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Conviction, Courage, Commitment

A talk delivered by FFS Chapter Leader Mrs. Julianne Young at the FFS Freedom Rally in Shelley, Idaho on Saturday, September 12, 2015

I would like to invite you to imagine with me for a moment a scene from a movie. This movie follows a common plot. An evil villain seeks to rule the world. Most people don’t realize what’s going on and are naively falling for the trap laid by this dark would-be ruler. One ordinary fellow providentially becomes aware of the grave danger posed by the villain and his secret plots and the future of the world now rests in his hands. He sits alone, distraught, with his head in his hands agonizing over what he will do.

Consider with me the likely outcome of each of the options he is agonizing over. He can minimize the risk in his own mind and ignore what he has learned, hoping it will go away. He’s really a ‘nobody’ anyway and has plenty of activities and responsibilities to fill his life and cauterize his conscience. On the other hand, he can acknowledge the danger and sit fretfully by, angry that someone else is not doing something about it. He might safeguard his own immediate comfort, living up the time he has left and perhaps, build a bunker or two. A third option might be to jockey for a favored position in the new kingdom, accepting it as inevitable. But ANY movie that ended in ANY of these ways would be disappointment and a tragedy. In order for our movie to have a happy ending our could-be-hero needs the conviction, courage, and commitment to acknowledge the danger and wisely and courageously confront it. Friends, sometimes it is easier to see the truth about our choices when the dilemma we are dealing with is not quite so real to us.

The message of the Freedom First Society is that we are each living this story. It is real. There are real men and women, today, who seek to use their wealth and influence to consolidate control over the nations of the world. They are deliberately and successfully working in an organized way to un-define family, undermine morality, weaken our national economy, and erase national borders. Using a bought and paid for main-stream media they seek to replace sovereignty with dependency, education with political indoctrination, and free exercise of speech with deceptive propaganda that monopolizes our attention with inconsequential gibberish and mocks anyone who dares disagree about anything significant.

Media Controlled DelusionIf you are here today you have been given the opportunity to understand who these people are, how they are operating, and what can be done effectively to oppose them. You have been given the opportunity to pick up and read Don Fotheringham’s book The President Makers, Vance Smith and Tom Gow’s book Masters of Deception, and Freedom First Society’s new release Media-Controlled Delusion. Unlike many others who are naively falling into the trap which is being laid for us, you have providentially been given the opportunity to know and understand the grave danger we are in.

And so here we each sit, holding the future in our hands, choosing now what we will do. If we are to win the battle raging around us, we must first win the battle within us. We are each sorely in need of the conviction, the courage, and the commitment that are required if we are to acknowledge the danger we are in and courageously confront it.

Conviction

First, we each need conviction. Conviction is a spiritual and emotional power that comes from understanding and wholeheartedly believing truth. Conviction is contagious. Our Blackfoot Chapter experienced a significant increase in our conviction this past year. We decided to read Don Fotheringham’s book, The President Makers and discuss it together a few chapters at a time. As we discussed this well-written, well-documented book we shared feelings of outrage and sorrow with each other over the loss of lives, liberty, and property that have been destroyed at the hands of conspiring power mongers. We drew hope from the way this understanding changed us, leading us to desire with our whole hearts to reject these men and the tools they’ve used deceptively to manipulate themselves into power. If this knowledge changed us, it could change others. We drew hope from understanding that the success of their schemes depends on our willingness to compromise the standard of government laid out in the United States Constitution. We HAVE the antidote. It IS the Law of the land.

Later, we took the advice given by Don in The President Makers and also read and discussed the book Classified Woman together. This book stands as another witness of the truth of the things Don wrote and strengthened our understanding that those in positions of power are guilty of numerous crimes; crimes against the Constitution and against mankind. We do not have to face them on equal ground as long as we stand on the moral high ground of truth. Their own treachery is a deep pit beneath their feet. All that is left for us to do is to pull the gauzy web of deception out from under them and they will fall into their own pit.

As our conviction grew, we grew determined to do something more about it. We took Don’s advice again and decided to distribute 500 copies of his book to our families, friends, and neighbors. But this was not easy to do. Many of our friends and neighbors prefer NOT to know the things we were learning. It can be easy for those who do not yet share our conviction to think that if they just ignore these concerns and fill their lives with other things they will not have to deal with it. We needed courage.

Courage

Courage is the result of taking the long view in a situation. It leads us to act in accordance with truth even when the immediate outcomes are uncertain or even unpleasant. I learned that it is not my place to decide who might read or listen and who won’t. It is my job to open my mouth and offer as many people as I can the chance to understand, and then to graciously accept their decision, always leaving the door open for another day. I cannot control their response, but I can courageously invite them with a smile again and again. I can find different ways to reach them, knowing from my own experience that I received many invitations and learned a little at a time over several years before I was ready to publicly commit to a role in the freedom fight. Our Chapter’s courage grows as we see the positive fruits of our efforts, but I don’t want to give the impression that our meetings are getting flash-mobbed. The results we are seeing have come gradually and quietly. I often remind myself that trashy trees grow quickly. We are interested in growing a strong and steady mighty oak of a Chapter, and that will take time and commitment.

Commitment

Commitment is consistent, undeterred action over time. If conviction and courage move us to act, commitment sees us through. Commitment leads us to make the defense of freedom a primary priority; more important than social gatherings, ball games, and personal pursuits. It understands that faith, family, and freedom are each important legs on a three-legged stool. We cannot afford to become so exclusively busy with faith and family obligations that we fail to defend our freedom — for if we lose our freedom, our ability to care for our families and follow our faith will vanish with it. Those committed to the freedom fight do not come only to activities that interest or entertain them. They show up in spite of poor health, busy lives, and long days, and they bring others with them time after time.

Inspiring Examples

I am so blessed to be surrounded by inspiring examples of conviction, courage, and commitment. I would like to close by telling you about three of them.

One is a young man I really hardly know: Ben Marsden. I met him a number of years ago while he was still in high school and I was impressed by the great love he had for principles of freedom and his desire to defend them. He left home to serve a mission for his church and attend school and I lost track of him, but just this last week I got a phone call from him. He has now completed his mission and his college degree and heard about our Freedom Rally this weekend. He called to offer to do an “introduction” of sorts. He wanted to talk about people like Martin Luther whose conviction, courage, and commitment led them to act. Many of these people died having never seen the fruits that came from their sacrifices, and yet their efforts changed the world forever. He wanted to express his conviction that one ordinary person, courageously acting in defense of truth can, indeed, make all the difference. Ben, I thank you for the conviction you carry in your courageous lion-heart and hope that we will see much more of you in the years to come. We have work to do together.

Another inspiring example is a middle-aged realtor: Gary Gifford. Many of you met Gary today when you attended the mini-class he taught, “Organize for Victory.” When our Chapter finished reading The President Makers, Gary said, “Now what? What are we going to DO about this?”, and he then took the lead in creating a specific action plan for our Chapter to consistently work toward the 1,000 educated, organized people we need in our congressional district if we are to turn the tide in the freedom fight.

I hope Gary will forgive me for embarrassing him a little, but his good wife has some serious health struggles. Consequently, he carries the burden of caring for her as well as many of the household responsibilities. Yet, he consistently attends meetings, brings guests, and even finds time to serve as our Chapter recruitment chairman. He is always asking us, “Why are you here? Why is this worth your time?” He tells us that if we can clearly articulate why we are involved we will be prepared to convince others to join us. He has created a spreadsheet to help Chapter members keep track of our contacts and is now working with a committee to outline and organize regular personal visits to prospective members, new members, and existing members who are not regularly attending.   Gary, thank you for your unflinching courage to “DO something about it,” to act, and for the courage you inspire in us.

Last of all, I would like to tell you about a sweet Grandma: Beverly Rocks (and you will see that her name is very fitting: Beverly does “rock”!) She is more active, tough, and determined than most people half her age. She lives alone far out on the Pingree Prairie. When I was a girl growing up in the metropolis of Moreland, Idaho, we used to jokingly refer to Pingree as “Outer Darkness” because we thought it was so remote. If Beverly wanted an excuse to not be involved she could easily tell herself that she is too unimportant to make a difference, but that is not what Beverly is about.

I first met Beverly several years ago when we felt a need to canvas our entire county with some voter information. Beverly knocked our socks off knocking doors. She canvassed several precincts — by herself. When the Freedom First Society was organized in our area, Beverly was one of our first members. Beverly is committed. She heads up our telephone tree making phone calls to remind Chapter members of every upcoming activity. She is on the ball. I never have to call and remind her. She is better than the post office — through rain, sleet, hail, snow, blizzard, or drought she is there. And she invites others. She knows “who thinks what” from all of her canvassing and never misses an opportunity to extend an invitation. This summer, she found two new prospective members — at a yard sale. She got their contact information and then referred them to the Chapter leader in their area.

Most recently, Beverly gave me cause for reflection — when she brought me a table. The table is here today in a place of honor, not because it is amazing on its own, but because of what it represents to me. As we began preparing for this rally I put out the word that we needed picnic tables. A couple of days later I heard a rattling sound coming down my bumpy lane and looked out to see Beverly’s little red car pulling a large trailer loaded with a grey, weathered table and four benches. Beverly informed me that she had brought it for the rally, that she knew it wasn’t fancy, but that she thought we could tighten it up with a few screws and it might be useful. After we were done with it, she wanted it donated to the Chapter.

If there was a need and Beverly had anything at all that could fill it, she was there, willing to offer all that she had. It didn’t matter to her that it wasn’t fancy or new. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have a nice pick-up truck to load it into or young strong muscles to load it up. It was enough for her to offer her best and trust that someone else would do the rest.  Beverly, thank you for your example of selfless, unwavering commitment to the cause of freedom.

We live in perilous times. I am a witness that there are conspiring, organized forces deliberately working to undermine freedom. I have witnessed, first-hand, the way that local government and school policies are being manipulated and controlled by organizations exterior to the electorate in ways that conflict with and even undermine local values and local control. I set out to understand how these organizations became so influential and, through my own, current, bottom-up research discovered the same story told by Don, Vance, and Tom in their books. This is not just a story about the past. It is the real story behind every current issue of concern today. The new Freedom First Society publication Media-Controlled Delusion does an excellent job of illustrating this by taking current issues, from socialized medicine and police “brutality” to immigration reform and the national debt, and tying each issue back to its organized roots. It’s concise and well-documented and available at our book table for just a few dollars. Every person here needs to take a copy home.

Best of all, this booklet ends with a chapter reminding us that there is a sound, reasonable, effective counterstrategy available to Americans — it is for us to also organize. We don’t have to have super powers to defeat the real villains of today. We just need the conviction, courage, and commitment to build a strong, resilient community of organized, informed Americans. I am so thankful for my association with the Freedom First Society, for the leadership it offers, and for the opportunity it has given me to stand shoulder to shoulder with other Americans who are also determined to do just this. That we may have the conviction, courage, and commitment to do so is my prayer. Thank you.

The story of Beverly’s table is not over. I called Robert Welker, a steadfast member in Shelley. This is one of the benefits of being organized; being able to work together and share our different talents.  Mr. Welker was to this table what Gepetto was to Pinocchio. He has given it new life, tightened up joints, added some supports, sanded it smooth and given it a coat of primer. It’s a really cute little table. It’s been of good service to us at this event, and it is now waiting for a new owner to claim it, take it home, and paint it with a final coat of their own choosing at the conclusion of a silent auction which will open after the closing prayer and close when the last chairs are put away and the last banners are taken down tonight. The proceeds from Beverly’s table will be used to start a Rally fund for next year so that we can hopefully be a year ahead on our Rally budget. So after the prayer feel free to mosey up here and write your name, your bid, and your contact information on one of these silent auction slips and drop it in the jar on the table. Thanks.

School Children and National Security

All across America, public officials swear up and down that Common Core education reform has been, and will be, state-led and locally controlled. No one is telling us that in early 2012, before the general public was even aware of Common Core, elite representatives of big-money corporations and high-level members of the political elite in Washington met in a privately funded think tank where they formally declared our children to be “human capital”—and uneducated children to be a threat to national security.

The 32 think-tank participants, organized as a Task Force by the Internationalist Establishment’s Council on Foreign Relations, included Linda Darling Hammond (of SBAC — “Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium” — fame), representatives of large Gates-funded foundations like the United Negro College fund, the Carnegie-sponsored Institute of International Education, Joel I. Klein of the News Corporation, and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The tangible product of their deliberations is a measly 121-page document titled “U.S. Education Reform and National Security.” It can be viewed at cfr.org, the official website of the Council on Foreign Relations.CFR TFR 68 Cover 20120313 AN B.indd

In this document, these self-appointed education gods bemoan the state of American education (presumably the result of the incompetent masses) without ever once giving consideration to the historical facts: (1) for nearly 200 years the entirely locally directed American education system was the envy of the world, and (2) as top-down federal meddling in education has increased, educational outcomes have consistently declined. If these dictocrats were sincere in their concerns, this historical evidence would demand that they put forward a very different solution from that called for in their 121-page document.

Their solution: the implementation of Common Core education and standards via a partnership between State Governors, corporations, and federal authorities; the use of federal dollars (our money) to incentivize (bribe) states into compliance with national education standards; and the oversight of local education by a broad coalition of corporate leaders, the federal Department of Education, the federal Departments of State and Defense, AND un-named federal intelligence agencies. This oversight is supposed to better prepare the human capital necessary for military service and national economic success.

Enforcement

How do they propose to enforce their top-down authority? Their scheme calls for intensive national evaluation (auditing) of teachers and schools. Audit focuses include: student mastery of Common Core content, mastery of “national security skills” (standards in science, technology, civics, etc.), and a vague statement about auditing the “characteristics of the school.” Where schools underperform, severe penalties are to be imposed, including the “reallocation of resources” (funding and human capital), the replacement of school leadership, and the top-down re-design or re-structuring of school systems.

While these penalties are to be imposed by State and local leaders, the audits are to be directed and published on the national level, effectively removing actual control over audits from state authorities and from the parents of the children who are affected.

I find the militaristic rhetoric of this private task force particularly alarming. Declaring education to be a national security issue (meriting oversight by intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense) lays the philosophical ground-work for a massive top-down power grab. History has shown that when education ceases to be about children and becomes an issue of national security the pretext for federal power becomes absolute. Those who resist or rebel against that power risk being labeled as enemies of the State.

Why We Should Be Concerned

Some may question why the recommendations of this private task force should concern us when they are just that — recommendations. First, this kind of high-level meddling and scheming in private forums provides no transparency to the general public. We are told only what they wish us to know. Second, those involved have clear conflicts of interest: They are the beneficiaries and Gods of the system they propose to impose on us. The power, control, and wealth, these corporacrats stand to gain — as long as Americans will meekly grovel before their statistics and criticisms for a few of our own tax dollars — are staggering.

Third, there is a consistent historical pattern over the past 100 years whereby American public policy is being shaped by corporacrats acting in collusion with high-level federal officials. The powers they seek to obtain and the process by which they are going about it are in direct violation of the Constitution of the United States, which clearly reserves both the direction of education and the establishment of public policy to the states and to elected representatives of the people respectively — not to political or corporate elitists.

The Take-Home Message

What is the take-home message? While many are busy obsessing over the details and drawbacks of Common Core, most remain blind to the bigger picture of what is happening. By simple definition these elitists are imposing a form of fascism on the American people that runs entirely contrary to the form of limited constitutional government established by America’s founders.  These insiders are using propaganda and big money to manipulate the American people into accepting their policies a piece at a time, while pretending that their schemes came straight from the grass-roots all along.

This deceptive power grab, now being carried out without our general knowledge or consent is unacceptable and dangerous. Public officials who sign onto these nefarious schemes are guilty of subverting the liberty of the people.   Inasmuch as any among us support and comply with these kinds of top-down power grabs, we are facilitating the destruction of our own liberty.

 

SBAC Concerns Need a Fair and Open Hearing Now

New Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) testing (now being called the ISAT in Idaho — someone thinks we won’t notice the change) has elicited an unprecedented negative response from students, parents, and educators all across the country. Local students have nicknamed it the “SweatBAC.” A friend of mine, who has administered standardized testing to elementary students for the past six years, recently resigned out of frustration with the SBAC.

My friend witnessed the transition between tests and saw a dramatic difference in the student response to the SBAC, as opposed to the ISAT. With the fact-based, multiple choice ISAT, students knew what to do and could move through the test. With the SBAC, many young students cannot even identify the subjective questions buried in the texts, let alone make abstract inferences and answer with an essay containing supportive evidence from the text. Yet, they cannot move to the next question in the 3 ½ hour English testing without providing an answer to the question they can’t identify. These students sit feeling stupid, some of them in tears, as they are required to spend hours completing developmentally inappropriate tasks without support.

My friend could no longer bear to participate in a process which is causing so much emotional pain and psychological damage. She sees no benefit to this subjective test as a measure of knowledge, feels it to be a counterproductive waste of precious time and public money, and is bothered by the lack of information about ‘who’ grades the tests ‘how’ and ‘what’ data collected from testing is being used for. She resigned mid-year.

The difficulties my friend witnessed are NOT “just the result of inadequate preparation.” Early childhood experts all across the country have come forward stating that these tests are developmentally inappropriate. I have a son who suffered a severe brain hemorrhage as a premature infant. Consequently, we have worked closely with the National Association for Child Development, an organization that has a decades-long resume of cutting-edge research in brain development and incredible success helping children and adults learn. These professionals are frustrated by the havoc being wreaked in the minds of many of their clients who are being subjected to what they identify as developmentally inappropriate, and even damaging, educational methods in the name of the Common Core.

State Legislatures Have Withdrawn

What’s more, since its hasty implementation, seven state legislatures have already reconsidered their involvement with the SBAC consortium, have been convinced of its problems, and have withdrawn their participation.

Carol Burris, New York State Outstanding Educator in 2010 and New York State High School Principle of the Year in 2013, thoroughly reviewed the Common Core and identified 5 reasons she believes it is disastrous for education. Included among these — Common Core standards contradict what we know about how young children learn, including decades of research on early reading development; and Common Core tests are unreasonably difficult and will result in unfair consequences to children.

Here in Idaho, the Madison School District superintendent has questioned the validity and costs of the SBAC. He found another option for his school district which had a much more solid research basis, more valid results, and will save his district approximately $10,000 over the cost of administering the SBAC. He has announced that his students will not be taking the SBAC test.

Top-down Pressure to Comply

But the top-down pressure to comply with the educational monopoly granted to this Common Core aligned testing consortium is staggering. Parents are being told that they have no legal authority to withdraw their child from taking this test. Districts are required to administer this test to 95% of their students, regardless of their circumstances or special needs, or risk “losing stars” and federal money. The SBAC has become a graduation requirement. Those seeking an alternative route to graduation will find that even the GED test has been re-written by the same consortium that compiled the SBAC.

As these SBAC tests have been implemented the pass rate has plummeted by as much as 80% in some states. Yet, instead of re-examining the tests, the steam-roller pressure to enthrone them continues. Even colleges and universities are under top-down pressure from the federal government to align their college admission standards to federal standards for financial aid, eliminating other traditionally-accepted admissions options and making these tests mandatory for admission to higher education as well. This big-fisted monopoly over education at all levels makes past monopolies look like a game of croquet as opposed to rugby. This unprecedented top-down pressure is a gigantic, flashing, red indicator that these are NOT parent-led, voluntary changes.

That so many have caved to this top-down coercion without protest is disappointing; but the way that our state leaders have responded to the concerns being raised is completely unacceptable. When Idahoans introduced bills requiring debate and discussion regarding the SBAC, state leaders have killed these bills in committee, refusing to allow them to even come to the floor. The plug-your-ears-and-turn-your-back response of these state leaders to our substantial, valid concerns is inexcusable. With only a short time left in the legislative session, It is high time that state representatives and all concerned citizens use their influence to demand that bills like SB 1070 and SCR 106 are given a fair and open hearing.

Granting such monopoly power to any consortium is wrong. Granting it to a consortium that straps us with developmentally inappropriate, unsound educational practices is a betrayal of the public trust.

The Common Core Cabal Strikes Again

The Common Core Cabal has struck again, this time to the tune of 61 million Idaho tax-payer dollars, as was reported on the front page of the Morning News, March 25, 2015. This money was reportedly “wasted” on a student data tracking system which, incidentally, Idaho agreed to implement as a part of Governor Otter’s federal “Race to the Top” application. Idaho didn’t win the Race to the Top, but we did get a bill for a 61 million dollar Student Data Tracking System that didn’t really work.

The article conveniently blames this incredible waste, which comes at a time when many Idaho schools are struggling just to meet basic expenses, on the Luna administration, which is long gone. It then quotes Senator Tim Corder reassuring us that our new state superintendent, Sherri Ybarra, can count and spell (as if Tom Luna couldn’t) and so we can all feel secure that this fiasco will not be repeated. It appears, then, that this 61 million dollars is just water under the bridge.

There are a lot of angles to this story. I could write a whole book documenting concerns related to the Student Data Tracking System, which is intended to gather personally identifiable data on every student from pre-school up through college and career. These concerns include: the privacy issues, the lack of parental access and oversight, the significant likelihood that it will be a financially lucrative gold-mine for corrupt government cronies, etc. There are many reasons to oppose the creation of this system in the first place.

Ignoring the Truly Significant

However, the thing that struck me about this story was the part that was minimized and NOT shared. The article very briefly mentions that, in addition to poor administrative decisions, the system we paid for was never designed to serve as a statewide system. It also briefly mentions that it was purchased from a company called Schoolnet, a New York company owned by British-based publishing giant Pearson.

Why is this significant? Pearson has partnered with the Gates Foundation as one of the primary corporate funders and promoters of Common Core reforms.   I know — some will falsely claim that the student data tracking system has nothing to do with the Common Core standards. But the fact is that the authors of the standards — those who own the copyright — have published articles on their own web-site outlining a five step plan for education reform. These reforms include the adoption of the Common Core standards AND the implementation of a national student data tracking system as interlocked parts of a five-step reform package. Other steps include teacher training reforms, curriculum alignment, and new school accountability measures (testing, etc.).

Pearson and the Gates Foundation have been behind the Common Core wave from the start. They have learned to play corporate cronyism to the hilt and they are riding the American tax-payer hard, financially benefiting from almost every aspect of the five-step education reforms they are pushing. Pearson, the largest educational publisher and on-line book company in the world (how about some new Common Core aligned curriculum in every classroom?), also launched the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) consortium which is writing new Common Core testing (more money) and sells software for districts to use (and more $) in administering tests, and provides internet bandwidth (still more $). They also provide conferences and training to help states roll out Common Core (more profit). And they apparently sell Student Data Tracking Systems with price tags in the tens of millions.

News reports of Pearson rolling out inadequate products and receiving slaps on the hand for illegal corporate/non-profit activities are not hard to find. For example, in December of 2013, the Washington Post reported that Pearson had agreed to pay a 7.7 million dollar settlement after the New York Attorney General found them guilty of using their non-profit foundation to generate tens of millions of dollars for their corporate arm. Pearson’s non-profit foundation was used to develop products and curriculum aligned to new standards, all tax-exempt.   These products were then being sold — for profit.

What’s more, their tax-exempt foundation was flying public officials to extravagant international locations for conferences where Pearson’s corporate employees would meet with them and assess the needs of the states the public officials represented — so that they could sell them Pearson products. When Pearson was called on the carpet for their illegal activities (bribery and extortion) they claimed ignorance and paid a measly settlement into a fund to train teachers (hardly a loss on their part).

When one understands the scope and nature of the corrupt cronyism which is the impetus and core of current education reforms, it seems ludicrous that this most recent 61 million dollar loss of tax-payer dollars is being chalked up to one ignorant public official who is nowhere around. Meanwhile the current administration is giving Pearson a free pass and continuing it’s love affair with Common Core reforms.

Surely the data tracking software was purchased with the understanding that it would perform as a statewide data collection system. Clearly it was not what it was marketed to be. Now, our public officials, evidently hesitant to challenge the corrupt system they have participated in, are mildly walking away.

It’s time to get educated about education reforms. Until the people, in general, become aware of and unwilling to tolerate the corporate/federal cabal that now has public education by the throat, we will continue to pay through the nose — not just in dollars, but in the quality and content of our education, and, ultimately, in the loss of our own personal liberty and the ability to have local control over the education of our own children.

Also by Julianne Young:  SBAC Concerns Need a Fair and Open Hearing Now

Wake Up, Little Chickens!

A talk by Mrs. Julianne Young delivered April 11, 2014 at a Freedom Rally in Pocatello, Idaho.

A cry jolts the still, sleepy morning to life. “There’s a skunk in the coop!” Dad scrambles for his gun, bed-heads crowd at the window, and bare feet streak across the dewy lawn. Dad cautiously peers ‘round the doorway while we all hold our breath. Two feathered friends lay dead in the straw with gaping, bloody wounds, while a dozen others mill about expressing their distress in a chickenish fashion, upset and oblivious all at once.

A white stripe shrinks into a dark corner where murderous, beady little eyes watch and wonder what we will do next. One chicken calmly saunters past the shadow, looking the skunk over quizzically.

That skunk will be hard to hit in the shadows. It will be him or Dad! Then—BLAM! BLAM! The skunk stirs and an acrid, skunky smell fills the air. One final BLAM! All is still. We run, choking and crying! But the chickens haven’t even noticed. They hop and pick their way through the carnage, gossiping and clucking.

A skunk lurks in society’s coop as well. He cowers in vague generalizations, rarely showing his true, deepest colors. His tidy fur coat and voluptuous tail proclaim world peace, prosperity for the masses, and personal fulfillment. He makes black, white, and white, black. He boldly invites all to embrace him, assuring us that his aims are irreproachable and mocking those who hesitate as old-fashioned, close-minded, naive, or bigoted. His odor permeates the media, our politically correct communications, and our public schools. He has been working, day and night, for decades in a deliberate and well-organized way to undermine God-given liberty and bring about a self-proclaimed silent revolution through “countless small adjustments.”

Many see troublesome symptoms and strut around expressing chickenish sentiments. They pick through the mess, decrying it— a rising divorce rate, fatherless children, STDs, lengthening prison roles, skyrocketing debts, a teetering national economy, illiterate high school graduates, and rampant drug and alcohol abuse. Others are too cauterized by their ball games, their entertainment, and the pursuit of the almighty dollar to notice that anything is happening at all. Surely, if they ignore it, it will go away. A third group calmly saunters up to the shadow, admiring its fierce, independent nature and the voluptuous coat they see there.

The skunk is real, and he is dangerous. His velvet coat is called humanism. His velvet claws are socialism or communism, which are “as alike as two peas in a pod.” He is not just another step in the political evolution of America, nor is the carnage about him the result of stupidity or clumsiness. He is cunning, consistent, well-organized, and deliberate. If you want to understand better what I am telling you pick up a copy of Vance Smith and Tom Gow’s well-documented book, Masters of Deception. There are copies at the Freedom First Society booth. The skunk’s self-declared intent is to destroy and devour, and as long as the chickens tolerate or ignore his presence, they are in great danger. Complacency and Compromise are the keys to our sure demise.

Wake up chickens! Stop picking through the carnage and open your eyes to the deliberate, organized, well-funded skunk. Stop giving him the authority to educate our chicks, provide for our physical needs, and dictate the future of our nation. Stop voting for skunks that don chicken headdresses and then vote for the conservative path to the destruction of our God-given, inspired Constitution.

That Constitution is our protection. It is the walls of our coop! It is a binding contract between God, the people of America, and those entrusted with public office. It means what it meant at the time we entered into it. No court on earth has the right to re-define the terms of that contract. Even the Supreme Court is inferior to the Constitution. It was not even a party to the initial contract and only exists under the authority of that sacred document. It is absurd to even suggest that a creation could be given the power to define their creator.

No politician on earth has the right to negate the provisions of the Constitution by supporting unconstitutional programs or policies. The Freedom First Society has put together an excellent online voter guide at freedomfirstsociety.org that assesses voting records, not by some conservative index, but based on the Constitution. This voter guide screens out posturing or party-line votes which mean nothing, but are often cast just to make a politician look a little more chickenish. It’s time we woke up to the reality that compromise is not a virtue when one is compromising away the lives, liberties, and properties of the American people, now and for generations to come.

Lastly, we cannot afford to tolerate continued support for Constitutional amendments. A Constitutional Convention is one of the greatest threats to that sacred document, and no Constitutional amendment is worth that risk. The Constitution is not broken and giving the skunks the authority to remodel the coop will never provide more security! Any politician that will compromise the security of the coop in this regard is not a true friend to the Constitution or to the chickens, no matter how conservative they are or how good their remodel project sounds.

Wake up little chickens! There is nothing a skunk fears more than truth. Get educated! Get organized! (The Freedom First Society has a great little book called Organize for Victory!) Take aim and FIRE!!! Sooner or later it will be the skunk or us. May God bless us with the wisdom to spot him, the courage to face him, and the ability to win. Thank you.

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