Oklahoma Flunks History

The dumbing of America by Right-wing morons cloaking themselves in the American flag has become a significant threat to our freedom; more so than any terrorist group in the world. The reason our Founding Fathers favored a separation between church and state is because they recognized that our government has to rule everyone regardless of their faith or lack thereof. They understood that as soon as you throw religion into the political mix, you automatically infuse unnecessary emotional conflict into the realm of governing our citizens. Many of those first English colonists who came to this country did so as a direct result of the English King trying to impose his brand of religion on them. With this in the minds of the Founding Fathers, they knew that religion had no role in a secular government and they had no desire to establish a theocracy.

If people want their children raised as a specific religion by all means find a church that meets those needs. In the meantime, the Right-wing evangelicals and their cronies need to quit trying to turn our government into a backwards theocracy which condemns science and promotes faith healers and charlatans willing to take advantage of the ignorant and uneducated. Oklahoma's recent move to ban AP US History because Republicans deemed it unpatriotic while attempting to impose theological elements into our school system is a perfect example of what is going wrong in this nation. I don't expect much from Oklahoma and they rarely disappoint me. American history is filled with negative examples of both our government and our people, yet we are the greatest nation in the history of the planet. Not because of conservatives, who have been on the wrong side of history on every major social issue, but because of progressives who have recognized our short-comings as a society and have been moved to make the world a better place. As a Christian, I don't need schools to do the jobs of churches nor do I need politicians replacing educators. The rising tide of dumb rolling in from the right-wing of this country is drowning the future for far too many of our children and grandchildren.

Mike Huckabee and Fox Zealots

For the record, Mike Huckabee is representative of everything that is wrong with Fox and their conservative, anti-public school zealots. First, the idea that any mortal could stop God from going anywhere He wishes or is wanted is ludicrous. Second, the lie that keeps getting spun around Facebook and Right-wing media sites that someone has kicked God out of school is so easily disproven it requires either the gullible or simple-minded to believe it. We have Christian student clubs in our schools that have every right that any other club has in school. Students, teachers, and community the members routinely stage See You the at the Pole events. Teachers and students routinely pray before meals and other events and have Bibles with them in their class. What has been stopped is having the school force one brand of religion or another on a captive audience. I don't want some school administrator telling me and my children how to pray. For Huckabee, or anyone else, to say that the reason these poor children and their teachers were murdered in cold blood is because public schools have turned their backs on God is completely absurd and insulting to the families who lost love ones today and Huckabee and those like them should be holding their heads in shame.

Huckabee Proves He is Out of Touch

Now is the Time!

Power in the hands of man is always subject to abuse and corruption but only under our system of government do the people have a voice in bringing it under control. Too many hide behind flourishes of rhetoric in condemning the last, best hope of mankind which is our government. For those who have grievances against the system, and I am sure there are many, our Founders provided an effective way for the people to address and correct them. But it requires true Patriots who are willing to roll up their sleeves and wade into the political arena to make it work. Life is what we make it; not what we wish it would be. Sitting on the sidelines chanting a “Pox on both your houses” neither solves anything nor inspires others to rise up to a higher level.

Grade school tactics used by the Right-wing in this country such as substituting derogatory words in the place of the correct ones in titles such as Clinton News Network or National Propaganda Radio is no substitute for ideas and fails to illicit legitimate ideas of reform from those who choose to take up such a challenge. The folly is not in thinking we are free but in failing to recognize that freedoms do not come without responsibilities. A child is free to live in their parent’s home but subject to the rules of their father. History demonstrates the need for a people to bond together against common enemies and the benefits of such collaboration. American history is filled with such inspirational tales and it is the ignorance and bastardization of our past that should stir anger in the hearts of every American. Together, and in large part because of our government, unions, and the unique nature of our economic system, Americans have achieved an unparalleled level of prosperity and freedom.

I do not condemn the rich for their success but I do demand that they acknowledge that their success is in no small measure due to the stability provided by our system of government. "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Luke 12:48.

And as for the number of poor who live in our great nation, it is time we start asking the right questions instead of repeating the drivel which trickles out of the gnarled lips of corporate fat cats intent on shaking the last nickel out of the pocket of the working man in order to benefit themselves and their fettered progeny. The question should be, “Why at a time when the wealthiest Americans are getting richer every day is poverty in our nation allowed to grow unchecked?” The question should be, “Why would our nation choose to follow a path of governance which grows the number of rich with homes on both coasts and other countries while record numbers of hard-working Americans suffer the indignities of foreclosure and bankruptcy?” The question should be, “Why are working class Americans rallying as torch bearers for the very corporate toadies who despise them?”

I am both a proud American and a proud member of the Democratic Party and the time has come for this nation to rise up and smite the arrogant purveyors of ignorance which have gripped the Republican Party and this nation right straight in their pompous mouths and send them packing back into the dens of inequity where they so rightfully belong.

It is time we quit giving an audience to those among us who wish to reduce our great nation to the dust bin of history and return us to the agrarian past where land barons owned the property and all those who toiled upon it. It takes no great rhetorical mastery to divide and to tear down those who wish to build and create. All it takes is for one vocal person armed with a grudge and a sharp tongue to repress the dreams of thousands. But America was not built by those petty people and history holds no monuments to their negativity. We are a bigger people than that. Our history is bigger than that. Somewhere in this great land are a multitude of leaders ready to inspire us to build the next generation of dreams for ourselves and for the world. Somewhere, there is the next team of visionaries ready to inspire us to tackle tasks beyond our grasp because that is what we as Americans do. We don’t come face to face with challenges and decide they are insurmountable and wring our hands in lamentation praying for a higher power to lift us from our dilemma. We grab those obstacles by the throat and kick them in the ass and move on thanking God he gave us the power to take care of ourselves on this Earth until the time comes for us to join Him in His home.

In the United States of America, the Tea Party and the Republican Party have loudly and with great fervor worked tirelessly to reign in the dreams of our people. They have sowed the seeds of discord throughout our land in a despicable attempt to make our young people believe the best of America is in her past. It is a lie. It is a damned lie and it is time Democrats join together to crush that lie and replace it with the vision of hope that has been the foundation of our party and its principles.

God bless America!