Listen up

Listen up, profiteers & climate change deniers

This is our Father’s world, and to our listening ears

All nature sings, and ‘round us rings the music of the spheres.

This is our Father’s world. We rest us in the thought

Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;

His hand the wonders wrought.

This is our Father’s world. He shines in all that’s fair;

In the rustling grass we hear Him pass;

He speaks to us everywhere.

This is our Father’s world. Oh, let us ne’er forget

That though the wrong seems oft so strong,

The battle is not done ‘til earth and heaven are one.

A Pledge for the Tea Party Faithful

March 31st, 2010

Dear Tea Party Friend,
Please sign this pledge:

I,________________, as a member of the Tea Party, pledge that I will not use “socialist” programs such as Social Security, Medicare, other medical coverage provided by the Feds. I will not take out loans from the Feds. I will not use the Federal highways, roads, fire departments, the 911 emergency
 system, police departments or programs of any type benefiting from Federal funds. I will not accept protection from the Armed Forces.
I will not use libraries,
schools, cell or land phones since they use Federal money. I will avoid television, radio stations, and the internet. I will not use Federal workers to guide my plane to an airport, or use public transportation.
I will avoid anything that uses Federal money, including free wood from national forests, hunting land, fishing resources,
and camp grounds in national parks. I will also take a chance on the food I eat and the water I drink, since I will have to test them myself along with the wastewater leaving my property.
If I am using or benefiting from any Federal program, I will immediately stop and repay the money.

Sincerely,______________ Date___________

1. 
   
2. Not All Texans Are Fanatics

   Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
   -George Orwell, 1984

   I must begin this statement by establishing my identity and background. I was born in Texas, and but for a few years just after college, have lived in this state for all of my life. I was educated in the public school systems of three progressively larger Texas cities and graduated from a university in Texas. This is by way of announcing that I am proud of my state, but I am not at all proud of the current state of my state.

   I am, first of all, not proud that we have a sitting governor who, if justice were done, should have been removed from office under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which states: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

   The Governor of Texas who now asks to be elected to yet another term did just that; gave aid or comfort to those who proclaim their enmity toward our country when he stood before an anti-government rally and suggested secession of this state from the union. He has continued to suggest secession without cessation and has aligned himself with those in at least one other state who also speak of secession.

   Second of all, I am not proud that the State Board of Education of Texas has acted in such a way as to give rise to the belief that the entire population of this state is, to put it gently, loco. Here is a suggestion for correcting the undue influence the 10 uber-conservative members of that body apparently have regarding the adoption of information to be contained in textbooks that will serve the nation’s schools.

   Texas has always been very proud of its Alamo defenders. The story of Colonel Travis’s line in the sand is one Texans learn early on. It is time to draw another line in the sand and to ask our sister states to cross over and stand with us to defend facts that should be available to students who deserve unbiased information. Those who are the future of this nation should receive education not indoctrination.

   I call upon the other 49 states to join those of us in Texas who deplore the actions of this board. I suggest that they can do this by telling publishers of textbooks that they will not buy any materials that incorporate the omissions and/or misstatements demanded by the Texas Ten. The only thing that works in the country today seems to be monetary pressure. If there is a blanket refusal to spend state money on the incomplete, slanted material proposed by the Texas Ten, we might see some reason returned to this process. Within our own state, I call for a serious effort to discover a way to rid this board of those who would pervert the facts in order to promote political and religious views. George Orwell warned us 62 years ago that tyranny through force is but one form of tyranny. Tyranny through control of information is another more insidious form.

   1