Restoring Education Central to American Greatness http://davidanorris.posterous.com David A. Norris Blog posterous.com Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:21:44 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-61143 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-61143

Conclusion (Part II)

 

Immortal Principles Central To Liberty and American Greatness

 

 

The tragic support for radical teacher privilege can be traced to changes in what many law students are being taught.  In the 1870s, Christopher C. Langdell, Dean of the Harvard Law School, discarded the foundational basis for law upon which greatness has been achieved in America: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…"

 

Langdell's fellow travelers are themselves victims of bad education.  According to them, no lasting absolutes upon which laws can be framed exist.  Instruction that fortifies the enemies of William Blackstone's Commentaries on Common Law is BAD education.  Blackstone's Commentaries were used by law students up through Abraham Lincoln's time.  It took several decades for the secularized instruction in law schools to compromise American jurisprudence.  The Commission on Excellence in Education emphasizes what is happening, "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."  The report laments, "the de-construct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society" (A Nation At Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983).

 

"Human history records the ongoing effort by men to substitute man-made law for the [unrelenting] laws of God and creation's nature."  Laws contrived by men end in disaster because they reject the existence of moral absolutes.  The consequences of this are clearly apparent today in America.  Quoting Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who documented the extermination of tens of millions of innocent victims in order to create a socialistic utopia in his homeland, "man has forgotten God" (quotes in this paragraph are from Understanding the Times, an exceptional resource, by David A. Noebel, Harvest House Publishers).

 

Enslavement by authoritarians' regulations and excessive taxation could not occur if Americans were being taught American history.  Renewed exposure to the God-honoring principles of the American Declaration of Independence is our most powerful weapon.  The light of truth fortifies the minds of men and women, boys and girls.  We believe these principles because they reflect the unrelenting power of creation's God.

 

We serve God.  The most significant change that came from the American war for independence is that the people were recognized by law to be sovereigns under God, over government.  Citizen self-rule replaced self-anointed authoritarians.  Government officials were recognized for what they are--servants of the people.

 

The Spiritual Awakening of 1740 through 1780 drove the selfless dedication that brought the American Revolution to a successful conclusion.  We have this 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).

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:56:37 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-2233 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-2233

Conclusion (Part I)

 

Immortal Principles Central To Liberty and American Greatness

 

 

"Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal" (Dr. Benjamin Rush, Essay, 1786).

 

Our families and nation are at risk.  Where moral law ends, tyranny begins.  Some sixty years ago, public schools were still circulating the A Golden Treasury From The BIBLE pamphlet full of wholesome character-building Bible verses.  The God-rejecting secular worldview imposed upon education by control of just a few militant teachers, protected by union contract negotiators, has undoubtedly put our nation "conceived in liberty" to the ultimate test.

 

The tactics of a small group of tenured teachers have forcibly elevated sexual promiscuity, infanticide and other practices devastating to students and society to the status of education legitimacy.  Because of the tactics of secular militants, good teachers, students and even the taxpayers who pay the teachers' salaries, are afraid to object.  These few radicals have the power to totally disrupt the education process.  School administrators know this.  Teacher tenure laws, approved by current state laws, force administrators to leave bad teachers in control of the God-rejecting anti-Christian education climate.

 

This is not a strictly religious matter.  The consequences of rejecting the life-enhancing Laws of Nature are easily seen in daily experience.  Even though some parents do not give creation's God credit for life-enhancing standards, they take their children out of government public schools to avoid exposing them to evil suggestiveness.

 

What do we mean by LIBERTY?  We do not need new principles to solve our problems.  We need America; meaning, we need to advance again and apply the civic values of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  The Preamble (purpose) for the Constitution reads to "… secure the BLESSINGS of LIBERTY to ourselves and our posterity…"  If we do not succeed in alerting our young people, our friends and others, to what the enemies of American liberty are accomplishing, there will no longer be the kind of liberty that inspires the "BLESSINGS of LIBERTY for our posterity [descendants]."  The purpose of the Constitution includes "… establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare…" (meaning common needs that do not conflict with or hamper the development of the work ethic and citizen self-reliance).  If we do not succeed in alerting others, ill-advised politicians will, at the expense of taxpayers, justify benefits for voters from birth to grave.

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 07:13:00 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-74472 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-74472

American Principle Fifteen 

 

The Benevolent Provision and Heart Of God For Mankind

Are Recognized By Our Founding Fathers

 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

It is the deeply felt expression of faith in the God who gave us life and the respect for unchanging laws of creation's nature that reversed the historic tide of oppression by government officials.

 

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

 

We must be honest.  There is an imperative need to restore American law that upheld the impartial life-enhancing morality, known then as Common Law and will always be known as the Laws of Nature.  The Declaration of Independence reads "… the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind…"  This is not only the basis for our nation's charters, it is also the unifier of our immigrant nation for the greatness that has been achieved.  

 

The wisdom of leaders who drafted the American charters is illustrated by the recommendation made for the American Seal.  Originally Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams proposed that the Seal pay tribute to the benevolent provision and heart of God for mankind.  Their design depicted the Old Testament journey of the Israelites who were guided by God through the wilderness.  The other side displayed Anglo-Saxons from Germanic tribes who descended to England and influenced the making of laws.  The Anglo-Saxons introduced morality for law comparable to the values of right and wrong identified by the human conscience at birth.  Undoubtedly, the most significant guide for law chosen by Americans was the Ten Commandments presented by God to Moses at Mount Sinai.

 

Secular authoritarians who abuse citizen sovereignty in practice and the Constitutional concept of unalienable God-given human rights have always menaced society.  "I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations" (James Madison, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 16, 1788).  The quest for power is reflected in their tax and spend authoritarian militancy.  While claiming patriotism, they promote fear and employ every conceivable means to remove any knowledge of America's Judeo-Christian heritage and the principles of the Declaration of Independence that gave birth to the United States of America.

 

The Declaration of Independence concludes: "We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor" (the final paragraph from the Declaration of Independence unanimously adopted by the thirteen United States of America, CONGRESS, July 4, 1776).

 

The Constitution concludes: "Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present on the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the independence [Declaration of Independence] of the United States of America the Twelfth [adopted earlier] In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our names."

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:59:00 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-48165 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-48165

American Principle Twelve 

 

Vital to the American Work Ethic,

Property Ownership Must Be Secure

 

"… are entitled to life, liberty and property…"

Declaration, First Continental Congress, 1774

 

"All men… are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

"That all men… have certain inherent rights… namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property" (Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776).

 

"In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will [to work and be responsible]" (The Federalist No. 79, by Alexander Hamilton).

 

Karl Marx (1818-1883) helped turn Soviet Russia into a socialist state.  It collapsed after the death of hundreds of millions of people, some by starvation, others murdered by the government.  According to Marx, capitalism would never work because of the inequities between the rich and poor.  He achieved worldwide support of secular intellectuals for taxing the people and redistributing "each according to his ability, to each according to need" still common today.  The truth is that capitalism, man's ownership of the fruits of his labor, helps both the rich and poor get richer.  The promise of ownership encourages men to overcome the pain of labor and take personal responsibility.

 

Socialism was tried in the Plymouth Colony here in America following extensive food shortages.  Instead of the "rule of man," Governor Bradford turned to the Bible for wisdom and then announced that settlers would have a plot of land, and thereafter be responsible for and entitled to the fruits of their own labor (April, 1623).  Entire families went to work, and hard times changed to a plentiful supply of food.*

*http://www.sail1620.org/history/articles/122-plymouth-jamestown.html

 

"That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where arbitrary restrictions, exemptions, and monopolies deny to part of its citizens that free use of their faculties, and free choice of their occupations, which not only constitute their property in the general sense of the word; but are the means of acquiring property…" (Essay by James Madison, published in the National Gazette, March 29, 1792).

 

Linking the work ethic to the right of property ownership was a monumental break from the world's political history.  The incentive of property ownership is the engine that makes an economy flourish.  It is the increase in value of the products supplied by the worker that leads the buyer to spend his money to own the product.

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 06:32:00 -0700 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-57285 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-57285

American Principle Eleven (Part II)

 

Government and Union Monopolies Involving Education

Or Religion Are Prohibited--For Liberty's Sake


"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.'"

First Amendment, Constitution of the United States

 

 

Education that does not teach the timeless Creator-based principles, outlined in the Declaration of Independence, empowers the enemies of America and the people's right to liberty from oppressive government employees.  "Without learning, men are incapable of knowing their rights, and where learning is confined to a few people, liberty can be neither equal nor universal" (Dr. Benjamin Rush, Essay, 1786; Dr. Rush was a highly regarded physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence).  Freedom from tyrants of the mind requires that government be prohibited from being a part of or permitting monopolies over education, religion and political unions.  It is the duty of government to encourage competition between them in America.

 

The Following Was Taken From Chapter Nine

 

Even though some judges are soft on crime, "One of every 100 adults are in jail or prison, according to a new report documenting America's rank as the world's No. 1 incarcerator," according to a new study by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.  With more than 2.3 million people behind bars, the United States leads the world in both the number and percentage of residents it incarcerates" (David Crary, New York Associated Press, February 28, 2008).

Graph_for_principle_11_pic

These are merely symptoms of the consequences of the secularization of education in government schools.  Far greater damage is the hidden loss to the soul of America, including the loss of the people's discernment needed for choosing public officials.


First Amendment law, intended to prevent the suppression of the right of parents to choose between competing education suppliers for their children's education, is superior to all other laws--national, state and local.

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Thu, 07 Mar 2013 13:42:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-50006 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-50006

American Principle Eleven (Part I)

 

Government and Union Monopolies Involving Education

Or Religion Are Prohibited--For Liberty's Sake


"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.'"

First Amendment, Constitution of the United States

 

 

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were concerned about the use of government power by what Thomas Jefferson called "Tyrants of the Mind."  Instead of government being the servant of the people, tyrants override the people's authority and gradually take control of what schools teach.  The family and the teaching of American history become early victims.  Students are dumbed down.  Secular open-minded morality and class envy divide families and communities.  Fellow travelers in the judiciary reject the historical application of First Amendment law.  In later chapters we document the inroads of harmful law.

 

Government-sanctioned teacher tenure guarantees are a violation of the First Amendment.  Privileged government teachers lead toward the same devastating consequences as the government-sanctioned church imposed on medieval Europe.  Experience with tyrants of the mind is the reason for the First Amendment.

 

Tyrants of the mind are bullies.  The creation of fear enables the few to overpower school administrators hired by the people to run schools in the public interest.  The weapons used include bad-mouthing and the ruin of the reputations of good administrators and teachers who dare to challenge leftist "politically correct" militants.

 

Editors of the book Speeches That Changed the World started with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and Christ's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  These editors recognized the good that believers have contributed to society and the superior quality of the Bible as literature.  Speeches That Changed the World included speeches by two Darwinian evolutionists, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.  Their leadership did influence the world.  The murder of millions of innocent people demonstrates the depths to which the open-mindedness of Darwin's God-rejecting Origin of the Species dogma can take men.

 

As always happens, those who reject the envelope of the life-enhancing "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" eventually self-destruct.  The problem now in America is the damage being done to the minds of millions of our youth who will soon be leaders.

 

"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" (Grand Jury study of problems in higher education for the Eleventh Judicial District of Iowa, chaired by David A. Norris).

 

"The first national study of four common sexually transmitted diseases among girls and young women has found that one in four [is] infected with at least one of the diseases, U.S. health officials reported Tuesday" (Lawrence K. Altman, New York Times, March 11, 2008).  One in four U.S. teenage girls have STDs.  The diseases, which are infections caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites, can produce acute symptoms… and potentially fatal pregnancy… and cervical cancer.  The two most common sexually transmitted diseases, or STDs, among all the participants tested were HPB at 18 percent, and chlamydia at 4 percent, according to the analysis portion of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

 

An honest evolutionist: "Evolution is unproved and unprovable.  We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable" (Sir Arthur Keith, citation in Wallie A. Criswell's Did Man Just Happen?, Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 1973).

 

Education worthy of the name will emphasize that the president, congress and the judiciary are servants of, by and for the people who are the sovereigns under creation's God.

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:16:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99555 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-99555

American Principle Seven (Part I)

 

The Moral Duties Of Civility Are Also a Predicate

For Interpreting Constitutional Meaning

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident ..."

Declaration of Independence

 

"Tis substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.  Who that is a sincere friend to it, can look with Indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric?"

George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796

 

 

"Laws of Nature and of Nature's God"* morality fits into the behavioral envelope that supports life, truthfulness and the Golden Rule, meaning treating others in ways that one would like to be treated and would like loved ones to be treated.  Immorality includes those traits called sin that fall outside the envelope of life.

 

Together, morality and work ethic is the engine that liberates mankind from the tyranny of aggressive government employees.  Liberty from intrusive government makes it possible for the people to market their skills to own property essential for maintaining independence and happiness.

 

"Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites.  Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere… men of intemperate minds cannot be free.  Their passions forget their fetters" (Edmund Burke, British supporter of the American Revolution, November 3, 1774, speech to the electors of Bristol, England, quoted by HIllsdale College, Imprimis, Vol. 20, No. 9).

 

The atheistic-secular philosophy for law identifies with what Solon of Athens described as "government by incalculable and changeable decrees" (Will and Ariel Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. II, The Life of Greece, Simon and Schuster, 1939, 118).  Secularism is an evil repudiation of the solid basis for prosperity and citizen self-government intended by Constitutional law.

 

Government potential for power as well as the lucrative public treasury attract politicians who are intent on self-aggrandizement and conquest.  Expressed by President Ronald Reagan: "Government is not the solution to our problems, it is the problem" (Inaugural Address, 1981).  "A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.  The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositaries, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments ancient and modern; some of them in our country and under our own eyes.  To preserve them must be as necessary as to institute them" (George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796).

 

*The phrase "Nature's God" used in the Declaration of Independence did not originate with Americans.  The Laws of Nature's God include the Biblical standards of morality.  When the bond between God and man was broken in the Garden of Eden, the forces of evil that seek to defy creation's nature were unleashed.  "The law of nature was a common term used by historic legal writers such as Grotius, Burlamaqui, Blackstone and others.  The law of nature's God, a lesser used term, was more commonly called the divine law, or the revealed law" (Lonang Historical Reference Works).

http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/index.html

 

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

 

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:07:00 -0800 Part I: Government http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-21804 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/part-i-government-21804

American Principle Six (Part III)

 

The Written Constitution Established

By Americans Is a Tool For Governing

 

Governments derive "their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Declaration of Independence

 

 

Constitutional law, before it was amended, protected the public treasury from being raided by government employees.  It is important that we the people know and support the retention of honorable legislators, administrators and judges.  Honorable officials do not dole out money flippantly, promote character-destructive legislation, and provide administrative favors or prejudicial judgments to privilege-seeking voters.  This means no "quid pro quo."

 

Secondly, the basis for the Bill of Rights amendment details how the tool, albeit the people's treasury, must NOT be used to interfere with a citizen's freedom to learn, think, worship and work independently.  This principle from the Bible, declaring that people have the right to view competing sources of knowledge and are free to choose, speaks to the tremendous value of the American Judeo-Christian heritage.  This never before used basis for a nation's laws came from the Judeo-Christian beliefs of our Founders.

 

Called natural law, the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" from the Declaration of Independence, reflect man's inherent ability to distinguish between right and wrong.  These beliefs are also supported by man's conscience.  Paul rejoices that "… the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world…" (2 Corinthians 1:12).

 

The original laws adopted by Americans uphold life and equal justice.  They include the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman as well as the Ten Commandments.  When natural law was adopted by the judiciary and legislators, it became known as the Common Law basis for the rule of law.  Clearly superior to the vacillating rule of man, American law is traceable from the Bible to the Magna Carta (citizen sovereignty under God) to the Declaration of Independence and the citizens' Bill of Rights.

 

Common Law, resting on God-honoring values, caused immigrants by countless millions to flee authoritarian rule and come to America.  It is the conspicuous benefits flowing out from the impartial "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" that unified our immigrant nation.  That bond is reflected in the USA Today/Gallup Poll, May, 2010.  Ninety-two percent of Americans believe in God and only five percent say they oppose the National Day of Prayer.

 

The Commission on Excellence in Education remains the premier American study of problems in public education.  It states:  "If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war."  The report laments "the de-construct of the moral and spiritual strengths which knit together the very fabric of our society" (A Nation at Risk, the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 26, 1983).

 

The meaning of diversity, applauded by American immigrant society, has now been perverted by laws, requiring citizens and public schools to assent publicly to sodomy, infanticide and atheistic education exclusivity, all of which are outside the envelope of life.

 

Americans had not sought to amend the Constitution, yet Langdell (dean of Harvard Law School, 1870-95) determined that the original intent and meaning for our written Constitution be scrapped.  As long as the people's lawmakers in Congress willingly sit idly by, liberal judges will continue to modify or sanction laws that are outside the envelope of life and then endorse their own opinions.  Secular militants who discount the Common Law moral fabric that powered American greatness speaks to the evil consequences of secularism which lead men and nations to self destruct.


 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:18:00 -0800 Introduction VII http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-vii-78068 http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-vii-78068

There are three achievements of secular progressives that have enabled leftist radicals to control behavioral instruction in public schools (see Chapters 7 and 9).  Their first big achievement came when Supreme Court majorities began to impose mandates for law that rejected the unique God-honoring basis for law advanced by the Magna Carta and the American Declaration of Independence.  When secular mandates by the court for future laws are allowed to stand, the historic absolutes resident in the "rule of law" and moral priorities are no longer binding.  Consequently, our Constitution becomes a mere political document.  The center of power shifted foolishly from the people and Congress subject to the Constitution, to the political preferences of judges.  Among the first of many twists away from our Constitution and the First Amendment was the Everson v. Board of Education decision.  The second achievement of leftist radicals was the takeover, beginning in the 1960s, of the then-conservative National Education Association (see Chapters 7 through 10).  Also in the 1960s, secular progressives, committed to the elimination of self-government and liberty, reached their third achievement--the unionization of government teachers.

A government-established union monopoly, like an established state church, undermines the people's right to choose between providers that must compete for a following.  Union monopolies have always been power-corrupting institutions. Whatever their agenda by subject or region, accountability to competition is removed and evil prevails.  Union monopolies are in diametrical opposition to government of, by and for the people.  It is the collective political power foolishly granted to autoworker unions that brought the American auto industry to its knees.  It is the collective political advantage of unionism that makes it possible for radicals to impose their atheistic worldview over the objections to both the vast majority of parents and the millions of excellent teachers caught in the union web.  Violation of citizen authority (government of, by and for the people) is the radical politics of fascism--authoritarian hierarchical government.

Detailed in Chapter 7, the loss of citizen control over what our nation's youth are taught in the behavioral studies hinges on two teachers' tenure contract paragraphs demanded by union bosses when negotiating with local school boards.  The first devastating paragraph provides teacher tenure guarantees that supersede the authority of school administrators to replace employees.  The second harmful paragraph makes it a crime to disclose bad teacher performance to the public or to other schools that are considering hiring the teacher until costly and lengthy legal proceedings have approved such disclosure.

 

Professionals like medical doctors, engineers, plumbers and airline pilots--vital to our society--do NOT have tenure guarantees.  Yet what is being taught to America's youth is of even greater importance.

Some repetition has been used for emphasis and to tie the chapters together.

 

Benjamin_franklin_4

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin, a delegate from Pennsylvania to the second Continental Congress and signer of the Constitution of the United States, wrote about the First Principle in his Articles of Belief:  "I believe there is one supreme, most perfect Being … Also when I stretch my imagination through and beyond our system of planets, beyond the visible fixed stars themselves, into that space that is [in] every way infinite, and conceive it filled with suns like ours, each with a chorus of worlds forever moving around him; then this little ball on which we move, seems, even in my narrow imagination, to be almost nothing, and myself less than nothing, and of no sort of consequence … That I may be preserved from atheism … Help me, O Father! … For all thy innumerable benefits; for life, and reason … My good God, I thank thee!" (Benjamin Franklin, "Articles of Belief," in The American Ideal of 1776, ed. Hamilton Albert Long {Philadelphia: Heritage Books, 1963}, 5).

Is it too late for America?  Not at all.

 

Image from http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/tdgh-jun/jun01.htm

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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.

 

 

Image from http://washingtonvirtualtrip.wikispaces.com/Abraham+Lincoln+Memorial

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Tue, 25 Dec 2012 14:07:00 -0800 Introduction V http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-v http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-v

When God's protective care is rejected in any particular, the rejector bears the price of that sin against himself and against the life-giving boundaries of creation's nature.

 

An insightful experience as been shared by Marvin Olasky, Distinguished Chair in Journalism at Patrick Henry College, editor of WORLD magazine and author of more than twenty books.  A former Marxist intellectual, Olasky was highly regarded by the chairman of his PhD academic program and dissertation committee at the University of Michigan.  Olasky, who became disillusioned by the shallowness of socialistic panaceas, became a solid convert to Christianity.  He concurs with Whittaker Chambers who came to believe in God after being a Communist Party member in the 1920s and 1930s.  In the autobiography Witness, Whittaker Chambers writes: "A Communist breaks because he must choose at last between irreconcilable opposites--God or man, Soul [conscience] or Mind [emotions], Freedom or Communism.  The crisis of the Western world exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God."*

 

*http://www.the-boondocks.org/forum/index.php?t=msg&&goto=212310

 

In this book, the focus upon the danger to American liberty has been narrowed to those who are at the seat of the problem--atheist secular militants.

 

The first principle adopted by leftist or atheistic evangelicals, and upon which their lesser initiatives rest, is the God-rejecting theory of evolution.  Revisionist morality, supported by the Darwinian theory for life's origin, meaning and purpose, represents one of the greatest evils of our time.  Charles Darwin published his theory for a God-rejecting worldview in the book The Origin of Species published in 1859.  There is some adaptation within species, but the herculean efforts of science-pretenders to find evolution between species fail.  Sir Arthur Keith, a leading evolutionist, has written truthfully: "Evolution is unproved and unprovable.  We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation which is unthinkable" (Sir Arthur Keith, a citation in Wallie A. Criswell's Did Man Just Happen? Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1967).

 

"Old European secular philosophy" is a general term that includes the many sects championed by God-rejecting intellectuals.  The traditional American use of the word secular is to distinguish national, state and local governments from church governments.  This has become too confusing for modern day use on two counts.  First, used by radicals, the word "secular" leaves people blindsided to the fact that the science of their agenda is driven by deception and the insistence on an atheistic secular worldview monopoly.  Secondly, their atheistic worldview is religious, with a deeply-held Darwinian view about the origin and meaning of life.  In 1961, the Supreme Court in Torcaso v. Watkins classified secular humanism (the title used by secular militants in academia) as a religion.  To avoid the misleading use of the word "secular," we suggest there are times that the phrase atheistic secular be used.  Instead of being secular-authoritarian based, the American predicate for determining public policy is impartial, higher-authority and morality based.

 

American conservatism transcends both the good and evil intentions of today's adherents to the old European secular philosophy--the religious and political left.

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
Sun, 23 Dec 2012 19:31:00 -0800 Introduction IV: Truth or Consequences Applies to Nations http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iv-truth-or-consequences-applies http://davidanorris.posterous.com/introduction-iv-truth-or-consequences-applies

What are the consequences that befall nations when partisan authoritarians take God, with moral accountability, out of education?  Typical of empires that have cluttered cemeteries throughout human history, the Soviets had flooded their empire with propaganda.  Darwin's theory for human origins had become the basis for education.  The consequences included growing alcoholism, youthful insolence and irresponsible attitudes toward work and self-support.

 

At a United Nations forum on December 7, 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev, atheist leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991, acknowledged that the God-rejecting dogma of Karl Marx and Charles Darwin was an utter failure (evil).  Reflecting upon the disintegration under the secular progressive government, Gorbachev said: “The compelling necessity of the principle of freedom of choice is … clear to us.  The failure to recognize this … is fraught with very dire consequences …  Freedom of choice is a universal principle to which there should be no exceptions.  We have not come to the conclusion of the immutability of this principle simply through good motives.  We have been led to it through impartial analysis of the objective processes of our time.  This objective fact presupposes respect for other people’s views“ (George P. Schultz, Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan, Turmoil and Triumph, New York: Macmillan, 1993, p. 1107.  This book traces the moral and economic collapse of the Soviet Socialist Empire).

 

Gorbachev tried to prevent the collapse of truth-trashing socialistic rule.  To do this, he adopted Perestroika, which allowed the people to be informed and free to communicate.  He also legalized property rights, but socialism had gone too far.  Beginning in 1989, the puppet Communist governments in captive countries controlled by the Soviets were overthrown by the people.  The Soviet Union fell apart when captive countries quit contributing the revenue required to keep the socialist economy going. 

 

Whether or not Gorbachev realized it, the Soviet empire was being forced to acknowledge that those who reject the sovereignty of man under God over government run into the immutable laws of creation’s nature.  Those laws support life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  In contrast, the vacillating laws of man lead to exploitation, cultural decay, poverty and tyranny.

 

Writing of Perestroika, Gorbachev’s wife Raisa said:  “Our society has set out on the path of renewal and of demolishing totalitarianism and the obsolete command system of administering the country” (Raisa Gorbachev, Reminiscences and Reflections, Harper Collins, 1991, p. 174).  (See Appendix C, "How Socialism Exploits Mankind," Part IV--Supplemental Material, in this book.)

 

Both the Webster and Random House dictionaries identify socialism as a “Marxist theory.”  Winston Churchill stated: “Socialism is inseparably interwoven with totalitarianism and the object worship of the state.”  He also said, “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery."

 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu164131.html

 

When majorities on the Supreme Court force changes in our laws that reject the moral and God-honoring predicate of the United States Constitution, they have, in effect, empowered truth-trashing by radicals in government schools.  Separation of the right of church clergy to dictate (separation of church and state) does not justify the removal of "In God We Trust" as a publicly held standard.  "Liberty and life are the gratuitous gifts of heaven.  I shall certainly be excused from adducing any formal arguments to evince, that life, and whatever is necessary for the safest of life, are the natural rights of man.  Some things are so difficult; others are so plain, that they cannot be proved" (Supreme Court Justice James Wilson, Lectures, delivered in the College of Philadelphia 1790-1791.  Volume II, Part II, Chapter 1, Lorenzo Press, 1804).

 

 

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

 

Image from http://www.randomhouse.com/teens/firstamendment/resources.html

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

 

Image from http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2011/01/28/a-fathers-appeal-restore-academic...

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/restoringeducationcentraltoamericangreatness

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

 

Image from http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2005/07/score_one_for_a.html

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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....

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris
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

Image from http://attorneymonroe.com/iowa_legal_history

 

For more information or to purchase Restoring Education Central to American Greatness:

http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000185969/Restoring-Education-Cen...

http://www.amazon.com/Restoring-Education-Greatness-Principles-Liberated/dp/1...

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/restoring-education-david-a-norris/1103308053...

 

For previous blog entries on similar topics, simply go to this site and scroll down:

http://davidanorris.posterous.com/

 

Like on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Restoring-Education-Central-to-American-Greatne...

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1297223/author.jpg http://posterous.com/users/hcGCjfx1z9wx4 David A. Norris davidanorris David A. Norris