Waco Tea Party

Waco, Texas, is not very big in the grand scheme of things. It's the stopover from Austin to Dallas, and it was well known in the 50's for the massive tornado that rocked the Alico building, and in the 90's for David Koresh. Some may think of the Dr. Pepper museum, and others of President George W. Bush that has a ranch just outside of Waco in Crawford. What people should think of when they think of Waco, Texas and the small communities around are the passionate people that make up the Waco Tea Party. Lead by the enthusiastic Toby Marie Walker, this community has been on fire for the rights of all Americans since April of 2009 and will go strong as long as we are needed.

Today, 20 February 2010, the citizens of Waco and the cities surrounding met in the Palladium in downtown Waco along with many officials running for different offices. There's no question in the Tea Party's mind that Chet Edwards, democrat congressman for District 17, must go in the November elections, but our fine hosts treated us to a panel today consisting of Dave McIntyre, Chuck Wilson, Timothy Delasandro, and Bill Flores. Rob Curnock, Edward's opponent in the last election, decided to skip out early in hopes that he could appoint one the men at his table to answer the questions for him. Neither Curnock or his stand-in were on stage today.

Brilliant speakers like Michael Sullivan, Michael Simon (Waco Tea Party's own webmaster and co-founder), Deborah Johns (who went head against Cindy Shehan in Crawford and has been touring with the Tea Party Express), and Ann Mazone were there today. I was very honored to be asked to give a short testimonial speech as well along with several others. Joe the Plumber also made a guest appearance and speech.

Now, some of the media has been trying to link this mad man in Austin, Texas to the Tea Parties. I have been to Waco Tea Parties before and work as closely as time permits with them, and I can say from personal experience that this is absurd. The people that were in that building today care deeply for their country, and we hope to pull it out of the hole that Obama has launched us into. This country is ours to keep, and We The People have a right and a duty to keep her and to even restore her if necessary. I grew up in a family that loved to discuss politics, but rarely have we been as active as we have been within the last year. America is waking up, echoing Toby's favorite shout of "Wake up Waco!" and we're frustrated, we're angry, and we're struggling to gain control of a country spiraling dangerously out of control. We are anything but this deranged man that flew a plane into an IRS building.

Thomas Jefferson wrote in our Declaration, "… that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government." I think it's high time that we start altering this government with our votes. Pelosi's lapdogs like Chet Edwards will be voted out in November, and we will replace him with a man willing to do his job. We expect our congressmen to vote with the Constitution, and never against it.

People like this Joe Stack in Austin don't understand what it is to act as an American should act. Violence should always be the last resort, and to drive a plane into a building full of innocent people is lunacy. I question if that makes him any different than the terrorists of 9/11. One lone nut job versus a terrorist organization, and with different motivations, but they both expected to use terror to achieve their goals. This is not the way a Republic works. We will meet our opponents at the voting booths.

And we will meet you there, congressmen and senators. We will end your career if that is what you deserve. No one is immune to the people's will, and we will keep our Republic safe from the irresponsible spending and uncaring attitude that has been spreading through Washington DC for far too long. We will vote you out if you have not been faithful. You will return home, you Harry Reids and Chet Edwards, knowing that you have been denied your power by those who truly hold power in this country: the American people.

In Memory of Danny Pearl

Several years ago, back in high school, I was a student in an independent studies class, where we picked our own topic to study, were mentored by someone in that field, and produced a Portfolio in the first semester, and then a Product the second semester (i.e. as a writing student I wrote a book, one kid composed a small symphony, etc.).

Part of the ISM program was toastmasters, and one of the speeches we had to give was a "Make Me Care" speech, where we had to, like the name suggests, make our audience care about whatever we were talking about.

I have to admit those were some very powerful speeches my classmates gave. We had a rule, what happens in ISM stays in ISM, so we never talk about all those things to anyone else. But this posting is my own speech, and it's about a topic I share with everyone I meet, not just the ISMites, so I thought I would share it with you today.

I first gave this speech in December, 2006. Why am I only posting this now, more than 3 years after I gave the speech?

I guess it's because the time is right. Because it was on this day 8 years ago, that Danny Pearl, the man I talk about in the speech, was kidnapped, and because his killer, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was also involved in the 9/11 attacks, is being tried in CIVILIAN COURT. Not tried as the War Criminal, that he is.

Why is that? Well, because apparently some idiots decided waterboarding was a good way to get answers, and now KSM's confessions are supposedly not good enough (considering how proud he sounded of confessing Danny's murder I'd say it was every bit legitimate, though I do not condone the use of torture).

And now, because the American people are so clueless and divided, justice could be hindered by technicalities. It breaks my heart to see how short the memory of the American people is.

So I post this as a reminder. In memory of Danny Pearl, and of those lost on 9/11.

Let us not hate those guilty of their murders, but let us at least serve justice to their memories, or we risk letting history repeat itself.

Here is the speech:

We're all humans here. And humans have emotions, right? Right.

Let's focus on one in particular for a second. How many of you have something or have had something-or someone even-that you absolutely hated? You just couldn't STAND this person or thing or school assignment, whatever. Even now you feel sick thinking about it, right?

Now we've established that…I want to tell you a story.

This story is about a man named Daniel Pearl. You may remember him, you may not. It has been nearly four (now 8) years since he turned my world upside down.

Danny was a journalist, a musician, a comedian, and a family man. To know Danny was to know joy, because while yes, he did have his moments like everyone does, he was almost always ready to make you smile. His view of life was so different from the average man. He loved life and embraced it. He was passionate and alive, caring for everything and everyone, and always ready to help.

Danny was, in early 2002, kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan. I will never forget those following weeks, or the day I walked into my homeroom, in seventh grade, and saw him on the cover our little news magazine.

The picture even now wrenches me. Danny was crouched down against a wall, head bowed, his hands chained in front of him, under a headline that said "Kidnapped: Journalists Under Attack."

My childhood, my innocence, that had somehow staggered past the horrors of 9/11, finally died then and there. I had never seen a picture like that before and understood it was REAL. I finally realized this was REALLY happening. And for the first time in my life, I was afraid, terrified. I don't like admitting that the terrorists were able to scare me, but I was.

I learned that Danny had been slaughtered mercilessly some days later while I watched the winter Olympics. I wanted to know why he was killed, how the man we all adored so could be allowed to suffer so horribly and die alone.

I know why now though.

HATE.

Danny's killers were Jihadi terrorists. They killed Danny because they hated him-not for who he was, but what he was. Danny was American. He was Jewish, and he probably in all likelihood-being a journalist-knew more about them than they liked to admit.

After they killed him they took out their hate even more. When his body was finally found four months later it was cut into ten pieces, stuffed into plastic bags, and left under mere inches of soil to rot.They thought they were making an example of Danny. They wanted to make us afraid. They thought nothing of his wife, the son he never got to meet, his parents, his friends, even strangers whom he touched.

I was thirteen years old and though I hid it well I look back and see that I was probably quite insane for a long time. The day I finally understood Danny was gone, I felt this ripping, screaming, bleeding hole in my very soul. I lost a lot of who I was that day, and never got it back. This book (At Home in the World) I have with me today was what I used to calm myself, pressing it against the pain, reading it over and over again just to know that the world hadn't entirely lost such a great being.

But I'd begin to see something else coming out of the hate crime that nearly destroyed me and so many others. Something else that would, in all irony, save us, and bring us out of the darkness anew.

The LOVE.

What they didn't tell us on the news I found for myself over the next several years. To make sense of what had happened to them Danny's parents and friends began working overtime to prevent the hate from spreading. That's what the terrorists want, they said. They want us to hate and fear-which is what they do. But we won't.

The same year, on what would have been Danny's 39th birthday the first Daniel Pearl Music Day was held, and has been every year since. The music days celebrate Danny's love of music as well as his caring for all people. Musicians from all walks of life all around the world perform on the same nights, connecting to each other in their music, and in their desire to understand each other instead of hating. I wrote a song myself and played it to his mum over the phone this past October.

Danny's father Judea began dialogues with a Muslim named Akbar Ahmed, and the two of them put all the issues in the world into a simple and neat solution that would be so absurdly simple to reach if only we'd all stop hating each other.

But that's the key.The hating.I don't know what you guys hate. I don't know where your wrath and annoyance is directed to, but I know this: Hate kills. It kills the people haters victimize just as it kills the haters themselves.I doubt any of you would even think of taking a knife to your ex's throat or chopping your ISM portfolios to pieces-ok scratch the last-but I do want you to make an effort to stop hating needlessly, for your sake as well as others.

Look at Danny's face, now, and remember it. This picture was taken on Danny's wedding day. A day when love and joy was etched into every line, every curve of his face. When you feel that painful boiling in your chest, look for that smile he has in your heart, and LOVE.

http://www.danielpearl.org/

Danny:

Yes, WE are the patriotic Americans.

Is it bad form to call conservatives the patriotic Americans? Sarah Palin was mauled in the media and blogosphere for this insinuation during the general election:

"We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, pro-America areas of this great nation. This is where we find the kindness and the goodness and the courage of everyday Americans. Those who are running our factories and teaching our kids and growing our food and are fighting our wars for us. Those who are protecting us in uniform. Those who are protecting the virtues of freedom."

Politically, this was probably not the best choice of words; candidates running for office during a general election need to make the broadest appeal manageable for support.

Taken outside of that context, however, the change in rhetoric among conservatives is probably warranted, and a long time in coming. The left have generally given themselves all license to redefine terms and shift the language of a debate when facts alone couldn't produce a decisive political victory. Granted, it's not a practice that's unique to the left; nor is it unique to our time: "Anti-federalist" was coined by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison in their effort to discredit opponents of constitutional federalism.

But much of what passes for "acceptably-neutral" language in the press and professional culture has decidedly been shaped more by left wing politics than any genuine concern for maintaining ideological neutrality. Why, for example, are pro-life activists consistently named "anti-abortion rights" protesters in the Associated Press? Perhaps it's done for the same reason why editors of Time magazine dubbed California's Proposition 8 supporters "anti-equal rights" activists (Proposition 8, as you may know, was California's ballot initiative which preserved the state's definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman).

A much-older, but ongoing example of the left's hijacking of language is the use of "progressive" to describe their political philosophy; implying, of course, that all contrary viewpoints must be ipso facto "regressive," or at least a stagnant hindrance in their crusade against inequality in all its forms. Does anyone honestly believe this effect was accidental?

Given the way the "progressive" label continues to exclude conservative views, and the brazen language shifts that have occurred over the years, no conservative should ever feel embarrassed to claim ownership of an adjective the Left have refused to wear proudly when their country needed it most: that of a proud, and Patriotic American.

Rock the Vote all the Way to the Left

“Rock the Vote’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country.

Rock the Vote uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election. And we give young people the tools to identify, learn about, and take action on the issues that affect their lives, and leverage their power in the political process.

We are creative, effective, and controlled by nobody’s agenda but our own – we tell it like it is and pride ourselves on being a trusted source for information on politics. We empower the 45 million young people in America who want to step up, claim their voice in the political process, and change the way politics is done.” (http://www.rockthevote.com/about/)


Sounds like a good organization, doesn’t it? If one took it at face value (as many people do without a second thought) it would appear to simply be a well-intended outreach for new voters to help them understand the confusing world that they have just entered. They use up to date techniques to keep young people involved and interested. One problem: Everyone has a biased and these people are leaning so far to the left that they should worry about the affectsof gravity taking them to the ground.
Rock the Vote is sponsored by MTV, the popular music channel. MTV is owned by Viacom whose CEO is a self-proclaimed liberal Democrat by the name of Sumner Redstone. With the issues that they support including Health Care, environmental protection, curbing the cost of higher education, and voter education they tend more towards their CEO’s beliefs. They are anything but objective when they have been supported by MoveOn.org (a site funded by George Soros [http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=977] amongst others) and have ties to the Tides Foundation (http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5184&category=79) via the Proteus Fund (http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/funderProfile.asp?fndid=5265),People for the American Way (http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6400), Campaign for America’s Future (http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7331), ACORN (http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6968), and many other left-wing organizations.


Before taking the things you see every day at face value, make sure that you research them. Rock the Vote assures their viewers and participants that they are unbiased, but if given half a moment to speak, show their true selves very quickly. Their latest project has been the health care debate, focusing their advertisements in line with the overhaul that Congress has proposed and are about to vote on. (Just a brief warning: there is language in the video).


Young conservatives in America must become more aware of their surroundings and active against them, but nothing can be done if we are not aware of what is happening .

Islamic Mosque to be Opened next to Ground Zero

One would think that after the attacks of September 11, 2001, that Americans would be more wary of what happens on our own soil. I remember that day very well and the many emotions that ran through me: fear, worry, confusion, and finally, anger and the wish to stop at nothing to avenge the innocent men and women that died in the Twin Towers. It has now been eight years and it seems that many have forgotten the range of emotions that ran through each of us that day. According to Chelsea Schilling of WorldNetDaily, (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=119328) a new Muslim mosque will open on the doorstep of Ground Zero.

While not all Muslims are responsible for the horrors of 9/11, it is a disgrace to the memory of those that died in the attacks to have a “complete Islamic cultural center, with a mosque, a museum, ‘merchandising options,’ and room for seminars to reconcile religions, ‘to counteract the backlash against Muslims in general’” just down the street from where the attacks by Muslim radicals took place. Also, ironically enough, a Jewish museum for the Holocaust is also just down the way. Political correctness strikes again. Rauf, the Imam of the new mosque that believes that the blame for the civilian attacks should lay on the Christian population, said that was supposed to have the “…opposite statement to what happened on 9/11.” It’s a statement, alright, but I hardly trust it. If the tables had been turned and a group of radicals that claimed to be Christians had attacked civilians in the Middle East and then sympathizers built a church next to the site, the whole world would call for retribution.

So why is it that Christians are always seen as the villains and the Muslim community (especially those that sympathize with the radicals) have been glorified so that they may do no wrong? Why is it that a man like Nidal Hasan can pass through all of the security of Fort Hood to shoot and kill soldiers when he was on watch for radical statements? Because people feared to be seen as being part of the “Muslim backlash” that the left speaks of so often speak of, there were thirteen needless deaths on base before the men and women were to deploy to the Middle East to help protect this country that we live in. Instead of the wariness that should accompany an attack on our own soil the media has made it the politically correct thing to overprotect the Muslim community so that they can do no wrong. Along with those innocent, we seem to be protecting those that are guilty as well, like giving rights to the terrorist and trials in New York City as if they were American citizens.

It’s difficult to look out on our country and see that the “tolerance” of political correctness has turned to submission. We need to learn the difference between kindness towards our fellow man and spinelessness against those that hate us. In an idealistic world the kindness that we show our enemies would win them over into friendship, but this world is far from idealistic and one cannot reason with those that believe that their god has commanded them to kill those that do not believe as they do. Those that open the mosque between Ground Zero and the museum to remember the Jewish Holocaust do so to make a statement, that is one thing that is for sure, but I cannot believe it is for the better.

"Fat Studies" program vs. BMI-Req't for Graduation?

The Leadership Institute's Campus Reform blog points to two interesting developments in academia/activism. From a recent San Diego news article the blogger quotes:

"fat studies is an emerging academic field that explores the social and political consequences of being overweight." Its concerns include the negative portrayal of fat people in literature and popular culture; the discrimination against fat people, which "can mask many other forms of prejudice that we already consider to be undesirable"

The blogger next compares it to a separate program at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania:

...students who are deemed too heavy must pass a physical-fitness course.

As part of the university's core curriculum, campus health educators weigh and measure all freshmen during the fall semester, and later calculate each student's body-mass index, or BMI. Those with a BMI above 30, which suggests obesity, must enroll in a one-credit course called "Fitness for Life" before they graduate. Students can satisfy that requirement if they "test out"—by subsequently earning a BMI below 30—or by passing a sports course.

With Democrat sponsorship of identity activism, and the ever-increasing expansion of governmental control over private industry, there's every reason for the conservative to join the libertarian chorus under this administration, if only to strengthen the pull of resistance against the Left's encroachment on individual liberties, as well as their continued attempts to even further divide an already "diverse" nation.

But I have mixed opinions about the comparison.

On the one hand, we have the excesses of a San Diego State University professor forming a "fat studies" program, which we can guess will simply become one more "identity" around which the left will organize an agitated base. Of course, they do this as they downplay helpful categories such as "better than" or "lesser than" in terms of a BMI; this effectively denies obesity should ever be seen as a health concern to begin with.

To me, that is the approach which more resembles that of left-wing LGBT activists: design academic and social programs aimed at engineering a brand new "identity" while lobbying the medical community to strike out homosexuality as a disorder from the DSM-IV--virtually making it impossible to treat one's inability to be attracted to the opposite sex as a disordered state.

On the other hand, we have Lincoln University, which respects the difference between a fabricated "identity" and a genuine health concern--and actually seeks to do something about it. In one sense, the conservative might view this as a victory not just for reason and common sense over political correctness, but as a return to a day and age when schools used to see the student as a whole person, whose physical and spiritual development was every bit as important as the intellectual or vocational. Obviously, this is only a partial step in that direction, but it's a step nonetheless.

So should this return to classical education override individual concern over the role of government? My sense is that the question at least deserves asking; how we respond will, in large part, determine what a conservative America ought to look like.

Silence is not an Option

Back during the summer I drew the sketch of the drawing to the right. The theory behind it was that political correctness today has covered our mouths, making us - Americans - afraid to speak out for our liberties and save them by doing so. I felt (and still feel) that if we continue to allow our mouths to be taped shut and our voices to be silenced by the ever-looming shadow of political correctness that the blood that our forefathers (and for that matter, all of the soldiers currently fighting for us) shed for us will have all been in vain. Furthermore I believe that their blood will be in our hands.

I will keep this brief as, by now, surely anyone reading this blog knows what has happened, but on November 5, 2009, America was again attacked on her own soil. The soldiers and civilians on Fort Hood army base in Texas were attacked by Nidal Malik Hasan who open fired, killing 13 and injuring 31 by the last count that I heard.

By listening to the American media, one might think that Hasan is the real victem here. They would have you think that he suffered from PTSD (even though he'd never actually been in the war) or was bullied by fellow soldiers over his Muslim religion. Nevermind the strong evidence that has come out that he has been attempting to reach terrorists overseas and has been known to speak out violently against the war.

I fear that if we continue to sugarcoat our approach to terrorists (foreign or domestic) that there can be no other outcome than more attacks on our soil. Yes, Hasan is insane. He is as insane as the men that flew into the Twin Towers in 2001, but I didn't hear America crying out in their defense, nor should they have. This man is a terrorist if we say so or not, so we might as well say so and remember that we are fighting a real war with real enemies.

God bless the soldiers in Fort Hood, located elsewhere in the States, and those overseas. Thank you all for your duty to your country and we are forever in your debt.

J.E. Russell