I would like to start this week by saying Merry Christmas to all the readers who follow my editorials. On Saturday, I will be celebrating the birth of Christ. If you don't believe in Christ or any other higher deity, then thanks to your First Amendment Rights guaranteed you by our Fought and Died For Constitution, you may celebrate anything you wish or nothing at all. If by some chance you don't know what the 1st Amendment says, I give you a refresher. “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”.
A simple interpretation is, The government can not force you to follow a specific religion and can not restrict you from following your chosen religion. The Constitution gives every American the freedom OF Religion, not the freedom FROM religion as often misinterpreted. Any debate can easily be resolved through the writings of the founding fathers. Their intent has been made completely clear in their letters, comments and in The Constitution. Included in the 1st Amendment is the freedom of the press, the right to express opinion, to share the news but not to slander; the right to assemble peacefully but not including a right to destroy, burn or loot; the right to Petition Government AKA protest, without causing harm to person or property. Speaking of freedom of religion, this past week the Pentagon ordered the end of faith based dog-tags. For more than twenty years the Department of Defense has allowed our military men and women to have Scripture printed on the back side of their dog tags along with their chosen religion. It appears the DOD is also confused about the First Amendment in their decision that the tags violate DOD policy. More than 2 million of these tags have been produced for our military men and women. Kenny Vaughn, owner of Shields of Strength, one of the companies that produces the tags says the DOD has succumbed to Fear of the Press and Political Correctness overlooking the wishes of our fighting forces and Constitutional
Rights.
On December 19, Fox News reported that Mary Anne Franks, a University of Miami Law School Professor suggested it is time to redo the first two Constitutional Amendments, Freedom of speech and assembly along with the right to bear arms. The professor claims that the first and second amendments “tend to be interpreted in aggressively individualistic ways that ignore the reality of conflict among competing rights”. The professors belief that the Constitution should include if's, and's, or buts forgetting that it is not a living document subject to growth and change.
Lastly this week, I want to touch on the liberalism of our public schools and the indoctrination of our children. As many witnessed in recent news, many school boards have stooped to calling parents who question policies as Domestic Terrorist. These same boards are pushing revisionist history and an agenda that is contrary to the American way violating religious beliefs that were the foundation of our country.
Finally the SCOTUS is reviewing cases such as the 1980 ruling of Carson v. Makin denying families the ability to choose where their education tax dollars go. It is the opinion of the RPT and myself that education tax dollars should follow the student. Like businesses, the poor performing schools would fail while those meeting parental expectations would prosper. Believing that politics and legislation start at the bottom, the Republican Party now has a plan to influence non-partisan elections such as school boards and city councils, exposing candidates in non-partisan
elections who wish to work against both parents and taxpayers.
Until next week, May you have a Blessed Christmas filled with family and friends.
Terry Harper
State Republican Party Committeeman
Senate District 21
[Publisher's side note: State Board of Education (SBOE) races are partisan, so why should local School Board Elections not be partisan? Where do we think candidates can be developed? Do we want candidates for SBOE who have no experience on local School Boards?]
Comments