Tag Archives: Christianity and socialism

The Root of the Problem … In My Opinion

Posted on by
Reply

If something, anything, is broken you can attempt to fix it. If you’re successful and manage to fix what was broken that’s great. But what if the fix is only temporary or is susceptible to being broken again? That could be an indication that a permanent solution needs to be found, unless of course you like fixing things. There are people like that.

Years ago, when I was still on the farm, I had a good friend who was constantly “fixing” equipment. One day I asked him why he didn’t buy new equipment that didn’t need to be “fixed” all the time. I said, “it’s not like you can’t afford it because you can. So why don’t you buy new equipment?” His response was very simple,

“You don’t get it. I enjoy fixing things. If I buy new equipment, I won’t have anything to fix anymore.”

Fast forward 40 plus years to today and observe the way Washington works. Is there anyone who can point to any act of congress that actually fixed a problem so that it didn’t need to be fixed again and again and again? The answer to that question is not just no … It’s HELL NO!!!

If a bill introduced in congress was really intended to fix a problem, it would have built into it a date certain for the problem to have been not only fixed, but insure that it wouldn’t be needed again. When was the last time that actually happened?

Some bills are introduced with an end date such as FISA but that end date is just that, an end date. It doesn’t actually specify how it is going to fix the problem that it was created to fix. All it does say is that there is a problem and how the problem is going to be identified. With this particular bill, mechanisms were apparently built in to allow it to be abused. So, right now there is more conversation about how or whether to extend it than to actually fix it so that in X number of years it will no longer be needed.

My question at this point is, how did we get to this point? The founding fathers did anticipate a messy system, but I don’t think they envisioned the nearly dysfunctional system that we have today. Is it fixable? I believe so, but it will take at least a generation if not two generations. Why do I think that?

The root of the problem is buried deep, very deep, in our public educational system. The beast that has been gnawing away at the foundation of our system of government for the last three generations at least is the teachers’ unions. The first teachers’ union, the National Teachers Association was founded in in 1857 by Zalmon Richards. In 1870 the NTA merged with the American National School Association, the National Association of School Superintendents and the Central College Association to become what we now know as the National Education Association, the NEA. It was chartered as it is today in 1907.

Apparently Zalmon only served a few years as president. but records indicate that he continued attending the bi-annual meetings. There is more about his conservative Christian involvements than his union involvement.

The other major teachers’ union the American Federation of Teachers is roughly half the size of the NEA with only about one and a half million members. A merger with NEA in was rejected by the members of NEA most likely due to the influence of Albert Shanker who served as president of AFT from 1974 until his death in 1997. The fact that he was an advocate for Charter Schools, called for a national competency test for teachers, merit pay for teachers and more stringent graduation requirements out to tell you all you need to know about why the membership of NEA rejected the merger proposal.

Fast forward 11 years through Sandra Feldman and Edward J McElroy to Randi Weingarten, a name that should send shivers down the spine of any parent. It took a mere 11 years for everything Shanker worked for to be totally destroyed.

On the other hand the moral rot that is the NEA can be traced back, more than likely closer to a hundred years The time it would take to dig all the way back through the records of the NEA to find out just when the root rot that has become the current NEA is incalculable.

Most people probably didn’t pay much attention to the NEA, which is the way they liked it, until COVID-19 struck. I use that word “struck” because that is basically what the teachers whether they were NEA of AFT did. They essentially “struck” when told it was time take off their sweats and get back in the classroom. An entire generation of children was set back in their education by at least one year if not two.

It’s my firm belief that those two organizations are the tap root of the problems we are seeing in our college campus demonstrations and riots. Not all of the demonstrators are college age but a look at the screen of your TV should give you an idea of the percentages. Those people have not been taught to think for themselves. They have no ability to apply critical thinking to what they are being told. I doubt that the teachers themselves who are currently in the classrooms have ever been taught how to think critically.

So, when some Muslim extremist, or fascist adherent gets to the classroom lectern or on a hastily erected podium on a street corner and starts spewing hateful rhetoric about Jews, in this case, they have absolutely no idea how to objectively research the actual facts before they storm out on to the street. They have never been taught real history. They have never been taught civics. I would be surprised if many of them could do simple math without a calculator.

The parents of those demonstrators bear at least a partial responsibility for the situation. They left the education of their children to the NEA and AFT without paying even a modicum of attention to what was being taught. All they cared about was whether their children were absorbing what they were taught and the proof of that was good grades. I would be willing to bet that 80 t0 90 percent of those demonstrators were “A” students according to the grading system designed by who? You know who.

A stark example of the difference in the effect that educators can have is evident in my own family. My brother, who is 2 years younger than me, and I are both conservative in our political opinions. Admittedly we don’t see eye to eye on various individual politicians, but nevertheless we are products of a more conservative education system and conservative parents. Our sister, on the other hand, is the exact opposite in her political views. She is 14 years younger than me and was educated in a variety of systems including liberal California and Italian systems. That was followed up with 4 years in a liberal college in Colorado. She has been known to threaten to divest herself of her American citizenship when a conservative has been elected as president. I can’t think of a more stark example of the effect of an education steeped in liberal ideology. And she was, by the way, an “A” student.

People like this are so imbedded in our governmental institutions it will take decades to rid the system of their influence. This is all by design.  The design has been crafted by people with one goal and one goal only. That goal is to destroy the best system of government ever created by mankind. Sad to say, but I fear it is all going to lead to a violent disruption of our society and how that disruption ends is, at this point, anybody’s guess.

The one bright spot in the disaster that was COVID-19 is that parents were at last awakened to what was going on in the classrooms they were sending their children to.

Security vs Freedom

Posted on by
1

I recently referred to our not-over-yet election period as the silly season. It wasn’t silly at all. It was tragic. As a person with a gender identity at odds with much of society I am supposed to be a liberal democrat and I am supposed to stick to gender identity issues. I’m sorry but that’s just not me.

I have been berated and chastised by many in that group referred to as LGBT, and whatever other capitalized letter of the alphabet that people choose t0 attach to their personal identity. I suppose that would be appropriate if I chose to make my gender identity the major issue of my life, my interests and the north pole of my political beliefs. But I don’t. I am a human being first, a Christian second and a conservative third.

Regardless of whatever point in my life I have found myself at, I have always had very specific beliefs and understanding of what makes a society great or not so great. President Lyndon Johnson ushered in what was referred to as “The Great Society”. A society that was supposed to cure all the ills of our republic; eliminate poverty, equalize outcome regardless of effort or ability. In case you haven’t noticed, all the things that “The Great Society” was supposed to cure, have for the most part remained. Why, you ask, is that the reality of our nation?

The reality is, that whether or not the intention behind that effort was to actually improve lives it actually perpetuated the very ills that it purported to eliminate. So, how did that happen?

I am not an expert on the subject, but I am a keen observer. Part of what was included in the Great Society was a program championed by Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird. It was called “Headstart” and to my knowledge it persists today. The idea was to help the less fortunate children get a leg up on the rest of the education that lay ahead of them in the normal public education system. I can’t give you any statistics that support my theory, but from the current condition of the communities it was intended to help I would venture a guess that it has been a near total failure. Before you jump to point out some successes of the program, accept my acknowledgement there have certainly been some successes, albeit few and far between. Otherwise, the overall success would be shouted from the roof tops of Washington.

If one could point to any success in that program it would be the success of beginning the conditioning of young minds to accept whatever ideology was headed their way once they entered the remainder of their educational process. That primary ideology is what is on full display in the Democrat Party and the people who adhere to the principle that government is more suited to making decisions about the lives of the people it claims to care so much for.

The continuation of shaping the minds of the youth of this country is the sole aim of the National Education Association. And their goal is not the goal of teaching our youth to think for themselves. If it were, their contributions to political candidates would be evenly split, which they are not.

In the last twenty years, the NEA has donated in excess of $153,000,000 to political causes and candidates. Of the at amount 96.1% has gone to Democrat candidates and causes. A mere 3.9% has gone to Republican candidates and causes. Is it any wonder, then, that the vast majority of the marchers in last spring and summer’s demonstrations were, from casual observation, under the age of 30? Is it any wonder why the politicians from Democrat cities and states feel justified in enacting ordinances limiting the activities of the people they are supposed to present, but feeling above adherence to those same edicts?

Our education system, with the support of Democrat politicians, I believe, has intentionally dumbed down the last two generations in preparation for what our country is now facing in Georgia. The last two generations of voters don’t have a clue what Obama meant by “It’s time for a change”. I don’t have to be a mind reader to realize that what he meant was that it was time to change from a nation of self-sufficient freedom to a nation of people who want to live with their hands in the pockets of others.

There is no moral compass left in the hearts of Democrat leaders. The country I grew up in is no longer a place of opportunity for all. It’s become a place of equal outcome for all regardless of contribution or effort. The mere fact that Democrats, liberals and progressives are so close to destroying what so many have died for in the last two hundred forty-four years means that all of those lives will have been in vain. The country they sacrificed for will cease to exist. It is a hopeless feeling for those of us who love our heritage.

If there is any hope at this point it is that ordinary people who have a moral compass get involved, beginning with the school board, local city elections, county elections, state elections and finally national elections. We didn’t get here in one generation and we certainly won’t get back to our roots in one generation, but we have to start somewhere.

And when your children come home with some stupid pronunciation that socialism is better than capitalism do what my mother did when I came home with the stupid notion that communism was good for some countries, a statement from my history teacher. She set me straight immediately. We need more parents like her.

Frustration is turning to Anger

Posted on by
3

My frustration is turning to anger. Maybe the final straw was seeing a mob; that’s the only word for it; pulling down a statue of Francis Scott Key in San Francisco. So what if he was a slave owner. If what I recall of my education is correct; and I’m pretty damn sure it’s because the NEA hadn’t corrupted the system yet; most of the signers of the declaration of independence were slave owners. My guess is that there wasn’t a single one of those fools involved in the destruction of that statue that’s had any seriously accurate education in our history.

It’s highly unlikely that any of the people who did own slaves were the ones to go to Africa and kidnap the people they “owned”. The slave traffickers in many cases weren’t even the ones to kidnap the people they trafficked in. In most cases the unfortunate people to be sold into slavery were captured and sold by other black tribesmen or Arab Muslim slavers.

But all that knowledge is secondary to the root cause of all the turmoil in our country. That root cause is total and complete lack of basic education and sense of responsibility for one’s own actions. Parents are turning the education and upbringing of their children over to the state. And the cities and states that are the most affected with the problem are those run by liberal politicians like Bill DeBlasio of New York City.

I know that conservative news and commentary outlets see this, but why don’t people on the left at least give lip service to the issue? Can it be possible that they really don’t want to see it because it’s such a glaring example of what liberal progressivism does to the soul of the communities it has taken root in? I tend to think that is the case.

Everything Marxism and Maoism teach is on full display with each and every march and riot that’s occurring on a daily basis. Has our education system become so badly directed that the average person is totally convinced that they owe nothing to the society they live in and that the government is there to provide them with not only the necessities of life but all the goodies that come from a free enterprise form of economy?

So yes, I am angry that people I know, people I care about and people I love are so totally ingrained with an attitude of hatred toward everything that has made this country the one place on the face of the earth where everyone wants to live.

I’m angry that everything about this country that I love and hold dear has become a target of hatred and a form of reverse prejudice.

I’m angry that the press in general, the liberal politicians, the entrenched bureaucracy in Washington, the public education system have all been co-opted by the notion that only a relatively few elites have the vision and correct idea of what is right and what is wrong.

I’m angry that those same people who have made common sense a thing to be laughed at and belittled, are the ones making decisions that affect my life and the pursuit of happiness embodied in our declaration of independence.

And I’m angry that those people who are supposed to be the defenders of free speech; the educators, the liberal politicians and most of all the press, think that I am ignorant because I am a Christian, a politically conservative Christian, a politically conservative Christian trans-sexual; that since I’m all these things, I can’t have an opinion worth voicing.

I could go on indefinitely about what started out as frustration and has now become anger and how that anger makes me want to lash out, but I don’t believe that’s productive, so I won’t.

If you’ve read this far, I think you get my point. I’m angry.

I agree … to disagree!

Posted on by
1

Sometimes I just don’t know what to say or where to start when I do figure out what to say. So I think that I will, in football lingo, just backup ten yards and punt.

I have been silent the last two weeks because I have been preoccupied with politics and the machinations of our political parties. I never cease to be amazed by the stark differences and how they can be construed as being so similar. This past week and a half has brought home to me what Mom said to me when I asked her what the difference was between Republicans and Democrats. I’ve shared this statement recently, but I will share it again here for purposes of clarifying what I’m about to say.

Mom said, “Republicans believe that the individual is better suited to make decisions about their own lives than government and Democrats believe that government is better able to make those decisions for us.”

In the intervening years I have seen nothing to change that understanding, aside from the fact that at times, some Republicans tend to behave and vote more as if they are smarter and more capable of making decisions that affect my life than I am.

Cases in point: The last Republican president that I felt had a genuine concern for my self-determination was Ronald Reagan. When it came to George H. W. Bush, a.k.a “Bush 41”, while I thought he was a decent man with the courage to confront Saddam Hussein he lacked the courage and conviction to confront the enemy at home. I read his lips as well as his subsequent excuse for backing down from confrontation with Democrats over taxes.

In subsequent elections I voted for what I considered the lesser of two evils when I voted first for Bob Dole, then George W Bush, although I felt after the fact that he did turn out to be the right man for the time … internationally speaking, though not domestically.

I held my nose when I drew the line on my ballot indicating my choice of John McCain and then overcame a case of the vapors in order to do the same for Mitt Romney. In each case I clearly understood that the “establishment” was not adhering to Mom’s definition of a Republican. But, I also clearly understood that the ideology of the democrat party was not even close to my belief in my own right to self-determination. And that brings me to our current national dilemma and its relation to my personal identity.

In a recent blog post I share the reaction of a woman I met recently when I told her I was a Republican. She was aghast because in her experience the Republican party had shunned people like me, and to a degree she was right. But … she was right only in the sense that certain individuals within the party were extreme in their “hyper-conservative Christianity.”

In the years since I became involved in the community of people who, when lumped together are known as “LGBT – Q,” I have come to the conclusion that a majority of the misunderstandings the rest of our society have of us is due to the fact that, for the most part, the “community” does not make much of an effort to blend. Instead they tend to pursue a policy of separate but equal with special consideration for their personal identity. They make their sexual and/or gender identity the primary identity ahead of their humanity.

My gender identity has absolutely no more to do with my politics than the color of my eyes. Right is right and wrong is wrong, or in this case, the Right is correct and the Left is wrong … at least for me.

I am simply not willing to surrender any more of my freedoms for the lip service support of the Democrat party and its leadership.

I am simply not willing to overlook the dishonesty and corruption at the head of that column for the sake of using the bathroom of my choice.

I am simply not willing to overlook the fact that if all the promises made by Hillary and Bernie were kept that our nation would be bankrupt before the next election.

I am simply not willing to overlook the fact that well-meaning people whom I love have failed to live up to their personal promises, such as “When I have the right to marry the person I love, then I will come to your side of the aisle.”

I am simply not willing to abandon my principles for the sake of a free lunch. I choose to work for a living and buy my own lunch, thank you.

When I state that I can find no Christian ethic in the progressive/liberal policies of today’s Democrat party the usual response is this. “Jesus told the wealthy to go and sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor.” That’s what the Democrats are trying to convince us that they are accomplishing by wanting laws that take money from the wealthy and dole it out to the poor.

That is not what Jesus meant at all. He didn’t demand that emperors and kings take money from the selfish wealthy and dole it out. He intended it to be a voluntary effort to show their “Christianity,” for lack of a better term in this discussion. I doubt that if Christ were alive today he would approve of society absolving people of personal responsibility to those less fortunate by voting for those who would “rob the rich and give to the poor.” Where is the virtue in that? There is none is there? It’s a simple fact that the more money confiscated by the IRS the less is collected in the plate on Sunday mornings, and that is where Christian charity lies.

If you are shocked by my political philosophy because my gender identity seems to dictate that I support a progressive/liberal/socialistic agenda consider this: in my experience, any attempt to share my political views, and reasons for those views, with members of the aforementioned group, generally leads to one of two responses. I’m either flatly informed that the person isn’t interested in my views or, “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.” That last statement would be reasonable enough if it followed an intelligent two-way give and take conversation … but it never does. It’s always a way to avoid reasonable discussion.

I have found it far easier to have a reasoned discussion about gender identity with a hyper-conservative Christian than I can a reasoned discussion about politics with a progressive/liberal/socialistic democrat. So with that said I will involve myself in activities of groups like the Log Cabin Republicans, the Tea Party and with the majority of conservatives who I have found to be willing to accept me for who I am rather than what I am.