Be Informed- Be Aware- Part 2 of 2 Do you know the difference?

Be Aware…Be Informed Part 2 of 2 Series –Do we know the difference.

Part 1 was looking at 3 random chosen conservative groups. Part 2 is looking at 3 random chosen liberal groups.  Do we really know the difference?  ***Red denotes me, my opinion. ***

There is that word “progressive” organization. I noticed that this word is also listed on several conservative organizations web sites. “Progressive” means to “happen” or to “develop.”  

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=List_of_progressive_organizations

Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) I have to object to the name of this group right off the bat. I am looking at the acronym and to me that seems too much like Auschwitz. But according to their website they actually go by AU. I will follow suit. They are a “nonpartisan organization dedicated to the preserving of church-state separation to ensure religious freedom for all Americans.”  It was found in 1947 because government wanted to extend aid to private religious schools which would clearly violate the constitution of government becoming involved in private religion. Well “hot-dog!” Isn’t that interesting, it had nothing to do with prayer in schools at the inception. But went on to tackle prayer in schools and school sponsored Bible reading. Incidentally, this was in 1962 and 1963 according to their web site. What I find wonderful, the Bible is still read in school and kids still pray, but on their own which is far greater than a teacher or a school requiring a younger person to do so. A young person growing and going toward Jesus and God on their own is greater than being told they “have to.”  

One of this issues I see that they have been dealing with is a 55-foot tall cross in Cross Part. According to Barry W Lynn, executive director of AU, “The City cannot have an official religion and it can’t send that message either.” (Meaning the cross denotes Christianity.) Who is Barry W Lynn? He is an ACLU attorney and an ordained minister with the Church of Christ (COC). I wonder how many COC members are aware of this. The last major church I was affiliated with was COC and I wasn’t aware of it. I can guarantee you that many of my friends are not either. He has also worked very heavily with “Pat Buchanan and Company.”  

This is a liberal group. I thought conservative groups were mainly Christian and faith based—called right wing? But this is a religious group fighting for the constitution to be upheld. Either way, according to Wallace Stegner, a great writer just ask that no one become over zealot because that is when people have the tendency to be murdered at the hands of Christians, and “It not only becomes dangerous but has often masked itself as religious in nature to lift up the down trodden.”

Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Washington, DC. 2012. 19^th August 2012 Web.

http://www.au.org/

Gediman, Exec.  Prod. Dan. This I believe. The Bob Edwards Show: 2^nd April 2010.  Robert Stegner. “Everything is Dangerous” Circa. 1950s.  http://thisibelieve.org/essay/17017  Web  1^st October 2011

Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) has spent years to ensure policies and programs for health care, protection from abuse and neglect, education, moral and spiritual and spiritual foundations for children.  This is a national advocated group for children. “CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventative investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown.” I am not sure what I am reading, but if this group is still in existing, they must not have enough money to really be effective.

“CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations.”  (This is why they are not a strong group. They need money!)

The CDF grew up in Jackson, Mississippi after being born in 1973. (Of all places? And, I think it was a great idea, too. Why? Mississippi had a history before and after World War II of not believing in its children. I personally caught a glimpse of their loving children attitude when I couldn’t believe my ears when listening to an educator in 2002. “We have no funds to teach your child. That is why we passed him to the 6^th grade. We just give them a coloring book and put them at a table. (That was a Harrison County Schools Special Education teacher talking about dyslexia—Wortham Road Elementary-I heard it personally being said to a mother.) When the child reaches 17, contact the Army. They will help him get into the military. They take everybody.” Mississippian farmers also had a strong disliking for motorized plows; the child was the better of the two. Strap a plow to a child and it was more cost effective according to several people I have spoken with and there were no “white and black issues” with the plow. (Although it was a contention that a black child could pull a plow better because they suffered hunger more; which this stopped being an issue after World War II.)

Marian Wright Edelman, 1^st black woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar, founded the CDF. “Yet, in the wealthiest nation on earth, millions of children still do not get the head start in life they need and the opportunities to fulfill their God-given potential.” I had to bold this comment, because it is true. If a child has a great set of parents, they get pretty much all the support and opportunity unless the economic hinders them. There are great parents with little to no money for children. It may not have started out that way, but in these times it ended up that way. Children are left out in the cold and in the cracks of society. Why is that? Can anyone answer that question? I cannot fathom as to why we often forget our children in the daily course of our lives. Recently a parent told me, they were able to get everything their children wanted and needed, including the “XBOX.” I asked the parent if they loved their children. Of course they responded favorably. Then I asked them why are they subjecting their children to murder, rape, car theft, hate crimes, reasons not to talk, anti-educational propaganda, and possible addition leading to a possible psychosis – mental disorder? There was no answer to the question. I will tell you the answer, XBOX teaches children to murder, rape, car theft, hate crimes, reasons not to talk except in cursing every other word, anti-educational propaganda, and possibly leads to mental disorders. Not to mention “getting children everything they want” does not make a parent good just that means a parent is throwing money down a hole and is confused as to what a child needs.

According to the website, Dr. Jeanne Middleton-Hairston, CDF Freedom Schools Programs, was only able to serve 8,000 students at over 124 sites in 61 cities across the country.  This statistic just made me sick. This is nowhere near enough help for the amount of children who are actually slipping through the cracks of society.  SOMEONE DONATE TO THIS GROUP. GIVE THEM SOME MONEY. Do what is right for the future of our children—the future of our country. If I had any money to donate I would. But, I just spent my last $5.00 on gas to move on campus to get my master’s degree and being an associate teacher, my work doesn’t start back up unit after the last week in August. I too am broke!

Children’s Defense Fund. Washington, DC 2012. 17^th August 2012 Wed. http://www.childrensdefense.org/

Park Foundation, Inc. This liberal organization was founded by Roy Hampton Park, Sr. He graduated high school at the age of 15 years old where he went on to NC State U and majored in journalism according to their website. This is a very private organization that promotes communications. He worked for H.E. Babcock (founder of Grange League Federation--now “Agway”—which sells products to grower or buys products and markets them through various channels nationally and internationally.) I was curious about the last name Babcock and if there was any relation to the Mary Reynolds Babcock foundation from North Carolina. I couldn’t find any link between the two. Mary Reynolds Babcock was the daughter of R J Reynolds (Reynolds tobacco) and Katherine Smith. She married a Charles Henry Babcock from Lafayette, IN.  

This is a 501(c)(3) organization that believes in higher education with limits set at Ithaca College and NC State University for exceptional students in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service and character; it further more “supports interests in media that raises awareness of critical environmental, political and social issues to promote a better informed citizenry in the U.S.”  The foundation promotes healthy drinking water systems in the U.S, nationally significant animal welfare, sustainable Ithaca as well as their community needs (Tompkins County, NY.) The Board of Trustees are from areas around the country NY, NC, DC, and FL. The student receiving the scholarship needs to also have a financial need or such.

There is not a lot to say about this organization other than their premise is short, sweet, and to the point. But then there again, nothing denotes it as being liberal and or conservative.

Park Foundation.  2012. Ithaca, NY. 18^th August 2012 Web.  http://www.parkfoundation.org/

In determining what is liberal versus conservative, in all honesty we do not know. Morality and character is a major common factor with all 6 groups that were examined. Christianity and the constitution is a common factor among 5 groups. So with the similarity involved, why all the “mud sling and finger pointing” between the democrats and republicans?  Why the hate? The major common factors are the foundations; we want to see our Constitutional rights remain in tack and Christianity a forefront leader—which in my opinion, neither candidate nor any candidate can claim top priority to this election year.

YOU DECIDE!

Be Aware---Be Informed Part 1 of 2 Series

BE INFORMED PART ONE (1)

Do We Know The Difference?

Do you honestly know the difference between conservative and liberal? The following information might surprise you as to what their platforms really are.

***Red script denotes my opinion and questions that we should all ponder upon.*** 

I have chosen three random groups from a “Google” search just to inform everyone on the basis what denotes the conservative platform.

Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) – devoted to improving public appreciation of the world of business in what it terms a moral society. This group was founded by Ernest W LeFever, a protestant Minister, scholar and compassionate realist. He was an assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs. He debated whether, how and how much human rights issues should be part of American foreign policy. The US had no right or power “to promote human rights in other sovereign states.”

Martin, Douglas. New York Times. “Ernest W Lefever, Rejected as a Reagan Nominee, Dies at 89”, 4^th August  2009. Web 7^th August 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/us/politics/05lefever.html

The EPPC was established in 1976 to clarify and reinforce the bond between the Judeo Christian moral tradition and the public debate over domestic and foreign policy. According to its web site it wants to control the decisions of the US Supreme Court because “the program focuses, in particular, on what is at stake for American culture writ large—for the ability of the American people to engage in responsible self-government and to maintain the “indispensable supports” of “political prosperity” that George Washington (and other Founders) understood “religion and morality” to be.”

Interesting enough, on the same page of their web site, “the views expressed by EPPC scholars in their work are their individual view only and are not to be imputed to EPPC as an institution.” 

So they do not back the word of the organizations scholars? Furthermore, they want to promote unity among all religions, with the Pope taking up issues as “religious freedom, ecumenism, Christian-Jewish dialogue, and the culture of life.”

Ethics and Public Policy Center, The Constitution, the Courts, and the Culture. 2012. Web 7^th August 2012  http://www.eppc.org/programs/constitution/programID.39/default.asp

**This is not what our founding fathers intended and was far from it. Let us take a quick history lesson. Henry (of England) didn’t like the way the Catholic Church was dictating to him about the fact he wanted to divorce his wife and marry another because he had some morality issues and wanted a male heir to the throne. He started an Anglican Church of England.  Some settlers in the Colonies wanted freedom from religious persecution that meant in some cases Catholic and Anglican Churches.  It is common historical knowledge that the Pilgrims attitude was “Whatever the elders had planned at Leyden, it is clear that Bradford (1590-1657) (Governor at Plymouth) and the younger generation was to create, under God and His guidance, a Christian community on wealth in which Scripture should be the guide but with civil and religious function clearly separated.”  The Virginian Statute for Religious Freedom 1786 was the forerunner for the 1^st Amendment, “Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment…are a departure from the plan of the Holy Arthur of our religion, who, being Lord both of body and mind, that chose not to propagate it by coercions on either.” (Thomas Jefferson) (This information is taken from my classroom study notes on the period.)

All of this (1976) came right after a period of conservative politics that went so far that everyone was being investigated By Nixon. Elvis had say in the White House. The overall political system was trying to heal itself at the hands of Gerald Ford—troops were coming home from Vietnam still. It was just before the new US political leader was about to take office Jimmy Carter—a highly religious man with sound moral values. He proved to be a terrible president—economically speaking. His hands just weren’t dirty enough, we had to go out and elect Ronald Reagan—the president who actually did nothing. He let everyone else do it for him and took their credit; he was the actor on the screen that did just that and very well—acted.  I even voted for him.   

The EPPC wants to control our thoughts on religion and morality. I do not want modern man to gather together to tell me how to think or take my right away to think because God gave that to me not modern man. Who is to say they know God any better in their heart than I do? In doing so they would be taking away my liberty to religious freedom.

To speak of our founding fathers, would it be appropriate to say that Jefferson was humane toward his slaves as scientific experiments? He would inject his slaves with cow pox in 1796. If that didn’t kill them, then he would use live small pox. I also remember years ago reading (do not ask me to site the source) how he stood his slaves up against the barn wall to observe them urinating. (This doesn’t sound exactly like humane not moral treatment to me.)

The Legal Eagle Community Newsletter Blog. “Thomas Jefferson’s Medical Experiments on Slaves”. 15^th July 2010. Web 10^th August 2012.  http://legaleaglesflyordie.blogspot.com/2010/07/thomas-jeffersons-medical-experiments.html

The Heritage Foundation is a “research and educational institution.” It is their goal to promote conservative public policy on free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense according to their website. They are a tax exempt organization that relies very heavily on its support from the general public, foundations and corporations. They will not accept any governmental money and do not perform any contract work. They believe very much in the constitution feeling they are any authority to every aspect of it. They strongly believe that late President Wilson “…led the
Progressive revolution in American politics out of which grew modern liberalism.” (I thought this was a conservative group.) They are quoting an essay in which Woodrow Wilson: Godfather of Liberalism. According to Ronald Pestritto, Wilson has been attending a new formed progressive movement department at Johns Hopkins University with the express purpose of bringing German education, principals, and the science of their politics into the America politics. While Wilson was working at Princeton he began having an illicit affair with Mary Peck. Eventually Wilson started in politics with national income taxes in 1913, Federal Reserve Act, and worked hard to point out that there was a lack of federal foreign policy under “Teddy.”

Pestritto, Ronald. The Heritage Foundation—Leadership for America. “Woodrow Wilson: Godfather of Liberalism.” 31^st July 2012. Web 8^th August 2012.  http://www.heritage.org/about .

 I now gather that progressive liberalism is now conservative. But what was going on in 1876 in Germany when J Hopkins University wanted Germany so much in America? President Grant was in office. “The German Conservative Party, right wing political party, was founded which only represented the interests of the German nobility and the Evangelical Church of the Prussian Union because of universal suffrage… The party failed and dissolved and eventually became the German National People’s Party…with no connection to the German Conservative Party of 1946.”

Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia “German Conservative Party” 26^th April 2012. Web 7^th August 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Conservative_Party

The German economy had been good until about 1876; then it started to be shaky. They wanted to return to the power they had received where as metal (gold) backed their economy. But according to the National Monetary Commission, “the outflow of gold in 1874-76, experience a violent interruption for reasons connected with carrying out the German monetary reforms.” (220)  “The Prussian Bank was in the last year of its existence, relieved of acute uneasiness about an outflow of gold, it was now forced to adopt a severe limitation of inland circulation which affected the money market.” (221)

German Monetary Commission.  The Reichsbank 1876-1910. Washington: Government Printing Office: 1910. Web.  7^th August 2012. http://books.google.com/books?id=WT8uAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217&lpg=PA217&dq=German+economy+1876&source=bl&ots=8JjfeCK1L0&sig=YLydWertX3DVFnwOkPefCzWKckQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FwMiUL-3J4GC2AX9u4DIBA&ved=0CE8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=true.

**Let me see if I understand the principal of this organization. One of its goals is to promote American values. Well if Woodrow Wilson is a representative of American values then this organization would clearly be in conflict with EPPC. Is adultery an American value or is it a pre-qualification of American political leaders? This organization is about money being free to make money anyway you see fit and adultery. This is something that is needed in America?

A few years back, I received some information from this group in the mail. Talk about what sounded like pure “hate of the fellow man.” If I didn’t know any better, I thought I was reading something from the class of “Brotherhood of the Skinhead Prison Race Relations 101.”

John Birch Society  (JBS) – I happen to think this is by far the most interesting society of all. John Birch was deceased when his society was started by Robert Welch, who started the Oxford Candy Company because the inventor of the Sugar Daddy. He left his own company after a dispute with management and went to work for his brother until he retired. But who was John Birch? He was “a devoted Christian missionary who served in World War II and was killed by Chinese Communists 10 days after the war ended.” He secretly was a US Intelligence Agent between China and North Korea; he was murdered in some espionage case that was covered up which if brought to light might have made a difference between USA, China, and North Korea.

Another key player in the JBS was Dr. Larry McDonald, Representative Larry McDonald who married Callie Grace Patton – cousin to George S Patton. He was a democrat---who believed in Jefferson, Jackson and Grover Cleveland, the Constitution, rejected the New Deal and government approach of F D Roosevelt. He crusaded against communism and believed in National Security. His best friend was Ron Paul. He was the “only Congressman lost to the communists during the Cold War” during the Korean Air Lines Flight 007 shot down by a Soviet MIG fighter over Safhalin Island in 1983.

Other famous people involved in the John Birch Society were Robert Welch, Fred Koch(founded the oil refinery), Augereau Heinsohn (Cotton Mills in Tennessee and NC-anti Union), William Grede (producer of ductile iron and steel, anti-union), and Garman Kimmell (inventor—oil and gas).

According to their web site their core principals are “To bring about less government, more responsibility, and – with God’s help—a better world by providing leadership, education, and organized volunteer action in accordance with moral and constitutional principles.” They admit all persons who believe in the 10-Commandments regardless of race, colors, creeds, or national organization who believe that God will lead to the better world desired by all men and women of good will with no particular religious background. The organization would also like to promote the prosperity that the Founding Fathers worked toward for all Americans.

The Board of Directors members are electors, friends with members of the German cabinet and European Unions, military men, Christian Coalition, believers in Financial Terrorism, and major contributors to explosive conservative magazines like the New America. Also on the board are connections to the insurance industry; according to the biography of Clark Curry, “He has actively worked with the state legislators the past thirty years on such issues as opposing the Equal Rights Amendment and opposing a Constitution Convention.” Robert Bell “challenged the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s intention to acquire jurisdiction over the industry.” He and his wife strongly oppose the “dangerous” Equal Rights Amendments. There was even a natural born Canadian in the group who wants to “fight against unconstitutional federal regulatory agencies, especially the Food and Drugs Administration’s attempt to gain control over the vitamin and health products industry.” Again, according to their web site, they have a Jewish gentleman on the Board to ensure they are not anti-Semitic as previously rumored. There are connections to the Oil and Gas Industry, Financial Industry, Pharmaceutical Industry and Associations, Energy Industry, Horse Associations, benched judges, plumbers, police officers, Gideon’s International, district attorney, automobile dealership owners, rotary club members, pilots, and doctors.  

The John Birch Society: Appleton, WI.  8th of August 2012. Web. http://www.jbs.org/

I looked at the current National Council and not one of them is African-American or Hispanic and any other known national race that resides as true US Citizens. There are no females in the board of directors either. Why is that?

After listening to a speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZU0c8DAIU4&feature=related) that was on You-tube by Robert Welch dated 1958, it was very enlightening. The things he spoke on were against communism, but he also warned the people of what was to become in society; His contention was to (1) restore independence (2) get UN out of US business (3) Restore Gold as backing US Dollar (4) Reduce government by 50% (5) bring all war time troops home except those on US soil, and (6) get government out of society.

Another web site that spoke of the JBS stated that earlier “Birch conspiracism reflects an ultraconservative business nationalist critique of business internationalist networked through groups such as Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR is viewed through a conspiracist lens as puppets of the Rockefeller family in a 1952 book by McCarthy fan, Emanuel M. Josephson, Rockerfeller, ‘Internationalist’: The Man Who Misrules the World. In 1962 Dan Smoot’s The Invisible Government added several other policy groups to the list of conspirators, including the Committee for Economic Development, the Advertising Council, and the Trilateral Commission. Smoot had worked at FBI headquarters in Washington, DC before leaving to establish an anticommunist newsletter, The Dan Smoot Report. The shift from counter-subversion on behalf of the FBI to counter-subversion in the private sector was an easy one. The basic thesis was the same. In Smoot’s concluding chapter, he wrote, “Somewhere at the top of the pyramid in the invisible government are a few sinister people who know exactly what they are doing: They want America to become part of a worldwide socialist dictatorship, under the control of the Kremlin.”  

The Kremlin has since fallen during Reagan’s administration, which he took a big part in making sure that it happened. Or so we were told?

Political Research Associates – Researching the Right for Progressive Change Makers. “The John Burch Society”. Somerville, MA: 2010. Web 8^th August 2012.  http://www.publiceye.org/tooclose/jbs.html.

In all my research, I did run across something really interesting, “Agenda 21”, while going back and double checking the JBS web site once more.  “Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced – a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level…There are specific actions which are intended to be undertaken by…in short, every person on Earth.”  This is dealing with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) founded before the Rio Summit 1992. Newport, MA is part of the ICLEI “which is a government to government entity, unconstitutional on its face.” (Is the unconstitutional that is mentioning covered under Article 1 Section 10? Alabama Legislator’s were the first state to vote down and heartedly oppose Agenda 21.) I will have to further investigate this Agenda 21 for a future blog because it has definitely intrigued my curiosity.

I suggest everyone find out about Agenda 21. Research it and be informed. It is not totally about controlling the environment of forestation of lands.  I suggest America not go along with this program. It is not only our federal government, but I feel the United Nations is too far in the running of our government at this point. We may have already lost our Constitutional Rights, and are just too unlearned to recognize that fact.

In closing, Part 1 of “Be Informed-do we know the difference”, I have certainly learned a tremendous amount. All three of these groups are lobbyists groups with an agenda. John Birch Society seems to be the cleanest, more stable group of intellects by far. They all have one commonality—nationalism and the security of the good old USA. 

I was listening the other day to John Wayne speak on “Why do you March” and “Why he loves America.” It was on YouTube and being a life-long fan of “the Duke”, I couldn’t help myself but to down-load it to listen to it over and over again. (He’s my hero.) What would he say if he were alive today to the current state of affairs? “Well partner…they may try to hurt their elders and betters, but they won’t. They won’t if they know what is best for America and that my friend is why we are called The United States of America.”  You politicians and general public best remember that because that is probably what John Wayne would have said.

What would Jesus have said? Nothing, he probably would have gone up on the Mount and screamed: then he would have prayed until he understood how to calmly address the situation. He would tell us we certainly have turned into a greedy lot of people.