Free Republic

This summer, the Daughters of the American Revolution changed its bylaws to allow men who identify as women to join the all-female historical society, angering some of its members. DAR leaders passed an amendment stating that membership cannot be denied due to “[characteristics] protected by applicable law,” according to Newsweek. DAR president general Pamela Wright clarified during the organization’s annual meeting in June that men who have their birth certificates altered to indicate that they are female are eligible for membership. The new amendment also revoked the right of local chapters to decide if an applicant is “personally acceptable” for...

'Mrs. America' tries to paint Phyllis Schlafly as cold and unforgiving, but the conservative icon my grandmother and I knew was nothing of the sort. My grandmother was in a Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter with Phyllis Schlafly from 1965 to 1990. A few years before she died, I had the privilege to intern for Mrs. Schlafly. So, during quarantine, as we watched the FX series “Mrs. America” together, we became filled with growing frustration and disgust at seeing the woman we had known misrepresented and defamed. What is most striking about “Mrs. America,” however, is how little it...

Recently, I was elected treasurer of my local SAR chapter, the older male equivalent of the far better known Daughters of the American Revolution.Thus, I was appalled to learn what a partly rate of interest our existing bank paid on a recently matured CD (0.06%!) and refused to renew it, asking them to deposit it into our checking account instead.Accordingly, I am now actually shopping for another bank our credit union willing to offer a fine, patriotic organization such as our better rates and service. My retirement money, for example, is with Charles Schwab, where I can earn 2.3% (annualized)...

SIERRA VISTA — The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution is donating $10,000 to help with the construction of a chapel at the Southern Arizona Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery Foundation. The grant request was sponsored by the Tombstone DAR Chapter. It led Foundation President Ingrid Baillie to thank the national DAR for its “large gift,” and she added, “We realize this grant is just one of many that have been made to the foundation in support of the Chapel Project, and is one of many awarded by the DAR each year to preserve our nation’s history and patriotism.”

There was an earlier post about DAR removing all references to Jesus from their ceremonies. The following is an e-mail I recieved from them addressing the report. Dear Members, NSDAR is disappointed to learn that false and incorrect information has recently been circulated regarding the 2011 edition of the DAR Ritual and Missal and the use of the name Jesus Christ in prayers and other ceremonial events of the National Society. The purpose of this message is to clarify NSDAR’s position on the matter for anyone who has not previously viewed the blogs written by President General Merry Ann T....

The Daughters of the American Revolution, one of the nation’s oldest patriotic organizations, has erased any mention of Jesus Christ in their official book, removed prayers and poems that reference Christian imagery, and directed members to refrain from praying in the name of Christ, an outraged group of members alleged. The dispute has been brewing for more than a year when DAR members learned that the newly revised Ritual and Missal books – the primary guide for chaplains – were altered. They noticed that the name of Jesus Christ had been omitted. The DAR president general did not return calls...

Yet another poll has bad news for Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), with the incumbent seriously trailing her Republican opponent Rep. John Boozman.

Technically speaking, the Kennedy Center is not Congress, but the building — a monument to the first Roman Catholic president — is federally supported. Luckily, this story has a happy ending. But how many ordinary Americans have a microphone or a TV show with which to make bureaucratic enormities like this public? Behold the wages, not of sin, but of the evil known as “political correctness” – VIDEO GLENN BECK Lest we forget, the Kennedy Center’s forerunner as Washington’s premiere concert hall, Constitution Hall, run by the Daughters of the American Revolution, once tried to ban contralto Marian Anderson...

Tonight we talked to someone who works in the federal courts here in Chicago. The buzz in those corridors is that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been leading a team of FBI investigators in 10 states working on a RICO case. Today, it was announced that ACORN is being investigated in 10 states. That’s one Hell of a coincidence. We asked why Fitzgerald would be involved in this, because he’s the prosecutor on the Tony Rezko case and we aren’t aware of ACORN being investigated in Illinois. We were told that ACORN was investigated in Illinois years ago, and it...

SIERRA VISTA — Locals celebrated the U.S. Constitution’s 219th birthday on Sunday with patriotic music, ringing bells and saluting the flag. The Tombstone Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution sponsored the program, “Bells Across America,” held at Veterans’ Memorial Park. “We do this every year, Vicki L. Brown, Constitution Week chairwoman. She added schools and churches may also participate. Mayor Tom Hessler read a proclamation declaring Constitution Week, which is Sept. 17-23, as a small group — many wearing American flag pins or patriotic clothing — listened. Judy Jolley Waterman, DAR chaplain, read an invocation. She thanked God...

WASHINGTON, July 3, 2006 – Military members serving in the global war against terrorism, as well as their families, are true American patriots, the Pentagon's top officer told the Daughters of the American Revolution here June 30. Each servicemember swears an oath to the U.S. Constitution upon entering the armed forces, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told 4,000 DAR members gathered in Constitution Hall for their 115th annual meeting. While deployed to far-flung locales like Afghanistan or Iraq to perform arduous, dangerous duty, those servicemembers "probably are not repeating the words of their...

WASHINGTON -- The debate in Congress over immigration reform may be stalled, but that has not stopped the American dream from coming true Monday in Mount Vernon. About 100 people from 42 countries became U.S. citizens during a special ceremony at the home of George Washington. It's an annual ceremony co-hosted by the Daughters and Sons of the American Revolution. Some of the country's newest Americans told tales of long waits for paperwork and background checks. But Neyza Alba of Bolivia said the lengthy process was worth it. Emilio Gonzales, the director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services, says the...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2005 – Vice President Richard B. Cheney joined Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson here today to kick off a yearlong celebration of the VA Department's 75th anniversary. Cheney honored the veterans in the audience, from 103-year-old World War I veteran Lloyd Brown to veterans of combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq during a ceremony at Daughters of the American Revolution Constitution Hall. All, the vice president said, "have shaped the life of this nation for the better" through their service and sacrifice. In doing so, he said, they "have given every generation of Americans a...

There was a story that the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond never tired of telling his fellow members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It was about how, in April 1865, after the tattered survivors of Gen. Robert E. Lee's army stacked their rifles in surrender at Appomattox, his grandfather, George Washington Thurmond, walked more than 300 miles back to his farm in Edgefield County, S.C. Now, Thurmond's mixed-race daughter, Essie Mae Washington Williams, is taking action to claim her share of that heritage. She's planning to apply to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a 109-year-old organization whose...

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, a biracial woman who stepped forward last year to acknowledge that she was the daughter of the late Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, now wants to join the United Daughters of the Confederacy, an organization of descendants of soldiers who fought for the South in the Civil War. Evidently she is eligible: Senator Thurmond, once a fierce segregationist, was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a similar group for men. Ms. Washington-Williams, a 78-year-old retired teacher who lives in Los Angeles, also plans to apply for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution...

The biracial daughter of the late Strom Thurmond is pursuing membership in the United Daughters of the Confederacy - a group founded to honor the memory of those who fought for the South in the Civil War. Essie Mae Washington-Williams will make the application based on her relationship to Thurmond, whose ancestors fought for the Confederacy. Male members of her family also will seek to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans, of which Thurmond was a member, said Frank Wheaton, her attorney. "Through my father's line, I am fortunate to trace my heritage back to the birth of our nation...

Laurie Daynes, left, and Sallie Lovorn, Tombstone chapter members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, view some of the headstones located in the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Tuesday. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) SIERRA VISTA - The ashes of retired Air Force Major Fred L. Bagley, 78, of Bisbee were interred Wednesday in the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery Columbaria, with full and solemn military honors. Standing with friends and family, the Davis-Monthan Air Force Honor Guard, chaplain and cemetery officials was a woman clad in black. Laurie Daynes of Sierra Vista, wearing white gloves and a black dress,...

WASHINGTON: Under tremendous pressure from the United States, Islamabad’s ruling dispensation appears to be zeroing in on Pakistan’s national hero, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, as the source of nuclear proliferation. Several people, perhaps up to 25, included some of Khan’s closest aides, have been detained in recent days. Some of them have been dragged out of their homes kicking and screaming, according to family members who have spoken to the Pakistani media. Khan himself has been treated more circumspectly, but he has also been questioned exhaustively and further steps against him seem imminent. The military government already seems to be...

SHANKLEVILLE -- While tracing their ancestry back hundreds of years, Larutha M. Odom Clay and her daughter, Lareatha H. Clay, discovered that their family's roots extended deep into Texas history. The mother and daughter have made some history of their own, recently becoming the first blacks to be inducted into a 112-year-old organization known as the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. "It's nice to be the first, but we don't want to be the only ones," said Lareatha, 45, a management consultant, adding that she wants "other blacks to start researching their history." To become a member of this...