three-grand-jury-presentment-of-problems

Portions of the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa follow, with words added for clarification in brackets.  Supplemental ideas are italicized.

 

Observations in the Problem Area

 

Following the publication of the Grand Jury Presentment, the Iowa State University Press published a book for the Iowa Civil Liberties Union entitled Freedom in Iowa.  Among many false statements in the book was the claim that the Grand Jury "never defined" the word radicals.  The Grand Jury's description of radicals follows.

 

At this point perhaps we should define to some extent what we mean in this report by "radicals" and "militants" in the context of their behavior on campus [and] as expressed in our interviews and investigation.

 

I.  Their number one goal, both stated and apparent, is that they desire to control the useful university apparatus for a base to promote and direct their activities.  There is no apparent limit; [they want to control the] university news media, selection of guest speakers, extension outlets, et cetera.

 

An example of the power of radicals at ISU was brought to our attention by a citizen who had contacted a department head.  He suggested that the coming News Editors' Seminar might be informed by the University of an Official Pamphlet about the techniques of Communist propaganda in the news media.  The citizen was told that it was not the business of the university to get involved in politics.  The citizen was later shocked to read in the newspaper that an associate professor of history had lectured the editors on possible future problems with certain [conservative] local political groups.

 

This News Editors' Seminar provided by the university was clearly a political program intended to undermine the rights, credibility, and opinions of citizens who oppose leftist agendas for government and radicals' control of the soft sciences in taxpayer-funded education.

 

Court_room

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Sat, 06 Oct 2012 09:32:00 -0700 Original Purpose Destroyed by Union Control http://davidanorris.posterous.com/original-purpose-destroyed-by-union-control http://davidanorris.posterous.com/original-purpose-destroyed-by-union-control

 

It was my privilege to chair a Grand Jury for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa that investigated activities at Iowa State University and made several recommendations for changes in higher education. 

 

The Grand Jury members all contributed to the report.  There was a considerable amount of material to review.  A few campus administrators and members of the faculty met with us to give their perspective.  Following each meeting, I wrote a brief of what seemed relevant and presented it to the jury members at the next meeting.  The members approved most all of my draft, which later became the Presentment, unanimously approved by the jury.

 

The original purpose of universities was freedom of competition of ideas in search of truth.  What has happened is the advocates of atheistic-secular totalitarianism applied their art and removed competition from the soft sciences.  When citizen control of universities, college, and now virtually all lower-level public schools was hijacked by faculty independence (teachers union mechanization and teacher tenure guarantees), tyranny was bound to follow.

 

At the time of the Grand Jury study, we did not realize the linkage between the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and what appears to be their prosecution arm, the leftist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  The ACLU/AAUP version of academic freedom and tenure that enables radicals to reject the public standards for what is taught and not taught is not a legal concept.  Without the control of the citizens who established the schools and pay the bills, what is taught is wholly dependent upon the internal culture of the faculty at the universities and the government grade schools.  This problem is systemic.

 

Rev. Charles Finney is quoted as saying, "The time has come that Christians must vote for honest men and take consistent ground in politics…  Politics are a part of religion in a country such as this and Christians must do their duty to their country as a part of their duty to God…  God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in politics."*

 

Arrangements were made for a local print shop to reproduce and handle requests for copies of the Presentment.  Later, I received a call from them informing me that the university had purchased the remaining copies, so I instructed them to print five hundred more.  Portions of the Presentment will follow in the next blog post.

 

Grand_jury_report

*http://www.trumpetofheritage.org/

 

 

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Tue, 18 Sep 2012 13:56:11 -0700 Every Taxpayer Has Power to Advance Liberty http://davidanorris.posterous.com/every-taxpayer-has-power-to-advance-liberty http://davidanorris.posterous.com/every-taxpayer-has-power-to-advance-liberty

It is important that we reassess how our personal giving and tax dollars are being used.  Of utmost importance, we need to oppose the funding of higher or lower public schools that place in question the primacy of the traditional family, morality and citizen self-reliance.  The following letter is an example of sorely needed citizen influence.

 

Dear County Treasurer:

We are paying the education tax called for by the billing from your office.  This is, of course, an important citizen duty.  We respectfully urge that legislators change the tax law so collections for school tuition would be routed to parents or guardians.  They can then exercise their right to choose a school, be it public or private, that best represents and teaches their values.  There are many ways to administer this, including the very effective tuition program known as the G.I. Bill.  We agree with parents and many teachers who object to any curriculum forced upon students that places the composition of the family in question and presents revisionist morality as an acceptable lifestyle.

Thank you for your work as County Treasurer.

(Signed)_____________________________________________________________

 

Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying, "Education is not the means of showing people how to get what they want.  Education is an exercise by means of which enough men, it is hoped, will learn to want what is worth having."*

 

8735_180187051054_7950999_n

*http://www.notable-quotes.com/e/education_quotes.html

 

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Fri, 14 Sep 2012 21:53:00 -0700 Every Citizen Has Power to Advance Liberty in November http://davidanorris.posterous.com/every-citizen-has-power-to-advance-liberty-in http://davidanorris.posterous.com/every-citizen-has-power-to-advance-liberty-in

Support legislative candidates who recognize the benefit of routing taxpayer revenues for education directly to parents or other guardians.  They may then choose homeschool, private school or a charter school that reflects their values.  Texas legislators are now even backing "charter colleges."  They could be "core curriculum charters" that would offer "great books seminars," including courses on Bible, Renaissance, Reformation and, of course, American values resident in the Declaration of Independence.  Charter colleges would receive per-student funding as charter K-12 do now.*

 

Elect people to serve on school boards who will insist that the unique and specific American principles for government be taught.  In 1877, the United States government printing office published The Organic Laws of the United States of America.  Ben Poole, who was then clerk of printing records, compiled the documentation under an order by the U.S. Senate.  The Organic Laws of the United States of America lists the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Northwest Ordinance and the Constitution on the United States.  Share this study with your school board.

 

Support candidates at federal and state levels who agree to work for the appointment of judges who respect the original meaning of the Constitution.  "Judge Robert H. Bork describes the enormous damage that activist judges have inflicted on America in his book, Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges.  The courts are often dominated by faux intellectuals of the Left who, unable to persuade the people or the legislators, 'avoid the verdict of the ballot box' by engaging in 'politics masquerading as law.'  We are 'increasingly governed not by law or elected representatives, but by unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable committees of lawyers applying no law other than their own will.'"**

 

Work for and elect senators and representatives to the U.S. Congress who will reassert their duty to represent the people and restore the Constitutional provisions for restricting the role of federal judges.  The Constitution is a rule of law document, not a rule by unelected judges.  In terms of how authority manifests itself over time, the two contrasts represent the distinction between representative government of, by and for the people and the tyranny of authoritarianism.  In terms of philosophy, the two represent the distinction between the Creator-based Declaration of Independence and the evils of old European secular philosophy.  When the traditional American sovereignty of man under God over government was adopted on July 4, 1776, it reversed the historical inevitability of authoritarian carnage.

 

"Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress.  If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption.  If it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature… If the next centennial does not find us a great nation… it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces."***

 

 

Timthumb

*Quotes from Marvin Olasky, "Academic Perestroika," World, December 5, 2009, www.worldmag.com/marvinolasky?ndxpage=3.

**Phyllis Schlafly, The Supremacists:  The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It (Dallas: Spence Publishing Company, 2004), 14.

***James Garfield, the twentieth president of the United States, 1877 (http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/presidential_quotes.htm).>

 

Image from http://madmikesamerica.com/2010/12/bill-of-rights-the-new-uncluttered-version...

 

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Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:21:49 -0700 The Prescription For Citizen Paralysis: Knowledge and Action http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-prescription-for-citizen-paralysis-knowle http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-prescription-for-citizen-paralysis-knowle

Liberty with prosperity came to America because the Founding Fathers had it right.  They took self and all pretender gods off the throne, and they placed the King of Kings, the impartial, nonsectarian God of life and creation's nature, on the throne.

 

"Our fathers have earned and bought it for us, at the expense of their ease, their estates, their pleasure, and their blood.  And liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers.  Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks, is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country" (John Adams, Vice-President under George Washington, and second president of the United States, A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1766 from The Works of John Adams, …by his grandson, Charles F. Adams, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 10 volumes).

 

Parents, guardians and grandparents who can afford it should support the enrollment of their children in God-honoring private schools or, if able, homeschool them.  This is the most powerful political statement that Americans can make.  That is the vanguard for a nationwide competitive school system enabling citizen choice.

 

Promote the election of candidates for public office who unabashedly oppose government tolerance for teacher union tenure laws.  Good teachers have always had tenure by virtue of the quality of their work alone.

 

Teachers do have rights, but ultimately they answer to those who pay their salaries.  Teachers who cannot accept a contract with a school district that requires respect for the family and morality have but one alternative, which is to establish, fund, and teach in their own private schools.

 

"Because of the obvious potential for abuse even labor union advocates like AFL-CIO President George Meany and Franklin D. Roosevelt viewed unionization of the public employees as unthinkable.*

 

When tenure establishment privileges for government teachers are prohibited, good teachers can again safely support the traditional family and historic American principles without having their patriotism dirtied by secular gossips.

 

"We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something--for liberty and freedom and fairness.  And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to.  And we have good reason to be hopeful and optimistic… so, let us go forth with good cheer and stout hearts--happy warriors out to seize back a country and a world to freedom."**

 

Liberty-bell1

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Tue, 04 Sep 2012 06:54:25 -0700 The Healing of Citizen Paralysis http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-healing-of-citizen-paralysis http://davidanorris.posterous.com/the-healing-of-citizen-paralysis

Restoring educational traditions central to American greatness provides the sure basis for strong families, prosperity and limited government for, by and of the people.  Many people are in the dark about the God-rejecting worldview now being imposed upon captive student classrooms and as a result, they do not join in opposition.  

 

We must broadcast anew and persist in upholding the First Principle, that it is creation's God Who is man's Benefactor.  This is the basic principle upon which all other worthy principles follow.  When the First Principle is not publicly upheld by educators (for students to learn), the standards of righteousness that are central to liberty and American greatness soon become fodder for distortion by atheistic secular militants.

 

When we as a people championed the spirit of the First Principle, creation's God Who is man's Benefactor, the meaning of the Declaration of Independence was clear and the war of King George III and his army against Americans failed.

 

Our duty now is to be very public about the fact that reliable standards for law come with knowledge of the nonsectarian Creator-based meaning of the Declaration of Independence and the First Amendment.  In 1835, the significance of this connection was observed by the French lawyer, Alexis de Tocqueville, "… in America, religion is the road to knowledge and the observance of the divine laws leads man to civil freedom…"

 

The rudeness and even hatred exhibited by secular pathfinders when confronted with American principles gives politics a bad name.  They cannot tell the truth and sell their leftist agenda.  This gives us a comparative advantage.  Political involvement and persistence in broadcasting American values is a noble and necessary calling for every freedom-loving American.

 

In the American system of representative government, education central to American greatness will be restored if the people know how it has been altered.  That is the purpose of Restoring Education Central to American Greatness.  I accept no personal remuneration for writing or serving as President of the Heartland Foundation, Inc.  If you have received important insights from this blog, purchase the book, Restoring Education Central to American Greatness, and share it with people you know.  The documentation has been put in book form so that readers such as you can put it into the hands of as many people as possible.

 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing" (The Works of Edmund Burke in Nine Volumes, Vol. IX… 172).

 

Prayer, humility and recommitment must be undertaken.  The selfless dedication that made the American Revolution possible is seen in the Great Awakening of 1740 through 1780.  God has provided this specific promise:  "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14).

 

"As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgement of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness cannot exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed."*

 

Book_image

*John Adams in his Proclamation 8 ~ Recommending a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer, March 23, 1798 (http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=65661).

 

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