The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Most folks in Alabama agree on one thing. All schools should be operated by competent instructional leaders, all children should be entitled to the opportunity for learning at least on their grade level, students should be safe places and school environments should be conducive to creating high student learning expectations. Recent news releases from Alabama’s State School Superintendent touted a new high graduation rate average for Alabama’s schools. All too often such proclamations give sch...
It is the story of freedom, liberty, and equal justice under law. Our flag has gone through the evolution of our ideas and of our free institutions. The flag is our symbol, our emblem for our ideas, our faith, our laws. In our early days, when we were 13 British colonies, the banners borne by the Revolutionary forces widely varied. The local flags and colonial banners displayed on land and sea during the first months of the American War for Independence carried the various grievances that the...
Our Creator God has always extended covenants to His children. To Adam, it was clearly stated that he might eat of “every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”Gen. 2:17-18) Adam's obligation was merely obedience. To Noah, who found Grace in the eyes of the Lord, God spoke, “With thee I will establish my covenant, thou shall come into the ark, thou and thy sons and thy sons' wives, with thee.” Noah's reward came through obedience and trust. After the Tower o...
Non-verbal communication: When we communicate, we can say a lot without speaking. Our body posture, tone of voice, and the expressions on our faces all convey a message. If our feelings don’t fit with our words, it is often the non-verbal communication that gets “heard”and believed. Notice whether your body language reflects what you are saying, thinking, or feeling. Communicating clearly in a relationship: Talk to each other. No matter how well you know and love one other, you cannot read...
Beginning as early as 1909 schools systems began to insulate all teachers from being fired unjustly due to a wide array of unfair reasons such as replacing them with the school principal’s daughter, personal conflict among another more favored teacher, political differences, perceived insubordination involving unreasonable task assignments, etc. Tenure has existed in K-12 education since then, when “good government” reformers borrowed the concept from Germany. The idea spread quickly from New J...
The tragic lessons of History will be repeated if History is removed from a nation's memory, as it has been for several generations. America's Christian History was replaced by Social Studies in public schools nearly a century ago. How many adults know what sacrifice and triumph brought about our uniquely American Holiday tradition of Thanksgiving? Through brief bits of the story here, let's look at this American legacy, our own American heritage, and embrace it for a true Thanksgiving...
ALL IS NOT WELL IN AMERICA. The enemy is targeting Christianity, and is doing so through attacking political and religious liberty. Pastors and chaplains are threatened, even chaplains at prison systems where they are so badly needed. Crosses are removed as "offensive." Such a thing would have been unthinkable when I was a child. Public schools have not only removed the teaching of the Bible as absolute moral Truth, but are redefining gender, if you can comprehend such a thing. Some are even...
Many years ago, we had Dr. Allen Quist speak at a regional Eagle Forum meeting. He spoke about the changes in American Education and spent a great deal of the speech that evening on The “New Math” being developed, and the “International Baccalaureate”, the brainchild of Unesco and the United Nations. Dr. Quist, a highly respected professor of Political Science at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minn., a theologian, and a popular speaker throughout the United States, served three terms i...
Are you Bipolar? Do you get “diagnosed” by family and friends who think you are Bipolar? Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal mood swings we all experience, the symptoms of bipolar disorder are destructive in nature. They can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. However, there is good news--Bipolar disorder is tr...
In this year of 2015, it would be very interesting to know if any reader of the Gazette ever heard the name of David Josiah Brewer, an Associate Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, 1889-1910. Or has any modern law student studied Brewer's decisions on the Court? The most important case is The Church of The Holy Spirit v. United States, decided February 29, 1892. This was on the Eve of the 20th Century. If the case has been so buried in the past century, why is it important for us to study this...
The Alabama State Board of Education must be in awe of Tommy Bice, Alabama’s State Superintendent of Education. It appears they believe he is the great one who will lead us to the promise land of achieving academic excellence for Alabama’s school children. They have gone along with most every recommendation he has presented to them apparently because they think he knows what’s best for Alabama’s schools and will do whatever it takes to garner federal dollars. As I recently sat in a meeting...
The signing of the Magna Charta on the 15th of June, 1215, was an attempt to begin to restore the ancient Christian liberties of the British Isles. The 1775 Seal of Massachusetts during the American Revolution (left) illustrates the significance of this document to our own independence. A colonist stands with a sword in one hand and the Magna Charta in the other. This individual, representing the colonists, is willing to defend his God-given liberties based on the ancient written Charter of...
July 4, 1776 was the culmination of a process of time that brought ancient ideas of liberty to the highest expression in history. The story of liberty in the Western world began centuries earlier, however. The ideas in the Declaration were not new as Thomas Jefferson told us. He had heard these ideas from the pulpit and they had been articulated decades before that. Many of these same ideas of liberty were recovered in 1215 in the document known as Magna Charta. Their origin began in the gospel...
Military life can be very stressful for Soldiers and their Families. Soldiers are constantly being bombarded with training, deployment, re-acclimation to the home front, and then repeating the cycle many times over. As the military is gaining more knowledge and researching the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), there are concerns that many soldiers are resorting to alcohol and substance abuse to alleviate the pressure of various transitions as has...
What has become called the “summer slide” takes its toll on our school-aged children. We all recall those sunny warm carefree days of summer when we were released from the confinement of school walls, classrooms, class schedule bells and the restraints of being restricted to that uncomfortable desk. No more rules, books, computers, homework, reading, exhausting examinations and getting up at the crack of dawn to be at school on time! It means freedom to play most all day, to go on family vac...
It is an inexpressible honor to speak on this occasion in remembrance and in honor of some 250,000 Southern men, 30,000 of them from Alabama, who gave their lives in a just fight for constitutional government and law, and in honor of thousands of others who served in and survived the war for southern independence. Since 1866 in this city, there has been an annual remembrance of those who died and those who served in the armies of the Confederate States of America. Since 1901, there has been a St...
WHY COUNSELING? Are you troubled by your life experiences or traumatic events? Are you having difficulty in a relationship? Do you find yourself having a hard time overcoming a recent loss? Do you drink alcohol, use drugs or medication to take physical or emotional pain away? Do find yourself wanting to improve overall? Counseling/Therapy is a treatment modality that uses specific techniques of caring that have been created to offer effective, long-lasting help for people suffering from a wide...
“As men, we have God for our King, and are under the Law of Reason: as Christians, we have Jesus the Messiah for our King, and are under the law revealed by Him in the Gospel.”John Locke, “The Reasonableness of Christianity,”. 1695. “...The right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty... The Rights of the Colonists as Christians...may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the Institutes of the great Law Giver..which are to be found clearly written and promulgated in the New T...
Does Tennessee Value Its Children’s Education More Than Alabama? On Tuesday, April 21 in a bipartisan vote, the Tennessee House of Representatives voted unanimously (97:0) to repeal Common Core. Today, the Tennessee State Senate followed with a (27:1) vote in favor of repeal. The Truth in Medium Team, an online news site (benswan.com) was the first of many media outlets to report this breaking news. “This legislation is a template for all states to begin a much needed journey of separation fro...
"The more thoroughly a nation deals with its history, the more decidedly it will recognize and own an over-ruling Providence therein, and the more religious a nation it will become; while the more superficially it deals with its history, seeing only secondary causes and human agencies, the more irreligious it will be." Rev. A.W. Foljambe, January 5, 1876. Whether you are introduced to the writing and impact of John Locke, Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, George Washington, John Adams or Thomas...
The devaluation of America’s cultural decency, the increase in fatherless homes and the steady decline in academic performance is now spiraling out of control. My generation has witnessed general apathy among parents, schools and politicians for several decades. Loss of values in our country is a very real phenomenon and the not-so-subtle enemy of many of our societal problems. Our schools are not immune. These “values” are not to be narrowly interpreted as solely religious values or stric...
When America's Constitutional Republic was founded as a Christian Nation, the entire culture reflected Moral Absolutes. While it is true that not every citizen was what we call a “born again Christian believer,” everyone enjoyed the blessings of liberty brought to our shores, the fruit of moral absolutes. Our Republic was birthed by the Protestant Reformation and the Biblical mandate that formed courageous character. Education was important from its inception. From the home school around the...
Among the many legislative bills which will be introduced during Alabama’s legislative 2015 session is one with strong support of progressive lawmakers. They plan to introduce the bill in the upcoming spring session of the Alabama’s State Legislature to provide a plan and process for the initial creation of a few charter schools. The bill will limit the number of charter schools to be established to fewer than a dozen during first fiscal year. Charter schools which exist throughout the cou...
The restructure of the public educational system is far more reaching than the schools. It is the restructure of the Nation through Education. A careful investigation reveals that it is international in scope and entirely socialistic in philosophy. It is promoted by the United Nations, and already, similar methods have been implemented in numerous European countries. "Choice in Education" sounds wonderful. However, the "Choice" that we are hearing about is not the choice of grass roots parents...
For decades local public school officials, politicians and legislators have debated the method in which local/district superintendents are selected. Nationally, 97.8 percent of all local district school superintendents are appointed. The only exceptions are six southern states which have both appointed and elected superintendents: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. According to the Alabama Association of School Boards, there are currently 138 local school...
