THE DECLINE OF CHRISTMAS

Opinion

Has anyone ever thought of the fact that most of our Christmas songs and traditions are only
about 75 or so years old? Doesn’t it seem like this array has just always been there, always been
that way?

Well, it hasn’t always been so joyous and celebrated as it came to be after World War II.
Why is that?

Prior to the victory of the Allies and their return to home and family, Christmas was more
reserved and localized. Songs such as The Messiah and other religious hymns were in place, but
jolly and more secular songs came along with popular movies, such as White Christmas and
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, among others were the result of a desire to make the
Christmas holiday a very special time for families and friends.

Dad, brother, uncle, son and military women etc. had faced the horror of war, with its death and
destruction. There were sights that they could never unsee. Those who were able to return home,
to their wives, husbands, sweethearts and families, wanted to erase those thoughts to the best of
their ability. They had fought pure, unadulterated evil and had won. It seemed their intention to
eradicate such influences in the years to come.

Many of our Greatest Generation put a great deal of time and effort into making the world as
right as possible, to bring as much joy as possible to those they loved. Not only did they save the
world, they saved the best part of themselves and shared that desire for happiness and perfection
with the making of happy stories, happy songs and familiar bliss. No one can argue that the
generation of the 40s and 50’s worked very hard to create as much perfection in society as they
could. It was a halcyon time that, unfortunately, will never be repeated.

Television and movies had their morality department and strived to show family life as a
network of love, discipline and happy endings. Father always knew best and the Donna Reed
show lauded the middle-class family life.

What has happened to society that it has come from the pure entertainment of those shows to
today’s reality television, moral corruption and disdain of most things that relate to God and
religion?

In 1965, a wonderful radio announcer named Paul Harvey made an amazing prophecy on his
weekly show. The title was, If I was the devil.

Anyone who hasn’t heard or read this far-reaching piece that has come to pass in ways that no
one would have guessed. One of his lines quoted from the transcript is “If I were the devil, I
would make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.”
How close is that? He had it nailed and 54 years later, it is true.

Christmas was still reverent in the 70s, and the 80s. People dressed up, had parties, visited with
family and it was a happy time. God was still the Man in Charge in the White House (mostly)
and it reflected on the nation.

The 90s brought us the Clintons and their version of “morality” and the great decline began for
America.

Now in 2019, there are fewer parties, fewer gathering of family and friends than ever. Christmas
cards are not a thing anymore, just send a generic online greeting.

People are well engrossed in their electronic devices. Social life and the moral pressure of
society is long gone. Stores decorate for Christmas in August and begin the big sale that lasts
until well after the New Year.

Retailers completely pass over Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday from the Pilgrim
days when living through the winter to harvest was an occasion for thanking Almighty God.
Even Charlie Brown and his gang in Peanuts, when it aired in 1965, complained of the
commercialization of Christmas, lamenting the lack of meaning for monetary gain.
When Christmas songs from the 70s and 80s are played, it is depressing almost to the point of
tears when a comparison is made of the warm, loving, wonderful time of those decades to
today’s commercial apathy.

Maybe, this is an “old folks’ rant about the good old days, but what can be gleaned from today’s
lukewarm electronic holiday?

America has best go back to Ronald Reagan and remember his line:
“If we ever forget we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
If Christians don’t stand up and fight for our basic joys of the Lord, His sacrifice for us
and the right to celebrate such, these rights will be taken away by the Liberal Left with
their Atheistic and destructive ways. There are no more free countries to find with such
liberties as we enjoy. They must not be lost, as they will never be found again.

REASON FOR THE DAY

Opinion

Many attribute our national holiday of Thanksgiving to President Abraham Lincoln. He
did sign the law designating the last Thursday in the month of November as a national holiday of
Thanksgiving on October 3, 1863.

While Steward wrote the law and Lincoln signed it, the holiday might not have been written into
national law if not for a woman writer.

She was the Mother of Thanksgiving. Her name was Sarah Josepha Hale. It is not clear as to how
much influence a letter she had written to President Lincoln influenced his decision, but shortly
thereafter, the national holiday was declared.

In a day of women staying only to the home, she was an advocate of education for women,
including the creation of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

She was instrumental in the construction of a monument to the Battle of Bunker Hill and saving
George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon, for posterity.

Editor of the popular Godey’s Lady Book and the author of Mary’s Lamb, (as in Mary had a little
lamb etc. poem,) Hale had grown up celebrating a yearly Thanksgiving celebration, as did many
in different parts of the country. At the time, it was celebrated at different times in different
states.

Though it was not an original idea, as many Presidents had set aside days of Thanksgiving for
various events, Ms. Hale lobbied to make it a specific national holiday. She believed that a day
set aside purely for thanksgiving would help unite a nation torn apart by a bloody civil war.
As we set down to table this Thursday with family and friends, let us remember the efforts of
those who made this day possible in one of the most divisive era of our history.

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday that we should be very proud to observe.
More importantly, let us give real and heartfelt thanks for our many blessings.
In the United States, we are truly blessed. We live in relative safety from violence. We are well
fed, we are warm and housed for the most part, though many long-standing Democrat run cities
have been over- run with homelessness. San Francisco comes readily to mind, and that would be
on Nancy Pelosi’s watch.

We still have our freedoms. Freedoms that need a continuous vigil and active fight to maintain,
yet we still have the right to make our voices heard without fear of reprisal. The Dog and Pony
show being run by Adam Schiff today is the reason we as citizens must remain on guard of our
liberty. If they can invent an offense on the President of the United States, they can easily pick an
average citizen. In fact, the Mueller report and fiasco did that to several people without regard to
the truth.

The most important right we have is to worship God. Not false gods, but the Holy Trinity, The
Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost. However, places like California and others, fight to leave
God out of their state and lives.

It is important not to allow those who would race bait and cause dissention to achieve their goals.
American needs to be as united as it was on 9/12/2001. United WE Stand, Divided WE fall.
Let us truly be thankful for all these many blessings and celebrate with love and togetherness as
we begin the joyful holiday season.

EDUCATION SHOULD BE RUN BY PARENTS AGAIN

Opinion

One of the key issues today is education.  Everyone should be interested in all children getting the best well rounded education available. Children are the future and it is concerning to have a growing populace that purposely remain ignorant due to the cookie cutter approach to public schools.

My question is why have the American people allowed education to become a government led agenda?

Initially, when America was young, there was no guideline for schooling. In England, schools were available for the privileged, but not the masses. 

The American spirit formed its own brand of education. Children were taught at home or in the homes of neighbors. As communities grew, the one room schoolhouse was brought into play. This building housed the school, served as a community center and often a church on Sunday.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-room_school

There was usually a home or a “Teacherage” close to the schools, so that male teachers’ families were close to the school and able to assist the teacher with his duties. Unmarried female teachers were usually boarded with someone in the community. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House” books, became a schoolteacher two months before her sixteenth birthday. She taught in a one room schoolhouse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Ingalls_Wilder

The one room school system allowed for the parents and the community to decide on the curriculum and the values taught in the schools. The community that sponsored their own school would have been up in arms if anyone from the government had tried to interfere with their wishes. They accepted some guidelines, but interference would not have been tolerated.

The one room school allowed for a child to go further than his or her own age level. If the child was advanced, they could finish their lessons and listen to the next age level’s work. The community school usually only went up to the eighth grade. This provided basic education.

 If a student wanted further education, they could go to a central high school within the county or state. 

Standardized tests did not come into play until much later, if you went to school and attended and passed all of your classes, you could graduate. 

This system spawned many a leader within the United States.

My maternal Great Grandfather John Thomas Jones donated land for a two room schoolhouse here in Paulding County, Georgia. My Grandmother Clara M. Jones and her older brother Hershel Jones taught there for a period of time.

Though his scholastic career was interrupted by family needs on the farm, my Uncle Herschel returned to school later. He later completed all of his studies and graduated from Oglethorpe University. He went on to be the principal in the Paulding County school system.

Herschel Jones Middle School in Dallas, Georgia is his legacy to education, and a tribute to the power of the one room school.

Instead of relying on the government to educate children, parents need to be in charge of the local educational system. More thought needs to be given to how each parent is personally is going to provide education to their children. In this way, the values of the parents, not the government are instilled

Taking back the power of education is key to developing free thinkers.

The Federal Government’s interference has led to teaching to tests and leaving students behind on important basics, especially American History. It is an indictment of the public school system every time some reporter asks college age students questions, like who is on the $ 20 bill. The school systems have taught our young people to be ashamed of our great nation and have misled them on how our country was founded.

When school systems insist on teaching values that are contrary to the values taught at home, it is unacceptable.

It is time to take your children and their education back from those who are running their own agenda.

 

ADHD – EPIDEMIC OR SINISTER PLOT?

Opinion

“Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is a mental disorder of the neurodevelopmental type. It is characterized by problems paying attention, excessive activity or difficulty controlling behavior which is not appropriate for the person’s age. These symptoms may begin by ages 6 to 12, are present for more than 6 months problems in at least two settings. In children, problems paying attention may result in poor school performance. Although it causes impairment, particularly in modern society, many children with ADHD have a good attention span for tasks they find interesting.”

The American Psychiatric Association states in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, (DSM-,) that 5% of children have ADHD. However, studies in different areas report higher percentages. http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/data.html

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommend behavior therapy as the first line of defense when confronted with an ADHD diagnosis.

Behavioral therapy from a licensed provider is a fine idea. Behavioral therapy in a united form from parents in the form of discipline is ideal and the best alternative.

This disorder was initially recognized in 1902, and called “impulsive disorder.” It has morphed into several different names to arrive at Attention Deficit and Hyperactive Disorder.

Ritalin came on the market to treat ADHD in 1957 and reigned as the go to drug until 1996 when Adderall was approved for treatment of the disorder.

In 1998, the AMA announced that ADHD is of the most researched disorders, yet no cause can be found for the problem. https://www.hellolife.net/add-adhd/b/history-of-adhd/

Dietary changes have effect on the disorder. The elimination of sugar from the diet has shown improvement. With today’s foods containing sugar at every level from ketchup to salad dressings, high fruit corn syrup or corn sugar, this can be a daunting task. It is of little wonder that the effects of white sugar are detrimental to the young as aggravating ADHD, later causing diabetes type II in adults.

The question remains of why in the last 30 or so years the diagnosis has risen so dramatically?

Is it due to the change in the American family?

Or it due to the changes in the Public School System? Perhaps both are to blame.

Isn’t it just easier for a parent or a teacher to blame the mostly normal, riotous behavior of childhood on a disorder, rather than applying discipline for infractions of conduct?

Educator and school psychologist, Dr. Umar Johnson thinks it is a convenient crutch that came into play when “hyperactivity” was added to the diagnosis. He feels that with this one word, it is one way the school systems deal with bad behavior. It is easier to medicate.

The disorder is more commonly found in young males. To this Dr. Johnson states, “97% of public school teachers – charter, independent school teachers are female, so you have to look at the female culture of the school house and how when boys cannot adjust adequately to female expectations, they are marginalized.”http://newsone.com/3107853/adhd-misdiagnosis-black-boys-dr-umar-johnson/

Dr. Johnson feels that this is especially directed at black boys, but he is not the only one with the theory that American males are being targeted for extreme change in their natural growth and gender role by the school system and society.

Christina Hoff Sommers a psychology professor and author has long theorized about the damage feminism has done to the male in our society. 

Professor Sommers an advocate of equity feminism, which ensures that the right against coercive interference is not infringed. Sommers has contrasted equity feminism with victim feminism and gender feminism, arguing that modern feminist thought harbors an irrational hostility toward the male gender, and has an inability to accept the possibility that the sexes are equal but different. https://www.hellolife.net/add-adhd/b/history-of-adhd/

In her book, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism is Harming Our Young Men, Sommers advocates that the myth of “shortchanged girls” and the new and equally destructive theory that “boys as a group are disturbed” is the reason that the male gender is being forced into unnatural change. She begs society not to ostracize boys, but to understand them. She asserts that “We are turning against boys and forgetting a simple truth: that the energy, competitiveness and corporal daring of normal, decent males is responsible for much of what is right in the world.”

Any mother of a son or sons will be glad to agree that boys are boisterous, daredevil and loud. This is not abnormal behavior, this is normal. If boys are not allowed to play, fight, and experiment and take the lead in their actions in a natural way, they cannot develop properly.

Another factor in the deficit of the raising of good, decent young men (and also good, decent young women) is the lack of fathers in the home.

In 1960, only 11% of children lived away from their fathers, by 2010 that number had risen to 27%.

Effects of a fatherless home cited directly from the National Center for Fathering are poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, physical and emotional health, education achievement, crime, sexual activity and teen pregnancy. http://www.mantomanadvice.com/2011/06/shocking-effects-from-lack-of-father.html

Fatherless homes also create a vacuum in both sexes about the reality of a married relationship. When a child has no good example of how to be a lifelong partner, how can they be expected to form a lasting bond with another?

A study in the United Kingdom found that of the young girls and boys who had viewed pornography, whether by accident via pop up ads or on purpose. 53% of boys felt that the images were truthful representations of a sexual relationship while 39% of young girls felt the same way.

Dr. Ellen Martellozzo Middlesex University and co-author of the study said, “If boys feel that pornography provides a realistic view of relationships, then this may lead to the inappropriate expectations of girls and women. Girls may feel pressured to live up to these unrealistic and perhaps non-consensual interpretations of sex. This is clearly not positive for developing healthy future relationships.”

Both men and women who chose to have children, have to take a strong role in their development in the home, and at school. There is no substitute for this guidance and all parents cannot allow the school system and society to dictate the ways their children develop.

Parenthood is a lifelong, taxing, difficult commitment filled with hard work, tempered with love and beautiful memories.

 If both are not up to the demands, it would be better to sit it out.

 

CRIPPLING YOUR CHILDREN

Opinion

Today’s young people are less mature than generations in the past. Mothers and Fathers do most everything for their darlings. 

They want to talk to them as if they are adults and can reason as such about their bad behavior and allow them to be babies long past their time instead of being the disciplinarian of parents in past generations.

What kind of problems can arise from this role reversal of parent authoritarian to lenient parent or worse, parent who wants to be their child’s friend.” http://www.thelaboroflove.com/articles/what-will-the-lack-of-discipline-do-to-our-children

The news reports an increase in school shootings. Some of the perpetrators are in homes where there is no father figure. Many have a mental instability. A child that has no boundaries and can do no wrong will have no respect for authority, leading to the seemingly random shootings that are beginning to plaque society.

An overindulged child is a selfish child. They are the center of their universe and all roads lead to their satisfaction. Only the world is not a doting parent.

It begins early with problems in school. Certain routines have to be followed in order for a teacher to have an opportunity to teach. The child has to learn to adapt to a new environment that contains others with whom he or she must have relationships. These people may also be overindulged and selfish. A classroom with twenty to thirty of these young people will be a challenge, both for the teacher and the child.

The teacher cannot teach her class if she is juggling all those egos against school rules and curriculums.

This is a travesty as it will be a waste of twelve years of school for all. Those who are well adjusted and brought up with discipline will be unable to learn because of those who cannot contain their bad behavior.

Putting that aside, what about personal relationships? 

The bigger picture is the adult relationship.

Will these children be able to maintain a partnership with another adult of their choosing?

It is doubtful that they will. 

Primarily, they have no example of such to follow. With no model of how a mature relationship functions, they are in uncharted waters. Most likely, they will continue being self-absorbed, fall into bad behavior and go from one relationship to another.

What about if they just fail overall in being an adult?

In the recent case of a 30 year old man with a college degree who still lives with his parents. https://people.com/human-interest/parents-sue-30-year-old-son-to-move-out/

After being served several times with the request to leave the parent’s home, which were ignored, the parents took the issue to court and won their eviction request.

The young man in question still seems confused about the reasons for his parental problems. The parents want him to work and move on his own. The son seems to feel that he is entitled to be a houseguest his entire life.

The difference of opinion has moved to an ugly place where the parents and son are estranged.

Wouldn’t it have been better to teach self-reliance from an early age?

Teaching a child that they are the center of the universe, that everything is fair and they are the most precious, do no wrong human beings in the universe is a recipe for disaster.

This is a form of crippling, as the child is unable to function on their own, and it is a disservice to the lame lifeform called offspring. It could almost be termed as child abuse.

A parent cannot live forever. Who will take care of this cripple when they die?

It stands to reason that this person will be unable to function alone and be prone to acting out in unconventional ways.

GIVING TERRORISTS THE STORE

Opinion

GIVING TERRORISTS THE STORE

 

The United States’ patience with Iran is up against some really bad behavior of late. 

Last week, Iran bombed two oil tankers, one from Norway, one from Japan, all carrying oil to US allies.

They successfully shot down one US drone. They came very close to getting a rocket or two in their pockets. To his credit, Trump decided to practice strategy and now has them guessing.

Since the Shah of Iran passed in the 1970’s, we have struggled with Iran. 

Our problem is not with the majority of her people, but with her radical religious leaders, and the fanatics they create. 

Jimmy Carter was president when radical students took over the American Embassy, taking the staff hostage. They held the entire consulate staff for 444 days until Ronald Reagan took the presidency. The hostages were promptly let go, knowing that Reagan would never tolerate the situation.

Since Reagan, the policy has been strong financial and other sanctions against Iran. 

Supposedly, the US does not negotiate with terrorists, or did we?

Ex-president Obama and John Kerry negotiated with Iran to release some of the financial sanctions that we have held against them in the horrible deal that President Trump withdrew from in May of 2018.

 This agreement would have released 7 billion dollars over a period of time if they cooperate with the criteria set down by the US, et al. 

Without the permission of Congress, then president Obama sent the rogue regime pallet of cash to the tune of 1.7 billion, plus 400 million in an initial settlement.

What exactly has Iran agreed to do? 

According to Iran, they have really agreed to do nothing. They have agreed to dismantle nothing. 

In fact, they touted a major win over the United States and her allies. They felt the deal had given in to their demands, not vice versa.

Since Iran is the leading exporter of terror and terrorists, what did the 1.7 billion dollars buy? 

That kind of money seriously financed many more terror cells and terrorists, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, already known to be on Iran’s payroll. Not to mention buy more nuclear materials and scientists to enrich them to weapons grade.

Now, they are desperate for money to continue to fund their terrorist cells, while they still quest for a nuclear weapon. 

New sanctions under the Trump administration are really cramping their cash flow. This week, President Trump put PERSONAL sanctions on Rouhani, Iran’s religious leader. His assets have now been frozen.

Rouhani and his followers are invested in the hatred of the US and Israel. 

The people chant “Death to America.”

Isn’t it time to listen to what this nation is saying? 

They lust to wipe Israel out. They threaten her daily.

Why do the European Allies cling to the original deal to give Iran everything they want without much in return? Is it just for the oil, or something more? 

Germany is in Russia’s pocket for a pipeline, another deal that will most likely end in tears.

If this train wreck of an agenda thrives in Europe, they will regret it as well.

Iran is a loose cannon, and thankfully, this administration is treating it accordingly.

 

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SLAVERY AND IMMIGRATION

Opinion

SLAVERY AND IMMIGRATION

 

Wednesday there was a “Reparations” hearing in Congress to discuss a payback system for African Americans whose ancestors were slaves. According to some Congress people, they African American descended from slaves were never able to catch up with everyone else here in the United States, therefore, they should have a handout.

Although there were those, such as Danny Glover and Te-Nihisi Coates, who argued the case for slavery reparations, the one who brought the House to chaos was Coleman Hughes, columnist for Quillete. https://clarion.causeaction.com/2019/06/19/black-democratic-writer-gets-booed-called-presumptive-by-white-liberal-rep-steve-cohen-after-opposing-reparations-in-house-hearing/

Hughes is an African American writer who finds the case for reparations insulting to “put a price” on the suffering of their ancestors. He admitted the horror of the era and told of how he was advised by many of either side not to speak a today’s hearing, yet he felt compelled to give his opinion of why reparations were not necessary.

He felt that trying to make up for the suffering of the past on the people of the present was ineffective, especially in his case as he grew up in a prosperous home and attended an Ivy League school.

This, of course, caused a riotous hally-balloo in the halls of Congress as no one is supposed to have an opposing opinion of a liberal idea.

Fried chicken eating, Democratic Representative and chairman of the hearing, Steven Cohen, called repeatedly for order and allowed that “even if he was presumptive, he still had a right to speak.”

(Cohen probably meant presumptuous, too much chicken in his mouth messed his vocabulary up. Could be that maligning him as he defended him confused the crowd.)

The treatment of this young man is the exact definition of racism. How dare a man of color chastise those who were trying to marginalize all people of color?

Slavery, without rant or rhetoric, is an unforgivable sin, and an abomination.

Generally, the those that were brought to the United States were Africans that were prisoners of war or criminals who were sold by the victors of local tribes or forcibly taken from their homeland to be slaves. http://www.africaw.com/africans-did-not-sell-their-own-people-into-slavery

There were incidents of slavery or indentured servants who did trade their freedom and autonomy for passage to the New World. These individuals did indeed gamble their very lives on the hope of a better future.

“Indentured servitude was a labor system in which people paid for their passage by working for an employer for a fixed term of years. It was widely employed in the 18th century in the British colonies in North American and elsewhere. It was a way for the poor in Britain and the German states to obtain paid passage to the American colonies.” https://www.bing.com/search?q=indentured+servants&form=PRUSEN&mkt=en-us&httpsmsn=1&refig=e31e007e7e5f4894b88cd5c33f2ebb8e&sp=1&ghc=1&filters=ufn%3A%22indentured+servants%22+sid%3A%22a623096e-fa52-5453-4ceb-e3a156dc21f1%22&qs=MB&pq=indentured&sc=8-10&cvid=e31e007e7e5f4894b88cd5c33f2ebb8e

An employer was contractually bound to release the person from his or her indenture at the completion of the agreed upon term. Sometimes, this didn’t happen and the people were considered property. As the dishonest employer was deeper of pocket than the servant, the outcome was often not favorable to those who were indentured.

Another forgotten group of slaves were the Irish. The first slaves in the British colonies were white slaves from Ireland. http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-irish-slave-trade-forgotten-white-slaves/

King James II and Charles I led a concerted effort to enslave the Irish. It began when James II sold 30,000 Irish slaves to owners the New World. His proclamation in 1625 stated that Irish political prisoners to be sold to English settlers in the West Indies. The Irish were considered human livestock for English merchants. The initial majority of slaves in the New World were Irish slaves.

If anyone mentions slavery in conversation it is almost a given that it is a reference to African slaves, which is not entirely true.

How it is that no one ever mentions how shabbily treated the Irish were treated by the English monarchs?

The Irish weren’t treated too much better at the turn of the century when the Potato Famine forced so many to immigrate to the United States, even though “donations” to buy ships and passage for the starving people were often death traps when corrupt people were involved in the transactions. Those for whom the charity was intended, never made it to the New World.

When they did arrive, finding a job was difficult when the “Help Wanted” sign ended with “No Irish Need Apply.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Irish_sentiment

Yet the Irish have not formed an” Irish Lives Matter” group or demanded reparations for the years their ancestors spent as slaves or second class citizens.

There were slave owners, who for reasons of conscience, manumitted their slaves. This often earned the undying ire of their neighbors. Another unfortunate part of being a freed slave was that someone could claim them as their property. Being unable to read and write, the free person had to have their manumission papers on them at all times, and be aware of those who would steal or destroy their papers.

Unless Congress is willing to reimburse all of the above types of slavery and their descendants this is yet another liberal tempest in a teapot, and for some, an insult to those who prospered in spite of the odds against them.

 

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