Posted on 05/15/2011 9:46:43 AM PDT by Ira_Louvin
NASHVILLE — Members of Tennessee tea parties presented state legislators with five priorities for action Wednesday, including “rejecting” the federal health reform act, establishing an elected “chief litigator” for the state and “educating students the truth about America.”
About two dozen tea party activists held a news conference, then met with lawmakers individually to present their list of priorities and “demands” for the 2011 legislative session that opened Tuesday.
Regarding education, the material they distributed said, “Neglect and outright ill will have distorted the teaching of the history and character of the United States. We seek to compel the teaching of students in Tennessee the truth regarding the history of our nation and the nature of its government.”
That would include, the documents say, that “the Constitution created a Republic, not a Democracy.”
The material calls for lawmakers to amend state laws governing school curriculums, and for textbook selection criteria to say that “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”
Fayette County attorney Hal Rounds, the group’s lead spokesman during the news conference, said the group wants to address “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.
“The thing we need to focus on about the founders is that, given the social structure of their time, they were revolutionaries who brought liberty into a world where it hadn’t existed, to everybody — not all equally instantly — and it was their progress that we need to look at,” said Rounds, whose website identifies him as a Vietnam War veteran of the Air Force and FedEx retiree who became a lawyer in 1995.
The group also wants the state legislature to reject key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 as “an insult to Constitutional principles.”
The activists also said they want legislators to either start the process of amending the state Constitution to provide for the popular election of the state attorney general or to create a separate position of solicitor general who is directly elected by voters and with much of the litigation authority now vested with the attorney general.
In Tennessee, the attorney general is appointed by the state Supreme Court.
The group’s printed material says the attorney general has reflected “views of the U.S. Constitution that conflict with those of the people of Tennessee.” It specifically says the current attorney general, Robert Cooper, has rejected “the call of the people and the General Assembly” to join with other states in contesting the constitutionality of “federal mandates, including ‘Obamacare.’”
The priorities also include terminating state subsidies for unfunded or unconstitutional federal mandates, and “enforcing constitutional law.”
Later Wednesday, the Tennessee Health Care Campaign said repealing the federal health reforms would mean repealing protections the law gives consumers against insurance companies.
Everyone who possibly can should home-school their children.
America's crisis is one of leadership and wrongheaded ideas.
To restore individual liberty, opportunity, prosperity and plenty, requires leaders who understand and have a passion for the ideas and principles underlying the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Further, that leader must have the unique ability to motivate and inspire a diverse population of individuals that the ideas which made America great are the same ideas which can extricate America from its present crisis.
Because of the multiplicity and power of entrenched groups who have censored the ideas from textbooks and much of public discourse, and have created a class of political elites, as well as a dependency class, such a leader must be fearless, authentic, and able to appeal to a broad spectrum of the citizenry.
To defeat the current head of the political elites will require authentic and seasoned leadership skills, as well as superior communications ability.
It can be done, but not with politicians whose understanding of America's founding ideas consists of sound bites and flag pins.
The moral philosopher, Adam Smith, in the Year 1775, published his "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations." Isn't it interesting that the following year saw an exceptional group of individuals in America declare a set of ideas which, within a decade set in motion a system of self-government whose "benign" (Madison) influence allowed Smith's ideas to flourish and create a place of opportunity, prosperity, plenty, and freedom where oppressed people from all over the world found refuge for over 200 years?
Only now, after a few decades of so-called "progressive" dominance is that place of freedom and opportunity threatened.
A candidate who can help new generations discover that truth can expose the fraud which his being perpetrated upon them and their posterity.
One of the first acts of a new leader should be a restoration of the founding ideas to the public square.
How about they just be honest and truthful.
Yes, by good old Christians like Haym Salomon, Thomas Jefferson, Oliver Pollock, et al.
The founding fathers were listening to the calling of a higher power.
Agreed. Most were Deists, but there were Christians and Jews, too.
"For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft..."-- I Samuel, 15:23a
Why would they demand that students not be taught about slavery, and the experience of Native Americans?
bump
Probably because they have no idea what "the truth" actually is. Both history majors and education majors coming out of university these days are so brainwashed by "progressive" (i.e. socialist/communist) ideas that they have no real idea what the REAL American history was.
As an antidote, I HIGHLY recommend any of British historian Paul Johnson's books. I'm currently reading his "George Washington, The Founding Father" (but I think he actually meant "George Washington, THE Founding Father), but there are also his "History of the American People", "History of Christianity", "History of the Jews", "Creators", "Intellectuals", and many others.
The book “George Washington’s Sacred Fire” by Peter Lillback absolutely destroys any notion he was a deist. Most people are hesitant to count Paine as a “Founding Father.” Other than the tracts in the Revolution, he didn’t participate in any of the other founding events-—Articles, Constitution, ratification, or early congresses (when he was in France).
The myth that most were "deists" has been pretty well blown out of the water by people like Peter Lillback and, yes, David Barton.
I think a lot depends on definitions and assumptions.
Obviously, with all of David Barton’s dishonesty, he’s not a credible source, and I haven’t had time to do independent confirmation so I haven’t paid recent attention to any of his claims. Your word, however, hold weight, so I look forward to following up on this. Thanks.
Don’t begin with me. Begin with Lillback. His 700-page work on Washington’s faith had me convinced half-way through. Talk about someone who has covered every conceivable angle. But also look at the state constitutions-—virtually all of which cite God generically and half of which cite Jesus Christ specifically, or the state oaths that most leaders had to swear to, mostly in the name of Jesus.
"Common Sense" and the tract starting "These are the times that try men's souls" were both very valuable contributions. He was from a lower social background than most of the people involved in official ways in the Revolution and perhaps that affected how people treated him or how he reacted to them. He seems to have brought a lot of the negativity on himself--the prime example being his open letter denouncing George Washington. A wiser person would have put those thoughts on paper and then stored it away unsent, or thrown it into the fire.
As I understand the story, Paine was sick in a jail in Paris, and the jailers every night would go through and whitewash an “x” on the wooden cell door of those to die the next day, as they did with Paine. But another jailer heard him coughing, and opened the door for him to get air, and when the crew came through the following morning to get the victims, Paine’s door (with the “X”) was turned inward and he escaped the guillotine.
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