It is common to hear the accusation that our Founding Fathers were deists, and that they were influenced by the 17th century Rationalism of Descartes, and the 18th century Enlightenment of Rousseau. Where did these arguments come from, and are they true? Did these empty philosophies, which offer no hope for mankind, and which did greatly influence the irrational slaughter of the French Revolution and the guillotining of Louis XVI, actually impact the founding of our own nation? Those who deny our Christian heritage would like us to think so.
The truth is far different from what those revisionist historians want us to believe. One of the greatest political influences on our Founders was John Locke, a 17th century Oxford academic and medical researcher who opposed authoritarianism. Locke, who was a Christian, was considered by Thomas Jefferson to be one of the greatest men who ever lived. It was Locke's political ideas that led to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the bloodless overthrow of British King James II.
It was the Christian religion, however, that was the driving philosophy behind the deliberations of our Founding Fathers. The Baptists had a large part to play in that. It was "that little Baptist state," as George Washington called Rhode Island, that gave the world the first ever government that was completely tolerant of all religions. And it was the Baptist influence that ensured that religious freedom became a part of our first amendment.
The Pilgrims, most of whom were Puritans from the Anglican Church of England, came to Amerca seeking religious freedom. But they were just as intolerant of any other beliefs as the Church of England was. They required membership, tithes, and infant baptism of all citizens in their colonies. Several colonies persecuted non-conformists by putting them in stocks, with beatings, or banishment, and as late as 1767, three Baptist preachers in Fredericksburg, Virginia were jailed for not submitting to the Anglican church. That church still exists in Fredericksburg, Virginia. I used to attend there when I was in the Marine Corps in Quantico.
This is what drove Roger Williams and many others to found the Rhode Island colony on the true principle of religious freedom. It is a credit to the wisdom of our Founders to have come to the realization that what they had in Rhode Island was what was needed in the new nation.
The idea that this country was built by Deists is a 20th century invention. No contemporary ever called the Founders Deists, and neither did the next three or four generations following them. In fact, in a celebrated case before the United States Supreme Court in 1892, The Church of the Holy Trinity vs. United States, Associate Justice, David J. Brewer, declared in the majority decision that all the evidence proves that America is a Christian nation. The Deist idea is a revisionist historical view that germinated in the last century and was watered by the 1962 and 1963 Supreme Court decisions to kick God, the Bible, and prayer out of our public schools. It has now become the parasitic vine that is smothering the tree and the truth.
What is Deism anyway? Deists claim that they believe in God. What god they believe in they don't really know. It is certainly not Jesus Christ, they deny His deity. Deism believes that a god created the universe and then left it alone to its own machinations. He is not a personal god, he doesn't care what happens to mankind, and he does not involve himself in the affairs of men.
Were our Founders really Deists? Is that what Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington were. Doubt is also cast upon John Adams and most of the rest of them as well. Is there any truth to these accusations?
Thomas Paine may have been a Deist. He was sort of a "Rebel Looking for a Cause." His famous pamphlet, Common Sense, stirred the passions of the colonists against the tyranny of King George III. When the American Revolution was over, he had nothing to do and went to France to try and help foment the French Revolution, but his writings were not appreciated there and he lived the rest of his life in obscurity.
Paine once wrote a pamphlet called The Age of Reason. In it he denied the Word of God and the deity of Christ. When he showed his work to Benjamin Franklin, Franklin reportedly answered with the now famous phrase, "He who spits into the wind spits into his own face."
This is the same Franklin who is positively identified by modern historians as a Deist, and is accused of having had as many as fifty children by many mistresses. (My eighth grade history teacher told my class that one.) But is that consistent with the man Franklin really was?
When George Whitfield came to America preaching in the Great Awakening, Franklin struck up a friendship with him and went to hear him speak on several occasions. Whitfield testified that although Franklin was sincerely interested in the message and spoke highly of Whitfield, as far as he knew, Franklin was never saved.
Still, Franklin had a list of maxims that he tried to live by and one of these was two simple words, "Imitate Jesus." When the convention met in 1787 to hammer out a new constitution for the country, there were so many differences of opinion in the beginning that the delegates were nearly at each other's throats. It was Franklin that took the floor and spoke saying, "If a sparrow cannot fall without the knowledge of the Almighty, can a nation be built without His guidance?" He quoted several passages of Scripture before moving that the delegates get on their knees and cry out to God for help in forging the new nation. Deists don't quote Scripture, nor do they cry out to God for help.
Thomas Jefferson is another one that modern historians most assuredly avow was a Deist. But can we find that in any of his writings? Take a look at the Declaration of Independence, which was written by Jefferson with some editing help from Franklin and Adams. In it he claims that man is "endowed by his Creator with certain unalienable rights."
There is an immediate problem here for Deists. They don't believe that the Creator cares at all about His creation. A Deist god would never endow creation with any rights.
It is interesting to note that every year of Jefferson's presidency he had written into his annual budgets funding for the evangelization of Indians. He is also quoted as having said, "Indeed I tremble for my country when I consider that God is just, and that His justice will not sleep forever." A Deist god could not be just, neither would a Deist tremble at the thought of judgment.
George Washington also gets a poor hearing from modern historians. His integrity is challenged. It is claimed he sired children with his slaves. (That idea was suggested by the British historian, Sir Arnold Toynbee, without the first hint of evidence.) The truth is he was a member of the Episcopal Church. He was a man of the highest character and probity, and a man of such stature and dignity that people felt small and humbled just to be in his presence. Of all the writings and testimonies of his contemporaries, both friends and enemies, not one person that ever knew him ever wrote one negative thing about him. He was a man of honor and well deserving of the title, "Father of Our Country."
It is my opinion that he was the greatest American that ever lived. We literally would not have had a country without him. His leadership as commanding general of the Continental Army, and his presence as the President of the Constitutional Convention, as well as being our first president, assured America's place in history. And if you'll take time to read his farewell address to the army and his proclamation of the first Thanksgiving Day holiday, you will be hard pressed not to believe that he was truly a Christian.
While Washington was the Father of our Country, James Madison was given the title, "Father of the Constitution." Madison declared that they had created a government based on the principles found in the Ten Commandments and the New Testament. Obviously Madison believed America was a Christian nation.
There is so much more that even a modest amount of research could find. Those claiming the Founders were Deist are either too lazy to search for the truth, or they are intentionally trying to cover it up in order to push their own anti-Christian agenda.
We were definitely founded as a Christian nation. Whether or not we are today is another story, but the second president, John Adams, has the answer for us. One day as he sat in the Continental Congress, Benjamin Rush asked him in a whisper if he thought America would succeed against the British. Adams replied, "Yes, if we fear God and repent our sins."
That was good advice in his day, and we would be well advised to do the same in our own day.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Monday, April 26, 2010
Prayer in America
Bowing to pressure from the atheist/agnostic Freedom From Religion Foundation, US District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled on April 15, 2010, that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. She based her ruling on the worn out liberal, anti-Christian argument that the establishment clause of the First Amendment demands separation of church and state. She defended the decision saying it does not prohibit the President from talking about prayer, but "the federal government may not endorse prayer in a statute."
According to an Associated Press article by Todd Richmond the FFRF plans to post billboards in Colorado Springs, CO with the message, "God and government: A dangerous mix." The National Day of Prayer Task Force has its offices in Colorado Springs.
Atheists are jumping for joy and all over the internet are comments praising the judge for upholding the Constitution. The problem is, the judge, a Jimmy Carter appointment, is not upholding the Constitution, but ignoring its basic intent and the history that gave it to us.
We often hear the argument that conservatives and the religious right are trying to turn us into a theocracy, or force our religion on everyone else. That is an ignorant misstatement of our purpose. In America everyone is free to believe whatever they want. No one can force anyone to be a Christian, but it is the Christian religion that influenced our Founders to give America that freedom. Those who say our founders were deists, and who turn the meaning of "separation of church and state" around to mean the opposite of what Jefferson intended, either have no concept of America's actual history, or are intentionally trying to rewrite it to conform to their minority beliefs.
The last Democrat president spent a lot of time talking about our "values." The current president does the same. Yet, there aren't two people in America more distant from America's real values than these two, unless it's Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Our values, the Christian ones our Founders stood for, have served the country well for over 200 years. Those values include prayer, and those are the values conservatives want to get back to.
The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952 by the Congress. In 1988 a specific date, the first Thursday in May, was established for the observation. It has been a tradition now for 58 years. But prayer in America didn't suddenly start in 1952.
Even though he didn't publicly participate in the National Day of Prayer last year, the President still issued a proclamation in which he reminded us that the Continental Congress in 1775 called on colonists to "observe a day of quiet humiliation and prayer."
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787 after weeks of argument over a frame of government that had made no progress, Benjamin Franklin, by most accounts one of the few delegates who was not a Christian, admonished those assembled to pray. "We have been assured, Sir," he addressed the convention president, George Washington, "in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.'" After several references to Scripture, he concluded, "I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service."
There were no Muslims represented in that body, no native Americans, no Hindus or Buddhists, and with the possible exception of Franklin, no deists. There were two men who may have been agnostics or atheists, but 98% of the delegation were Christian of one denomination or another.
On May 1, 1789, the first Congress elected William Linn to be the first congressional chaplain. Every morning since a chaplain has opened sessions in the House and Senate with prayer, and until recently when a Muslim cleric was called, those prayers have always been Christian.
In October of 1789, President George Washington called for a "Day of Publick (sic) Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God. . . ."
At the height of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln set aside April 30, 1863, "as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion." He didn't force anyone to join in, but he did encourage everyone to participate.
Upon America's entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Day of Prayer Proclamation on October 19, 1917, in which he set apart "a day upon which our people should ... offer concerted prayer to Almighty God for His divine aid in the success of our arms."
On the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, as American and allied troops fought their way inland from the beaches of Normandy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on the radio airwaves, not only to call the nation to prayer, but to lead the nation in the prayer. "Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. . . . And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. . . . With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy."
Roosevelt described the enemies of his day as "unholy," and was considered an heroic president. Last week Rev. Franklin Graham was canceled as a participant in the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon because after 9/11 he dared speak the truth and call Islam what it is, wicked and evil. We have descended from reality into political insanity when public policy dictates that we can't speak the truth about the enemies of our day. We've lost our perspective and our compass when we refuse to acknowledge the obvious because it is not politically correct. We've also lost our history and our greatness if we allow atheists through liberal judges to dictate to America what our values are.
Obviously prayer has been a vital part of America's entire existence, whether it be in church, at home, in public schools, or in the halls of government. The Constitution protects such practice because the "separation of church and state," according to Jefferson, was not to keep the church out of the state, but to keep the state out of the church. Christians and Christian beliefs have always influenced our government and if the day comes that those values are no longer allowed America will cease to be a free nation.
Judge Crabb is wrong and due to her ignorance of the Constitution and our history ought to be replaced. Prayer is the right thing to do in every avenue of American life, whether it be spiritual, secular or governmental, and it is protected by the Constitution in all of those venues, whether private or public.
According to an Associated Press article by Todd Richmond the FFRF plans to post billboards in Colorado Springs, CO with the message, "God and government: A dangerous mix." The National Day of Prayer Task Force has its offices in Colorado Springs.
Atheists are jumping for joy and all over the internet are comments praising the judge for upholding the Constitution. The problem is, the judge, a Jimmy Carter appointment, is not upholding the Constitution, but ignoring its basic intent and the history that gave it to us.
We often hear the argument that conservatives and the religious right are trying to turn us into a theocracy, or force our religion on everyone else. That is an ignorant misstatement of our purpose. In America everyone is free to believe whatever they want. No one can force anyone to be a Christian, but it is the Christian religion that influenced our Founders to give America that freedom. Those who say our founders were deists, and who turn the meaning of "separation of church and state" around to mean the opposite of what Jefferson intended, either have no concept of America's actual history, or are intentionally trying to rewrite it to conform to their minority beliefs.
The last Democrat president spent a lot of time talking about our "values." The current president does the same. Yet, there aren't two people in America more distant from America's real values than these two, unless it's Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. Our values, the Christian ones our Founders stood for, have served the country well for over 200 years. Those values include prayer, and those are the values conservatives want to get back to.
The National Day of Prayer was established in 1952 by the Congress. In 1988 a specific date, the first Thursday in May, was established for the observation. It has been a tradition now for 58 years. But prayer in America didn't suddenly start in 1952.
Even though he didn't publicly participate in the National Day of Prayer last year, the President still issued a proclamation in which he reminded us that the Continental Congress in 1775 called on colonists to "observe a day of quiet humiliation and prayer."
At the Constitutional Convention in 1787 after weeks of argument over a frame of government that had made no progress, Benjamin Franklin, by most accounts one of the few delegates who was not a Christian, admonished those assembled to pray. "We have been assured, Sir," he addressed the convention president, George Washington, "in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the house they labor in vain that build it.'" After several references to Scripture, he concluded, "I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that Service."
There were no Muslims represented in that body, no native Americans, no Hindus or Buddhists, and with the possible exception of Franklin, no deists. There were two men who may have been agnostics or atheists, but 98% of the delegation were Christian of one denomination or another.
On May 1, 1789, the first Congress elected William Linn to be the first congressional chaplain. Every morning since a chaplain has opened sessions in the House and Senate with prayer, and until recently when a Muslim cleric was called, those prayers have always been Christian.
In October of 1789, President George Washington called for a "Day of Publick (sic) Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God. . . ."
At the height of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln set aside April 30, 1863, "as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion." He didn't force anyone to join in, but he did encourage everyone to participate.
Upon America's entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Day of Prayer Proclamation on October 19, 1917, in which he set apart "a day upon which our people should ... offer concerted prayer to Almighty God for His divine aid in the success of our arms."
On the evening of D-Day, June 6, 1944, as American and allied troops fought their way inland from the beaches of Normandy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt went on the radio airwaves, not only to call the nation to prayer, but to lead the nation in the prayer. "Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith. . . . And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. . . . With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy."
Roosevelt described the enemies of his day as "unholy," and was considered an heroic president. Last week Rev. Franklin Graham was canceled as a participant in the National Day of Prayer at the Pentagon because after 9/11 he dared speak the truth and call Islam what it is, wicked and evil. We have descended from reality into political insanity when public policy dictates that we can't speak the truth about the enemies of our day. We've lost our perspective and our compass when we refuse to acknowledge the obvious because it is not politically correct. We've also lost our history and our greatness if we allow atheists through liberal judges to dictate to America what our values are.
Obviously prayer has been a vital part of America's entire existence, whether it be in church, at home, in public schools, or in the halls of government. The Constitution protects such practice because the "separation of church and state," according to Jefferson, was not to keep the church out of the state, but to keep the state out of the church. Christians and Christian beliefs have always influenced our government and if the day comes that those values are no longer allowed America will cease to be a free nation.
Judge Crabb is wrong and due to her ignorance of the Constitution and our history ought to be replaced. Prayer is the right thing to do in every avenue of American life, whether it be spiritual, secular or governmental, and it is protected by the Constitution in all of those venues, whether private or public.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Immigration
I am not against foreign nationals immigrating to the United States. My grandparents were immigrants. My grandfather, Henry Boonstra, came to the US in 1920 from the Netherlands. Four years later he brought my grandmother, Rose Kooistra, over and they were married in Iowa. They struggled, they learned English, and they worked a farm through the Great Depression until his asthma and bad heart forced them to move to the thin air of Denver, Colorado. In 1929 Gramps became a US citizen. In 1948 Granny got her citizenship.
My wife, Lhey, is an immigrant. We were married in the Philippines in 1991. In 1992 she came with me to the States. She got her green card, got a job, studied nursing at a Junior College, and became a US citizen in 1997. There were about thirty others being sworn in as citizens the same day as Lhey was. They had an interview where they were asked ten questions about America, and had to get seven right to pass. Lhey was the last one questioned, and the interviewer told her she was the only one to get all ten questions correct that day. I am proud of my immigrant wife.
Thanks to chain migration, we were able to petition Lhey's mother, Norma. She came to the States in December 1997, got her green card, got a job, moved into her own apartment, and supports herself to this day without any assistance from the government. She is 65 years old and still working. Lhey's only other immediate relative is her sister, Rachel. Rachel was petitioned in July 1998, while she was still only 19, to come to the States to live with her mother. She was the only member of her family not in the States.
It used to take on average five years for a relative petition to be accepted. But then came 9/11. In the 80's and early 90's more immigrants came from the Philippines than any other nation. Efforts were made to slow down the influx of Filipinos, but because of the close ties the Philippines had as a protectorate of the US in the first half of the 20th century, and then as an ally, Filipinos still had the advantage coming to the States through a status of forces agreement. Any Filipino who could get approval to enlist in the US Navy or Air Force, after spending five years in the service could become an American citizen and the door was open to bring their entire families.
After 9/11 that was greatly curtailed. Rachel's petition was reclassified again and again. Last week she finally received the letter she's been patiently expecting now for twelve years. She has an interview to become an immigrant in May. At last she'll be able to come to America to live with her family.
A few days ago Senate majority leader Harry Reid boastfully announced he had 56 confirmed Democrat yes votes (he needs 60) to pass an amnesty for over 13 million illegal aliens in our country. With this proposed amnesty those 13 million will become instant citizens, receive free education in our public schools (which will have to be structured to teach in Spanish so that the poor oppressed immigrants don't have to learn English), and will be eligible for Social Security benefits that they have never paid a cent into from a fund which is already bankrupt. Incarcerating illegal aliens for the multiplicity of crimes they are involved in is a major cause for California's financial woes. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) illegal aliens cost individual states between 11 and 22 billion dollars a year.
As out of touch as Reid, Pelosi, and the president are with the American public, it is not surprising that Reid would make such an announcement. What is insulting, however, is that he would make it only days after Arizona rancher Rob Krentz was murdered by illegal drug running aliens that came across his property. That came only a week or so after a drug war army came across the border to attack an American military post and had 18 of their terrorists killed. By the way, did you hear about that on the news? We didn't see a thing about it over here on CNN overseas.
The situation is so bad on our southern border that Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County, Texas, warned ranchers in his county to "arm themselves." The Arizona legislature has passed a bill that would make it illegal to be an illegal alien in Arizona. Imagine that; a State having to pass laws to secure its border because the Federal government, even though it signed into law a 700 mile double fence on the border in 2006 will not secure its border by building the fence.
A Rasmussen pole from March 2010 reports that 59% of Americans believe the US should finish the fence along the Mexican border, while only 26% oppose it, and 68% believe that securing the border is more important than granting amnesty to illegal aliens, but only 20% believe Congress will do anything about it. A CNN poll (hardly conservative) from October 2009 states that 73% of Americans want to see a decrease in illegal immigration.
The argument that we hear ad nauseam is that America was settled by immigrants so we are all immigrants. I beg to differ. My grandparents were immigrants on my mother's side. My great, great, great, great grandparents were immigrants on my father's side. But I am a naturally born citizen of the United States of America. I am an immigrant from no where.
Furthermore, there is no comparison between those immigrants who came to this country when it was a wilderness, and forged a nation with their blood and their lives, or those who have come since and lawfully assimilated into our culture and helped the country progress, and these illegal, criminal aliens that come to the land of plenty in order to import their culture, keep their own language, pedal their drugs, and sponge off the earnings of hard working American citizens, while doing nothing to help advance the country or to even take care of themselves.
The problem is not that Americans are uncaring, hateful, racist, or anything else (read my last entry, Proud to Be an American). We are the most caring nation in the world. But even caring people have a right to be secure in their own homes. We have a right to expect that immigrants coming to America come here because they want to be Americans, because they want to work hard like past immigrants to make their own way through life without being dependent on the government (read you and me, the working taxpayers) to care for them for the rest of their lives.
As I said at the beginning of this article, I am not against immigration, but why should millions of criminal illegal aliens be given citizenship overnight when my sister-in-law has waited patiently for twelve years to immigrate legally? I am dead set against illegal aliens who will further strain our economy by taking jobs from citizens and increasing crime rates everywhere they go. We must demand that immigration be for those who are willing to go through the process and come to America legally with the intent of becoming Americans.
The problem is that we have elected officials who are more concerned with obtaining new voters that will keep them entrenched in the government forever while they systematically roll back our Constitution and turn us into a socialist state. This November we need to send them home and begin to reclaim our country.
My wife, Lhey, is an immigrant. We were married in the Philippines in 1991. In 1992 she came with me to the States. She got her green card, got a job, studied nursing at a Junior College, and became a US citizen in 1997. There were about thirty others being sworn in as citizens the same day as Lhey was. They had an interview where they were asked ten questions about America, and had to get seven right to pass. Lhey was the last one questioned, and the interviewer told her she was the only one to get all ten questions correct that day. I am proud of my immigrant wife.
Thanks to chain migration, we were able to petition Lhey's mother, Norma. She came to the States in December 1997, got her green card, got a job, moved into her own apartment, and supports herself to this day without any assistance from the government. She is 65 years old and still working. Lhey's only other immediate relative is her sister, Rachel. Rachel was petitioned in July 1998, while she was still only 19, to come to the States to live with her mother. She was the only member of her family not in the States.
It used to take on average five years for a relative petition to be accepted. But then came 9/11. In the 80's and early 90's more immigrants came from the Philippines than any other nation. Efforts were made to slow down the influx of Filipinos, but because of the close ties the Philippines had as a protectorate of the US in the first half of the 20th century, and then as an ally, Filipinos still had the advantage coming to the States through a status of forces agreement. Any Filipino who could get approval to enlist in the US Navy or Air Force, after spending five years in the service could become an American citizen and the door was open to bring their entire families.
After 9/11 that was greatly curtailed. Rachel's petition was reclassified again and again. Last week she finally received the letter she's been patiently expecting now for twelve years. She has an interview to become an immigrant in May. At last she'll be able to come to America to live with her family.
A few days ago Senate majority leader Harry Reid boastfully announced he had 56 confirmed Democrat yes votes (he needs 60) to pass an amnesty for over 13 million illegal aliens in our country. With this proposed amnesty those 13 million will become instant citizens, receive free education in our public schools (which will have to be structured to teach in Spanish so that the poor oppressed immigrants don't have to learn English), and will be eligible for Social Security benefits that they have never paid a cent into from a fund which is already bankrupt. Incarcerating illegal aliens for the multiplicity of crimes they are involved in is a major cause for California's financial woes. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) illegal aliens cost individual states between 11 and 22 billion dollars a year.
As out of touch as Reid, Pelosi, and the president are with the American public, it is not surprising that Reid would make such an announcement. What is insulting, however, is that he would make it only days after Arizona rancher Rob Krentz was murdered by illegal drug running aliens that came across his property. That came only a week or so after a drug war army came across the border to attack an American military post and had 18 of their terrorists killed. By the way, did you hear about that on the news? We didn't see a thing about it over here on CNN overseas.
The situation is so bad on our southern border that Sheriff Arvin West of Hudspeth County, Texas, warned ranchers in his county to "arm themselves." The Arizona legislature has passed a bill that would make it illegal to be an illegal alien in Arizona. Imagine that; a State having to pass laws to secure its border because the Federal government, even though it signed into law a 700 mile double fence on the border in 2006 will not secure its border by building the fence.
A Rasmussen pole from March 2010 reports that 59% of Americans believe the US should finish the fence along the Mexican border, while only 26% oppose it, and 68% believe that securing the border is more important than granting amnesty to illegal aliens, but only 20% believe Congress will do anything about it. A CNN poll (hardly conservative) from October 2009 states that 73% of Americans want to see a decrease in illegal immigration.
The argument that we hear ad nauseam is that America was settled by immigrants so we are all immigrants. I beg to differ. My grandparents were immigrants on my mother's side. My great, great, great, great grandparents were immigrants on my father's side. But I am a naturally born citizen of the United States of America. I am an immigrant from no where.
Furthermore, there is no comparison between those immigrants who came to this country when it was a wilderness, and forged a nation with their blood and their lives, or those who have come since and lawfully assimilated into our culture and helped the country progress, and these illegal, criminal aliens that come to the land of plenty in order to import their culture, keep their own language, pedal their drugs, and sponge off the earnings of hard working American citizens, while doing nothing to help advance the country or to even take care of themselves.
The problem is not that Americans are uncaring, hateful, racist, or anything else (read my last entry, Proud to Be an American). We are the most caring nation in the world. But even caring people have a right to be secure in their own homes. We have a right to expect that immigrants coming to America come here because they want to be Americans, because they want to work hard like past immigrants to make their own way through life without being dependent on the government (read you and me, the working taxpayers) to care for them for the rest of their lives.
As I said at the beginning of this article, I am not against immigration, but why should millions of criminal illegal aliens be given citizenship overnight when my sister-in-law has waited patiently for twelve years to immigrate legally? I am dead set against illegal aliens who will further strain our economy by taking jobs from citizens and increasing crime rates everywhere they go. We must demand that immigration be for those who are willing to go through the process and come to America legally with the intent of becoming Americans.
The problem is that we have elected officials who are more concerned with obtaining new voters that will keep them entrenched in the government forever while they systematically roll back our Constitution and turn us into a socialist state. This November we need to send them home and begin to reclaim our country.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Proud to Be an American
I was taking the adversary course at TOPGUN when the first Gulf War started in 1991. When my training was finished I took a trip across the US to South Carolina to visit friends and then to Denver to see family before heading back overseas. There was an amazing thing going on at the time. People everywhere were waving flags. They were buying them to stick in the windows of their cars so they rippled in the breeze as they drove. People invited me over or took me out to dinner just because I was in the military. Even though I wasn't in the war zone they were proud that I was serving, and they were proud to be Americans. I'd like to know what's wrong with that? What's wrong with being proud of our country today?
We have a president going around bowing to petty half-wit dictators, Muslim tyrants, and now the communist despot that rules China as if we are beholding to them. Last year he continually apologized to the world as if we had something to be ashamed of.
Let's get something straight. Most of the world survives because of America's benevolence. The billions we pump into fledgling, struggling democracies is the only thing that keeps some of those governments running. The food and medical aid we send all over the globe is the only thing that keeps millions of people from starving and dying of disease. When the tsunami devastated the entire Indian Ocean rim in 2005 who was the first there with an aircraft carrier providing aid, and who gave more to help the victims than the rest of the world combined in spite of the Muslim world protests that we weren't doing enough? Who finances by itself 25% of the United Nation's budget and all of its humanitarian programs, even when the UN's agenda is generally anti-American? When the Iranian city of Bam suffered a massive earthquake in 2003 who sent aid even though Iran is a bitter, terrorist propagating enemy?
Has America made mistakes? Sure, who hasn't? But when is the last time you heard an Islamic leader apologize for the brutality Muslim governments inflict on their own people, not to mention the terrorism they export world wide? When is the last time you heard China apologize for all its political prisoners and suppression of freedom? America's biggest mistake is giving foreign aid at all to penny-ante dictators and corrupt governments that aren't the least bit grateful and laugh all the way to the bank while we go broke propping them up.
In 1991 Lee Greenwood's song, Proud to Be an American, was the rage of the country. It needs to be again. I am proud to have been born in America and to produce a birth certificate to prove it. I am proud to salute the flag every time it is raised or the National Anthem is played. I am proud to recite the Pledge of Allegiance including "under God." I am proud to claim the Christian heritage of our nation, a heritage like no other nation in the world has ever seen. I am proud that because of that heritage and no other, we are the benefactor nation of the world. We have nothing to apologize for.
America is the greatest nation on earth. Let's be proud of it, and let's be proud to be Americans.
We have a president going around bowing to petty half-wit dictators, Muslim tyrants, and now the communist despot that rules China as if we are beholding to them. Last year he continually apologized to the world as if we had something to be ashamed of.
Let's get something straight. Most of the world survives because of America's benevolence. The billions we pump into fledgling, struggling democracies is the only thing that keeps some of those governments running. The food and medical aid we send all over the globe is the only thing that keeps millions of people from starving and dying of disease. When the tsunami devastated the entire Indian Ocean rim in 2005 who was the first there with an aircraft carrier providing aid, and who gave more to help the victims than the rest of the world combined in spite of the Muslim world protests that we weren't doing enough? Who finances by itself 25% of the United Nation's budget and all of its humanitarian programs, even when the UN's agenda is generally anti-American? When the Iranian city of Bam suffered a massive earthquake in 2003 who sent aid even though Iran is a bitter, terrorist propagating enemy?
Has America made mistakes? Sure, who hasn't? But when is the last time you heard an Islamic leader apologize for the brutality Muslim governments inflict on their own people, not to mention the terrorism they export world wide? When is the last time you heard China apologize for all its political prisoners and suppression of freedom? America's biggest mistake is giving foreign aid at all to penny-ante dictators and corrupt governments that aren't the least bit grateful and laugh all the way to the bank while we go broke propping them up.
In 1991 Lee Greenwood's song, Proud to Be an American, was the rage of the country. It needs to be again. I am proud to have been born in America and to produce a birth certificate to prove it. I am proud to salute the flag every time it is raised or the National Anthem is played. I am proud to recite the Pledge of Allegiance including "under God." I am proud to claim the Christian heritage of our nation, a heritage like no other nation in the world has ever seen. I am proud that because of that heritage and no other, we are the benefactor nation of the world. We have nothing to apologize for.
America is the greatest nation on earth. Let's be proud of it, and let's be proud to be Americans.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
AMERICAN FLYER Cleared for Takeoff
I do a lot of writing and I especially like political commentary. I've had letters in newspapers all across the country and even had an editorial article in the Denver Post once. But my e-mail audience is limited to those in my address book and whomever they sometimes forward my missives to. Someone suggested I start a blog to increase my audience range.
So this is it. I don't know anything about blogs, so I'll be experimenting as I go. If I gain a following it will be great. Maybe it will lead to something more. If I don't, it will be great because I'm enjoying this already, and it will give me a place to archive what I write.
Why the name? American, because this is about the country I love, and Flyer, because I was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps and Navy for eleven years. The title rather identifies me I think. I am proud to be an American, I am grateful to have been one of the "few and the proud," and I am humbled to have served this great nation of ours.
I have lived fifteen years of my life outside of the United States and been in fourteen different countries. I'm not a world traveler by any means, but I've seen plenty. I've seen the corruption of third world banana republics, lived through a revolution and felt the anxiety of being cut off from outside help by riots that almost led to a civil war. I've seen people so poor that if they had fifty cents to buy a bag of maize meal to make a dry, tasteless cake for their family they called it a good day. I've lived where the police are so corrupt that they are a terror to innocent citizens rather than protectors of the public safety. I've given food to street kids, dirty, unloved, abandoned, and hooked on glue. I've experienced cultures where when a white man walks by people automatically stick their hands out hoping for a gift.
The first time I landed in the Philippines and saw the poverty, the dirty water, houses with nothing more than cardboard walls and rusty corrugated tin roofs, and squatters living in houses built on stilts over an open, stinking sewage ditch, I determined that no matter how bad my economic situation might become in the States, I would still be thankful for the privilege of being born an American. At the risk of being trite, there simply is no place like home.
In 1972 John Wayne made a record called, "America, Why I Love Her." On the first track he asks the question, "You ask me why I love her?" Then he answers, "Well give me time and I'll explain. Have you seen a Kansas sunset, or an Arizona rain?" He answers with a series of questions and goes on to describe the beauty of America from coast to coast and north to south. He concludes by asking again, "You ask me why I lover her?" Then he answers it, "I have a million reasons why. My beautiful America, beneath God's wide, wide sky."
It has been my pleasure to have set foot in 49 of the 50 States. The only place I haven't been is Idaho, but I flew over Hell's Canyon once in a corporate jet at 41,000 feet, so you might say I've invaded Idaho's airspace. Everywhere I've gone I've seen the beauty of a land that God has blessed like no other. And make no mistake about it, it is the Christian God, the same one that our Founders worshipped, that has blessed and made America great, not any other.
My intent as I launch this blog is to remind us, among other things, that we were a Christian nation in the beginning, and the best thing that could possibly happen to us would be for the nation as a whole to return to the roots of our heritage and become a Christian nation once again. Visit as often as you like and tell your friends about AMERICAN FLYER, and let's celebrate our wonderful country. To God be the glory.
Lance Patterson
So this is it. I don't know anything about blogs, so I'll be experimenting as I go. If I gain a following it will be great. Maybe it will lead to something more. If I don't, it will be great because I'm enjoying this already, and it will give me a place to archive what I write.
Why the name? American, because this is about the country I love, and Flyer, because I was a fighter pilot in the Marine Corps and Navy for eleven years. The title rather identifies me I think. I am proud to be an American, I am grateful to have been one of the "few and the proud," and I am humbled to have served this great nation of ours.
I have lived fifteen years of my life outside of the United States and been in fourteen different countries. I'm not a world traveler by any means, but I've seen plenty. I've seen the corruption of third world banana republics, lived through a revolution and felt the anxiety of being cut off from outside help by riots that almost led to a civil war. I've seen people so poor that if they had fifty cents to buy a bag of maize meal to make a dry, tasteless cake for their family they called it a good day. I've lived where the police are so corrupt that they are a terror to innocent citizens rather than protectors of the public safety. I've given food to street kids, dirty, unloved, abandoned, and hooked on glue. I've experienced cultures where when a white man walks by people automatically stick their hands out hoping for a gift.
The first time I landed in the Philippines and saw the poverty, the dirty water, houses with nothing more than cardboard walls and rusty corrugated tin roofs, and squatters living in houses built on stilts over an open, stinking sewage ditch, I determined that no matter how bad my economic situation might become in the States, I would still be thankful for the privilege of being born an American. At the risk of being trite, there simply is no place like home.
In 1972 John Wayne made a record called, "America, Why I Love Her." On the first track he asks the question, "You ask me why I love her?" Then he answers, "Well give me time and I'll explain. Have you seen a Kansas sunset, or an Arizona rain?" He answers with a series of questions and goes on to describe the beauty of America from coast to coast and north to south. He concludes by asking again, "You ask me why I lover her?" Then he answers it, "I have a million reasons why. My beautiful America, beneath God's wide, wide sky."
It has been my pleasure to have set foot in 49 of the 50 States. The only place I haven't been is Idaho, but I flew over Hell's Canyon once in a corporate jet at 41,000 feet, so you might say I've invaded Idaho's airspace. Everywhere I've gone I've seen the beauty of a land that God has blessed like no other. And make no mistake about it, it is the Christian God, the same one that our Founders worshipped, that has blessed and made America great, not any other.
My intent as I launch this blog is to remind us, among other things, that we were a Christian nation in the beginning, and the best thing that could possibly happen to us would be for the nation as a whole to return to the roots of our heritage and become a Christian nation once again. Visit as often as you like and tell your friends about AMERICAN FLYER, and let's celebrate our wonderful country. To God be the glory.
Lance Patterson
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