Louis R. Avallone

Category: American Values

  • How Patriotic Are You?

    How Patriotic Are You?

    You remember when Vice-President Joe Biden said it’s time “to be patriotic…time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut,” when talking about more Americans paying higher and higher federal income taxes? Or when Michelle Obama stirred controversy in 2008 when she said, “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country,” when talking about her husband’s growing campaign to be President?

    And more recently, did you read where former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick (who chooses to kneel instead of stand for the national anthem) is being praised by many in the media as being the most “patriotic” of all Americans because he’s exercising his freedom of speech by kneeling. There’s even a civil rights rally being planned, in honor of him.

    Really? Well, none of that is patriotic – from Joe Biden to Michelle Obama to Colin Kaepernick – not to me, at least. In fact, the dictionary defines patriotism this way: love for or devotion to one’s country.

    So, how patriotic are you really? Do you only feel “love or devotion” to your country during certain times? Such as only when Congress passes legislation you approve of (such as raising taxes on the rich), or when a court decision is handed down that supports your position on an issue (such as on gun control or abortion)? Or do you only “feel” patriotic when your candidate gets elected to the White House (instead of wanting to blow it up when your candidate doesn’t)?

    You see, someone who insists they are patriotic in these ways, even when they are disrespectful or disloyal to their country, is like a husband who insists he’s faithfully devoted to his wife, but only when he’s happy with her. That’s just doesn’t work. Like a marriage, patriotism is all about unconditional love and devotion.

    Some may ask, “Devoted to what?” Well, America was founded upon an idea that, “All men are created equal” and as patriotic Americans, we are devoted to this idea, regardless of where we were born, which political party controls the White House, or Congress, which laws are signed into law, or vetoed. And even despite the injustices of the past.

    We were the first country established – not by ethnicity or conquest – but by this philosophy, and unfortunately, too many younger Americans simply don’t know what America is, and what she represents. And it shows. Young adults rank among the least willing to say they are extremely proud to be Americans – and they represent the largest decline in American pride, since 2003.

    Perhaps that is because American history is no longer required in many high schools throughout the country. Large numbers of Americans graduate without even the most basic sense of what it means to be an American. Is it any wonder that more and more young Americans don’t feel a sense of pride in our country?

    And like a domino-effect, this lack of understanding of our American history diminishes the importance of civic duties, such as voting, serving in the military, volunteering in your community, and so on – all of which are suffering declining participation in our country, with each passing year.

    But that’s not the worst of it. The absence of American history in our schools is bad enough, but when schools are teaching that America is an imperialist, corporate-driven oppressor – well, that’s a different story, altogether.

    As a result, faith in the American dream is non-existent for many young Americans. They have also seen first-hand the crash of the housing market, small businesses crumble, and double-digit unemployment rates. Going to college has only resulted in massive amounts of debt and landed them jobs where they can’t possibly earn enough to pay it all back, and the country is currently more than $19 trillion in debt.

    But remember this, about patriotism, whether everything is going your way, or not: Our soldiers and sailors don’t take an oath to a person. They don’t swear allegiance to a political party or individual state. They promise to risk their lives to protect a document, a contract, and an idea that “all men are created equal.”

    And if we want our next generation of Americans to do the same, and to love this country as much as we do, then we need to teach our children early where we’ve been, so they’ll understand better where we can go.

    We can’t “unteach” those young Americans who are the least willing to say they are extremely proud to be Americans, and we can’t start over either. So, in the words of Zig Ziglar, let’s begin now, and make a new ending.

  • Basic American Values

    Basic American Values

    By now, you know that Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise was wounded, along with two Capitol Police officers, a congressional staffer, and a lobbyist, after a shooter opened fire at a congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. The shooter’s motive is thought to be related to his expressed grievances online about President Donald Trump and Republicans. Our prayers continue for a speedy recovery of all that were injured during the shooting.

    Unfortunately, this has all tragically happened before, though.

    You know – a member of Congress being shot.

    Remember in 2011, there was Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head during a shooting rampage at a public event outside a grocery store in Tucson. Six people were killed, and 13 wounded, including Giffords.

    In 1968, New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles, moments after declaring victory in the California Democratic presidential primary. Five other people were injured in the shooting.

    Then there was Louisiana Senator Huey Long in 1935, who died in Baton Rouge after being shot in the Louisiana state Capitol, allegedly by Dr. Carl Weiss.

    These are all isolated examples, in the long history of the world, that acts of violence will always be with us, however random or nonsensical they may seem. Violence, actually, is an expression of the need for survival in all living things.

    Perhaps liberals feel their existence is being threatened into extinction after last year’s elections.

    Maybe that is why Hillary Clinton’s former running mate Tim Kaine called for Democrats to “fight in the streets against Trump.” Or that the New York Times is currently sponsoring a play that features the assassination of President Trump. Perhaps the “need for survival” is why former CNN host Kathy Griffin posed for an ISIS-inspired photo holding Trump’s decapitated head.

    But is violence the only way to survive? For some, it obviously is.

    Is that why Madonna told the Women’s March on Washington, the day after the inauguration in January, that she fantasized about blowing up the White House. Is survival the reason that Snoop Dogg references assassinating President Trump in music video?

    If so, then this may explain why so many of our fellow Americans tweeted thousands of messages like this one, after the shootings: “Will the @SenateGOP reflect on today’s shooting and invite the Dems into the political process that’ll shape our healthcare system? Doubt it.”

    Others justified the shooting by tweeting, “The shooting today today is horrible but what the GOP is trying to do to Americans with health care is also horrible.”

    So if violence has always been with us, and will always be with us, why does violence feel so much more likely to happen today, in places where we least expect it, for doing nothing more than expressing our opinion on the issues? Whether it’s a bumper sticker on your car, or wearing a t-shirt, or sticking a campaign sign in your yard?

    Maybe it’s because our basic American values now seem so diluted in our culture. There seems to be less empathy and optimism, and more uncertainty and indecisiveness.

    There’s less congruency between how we want others to see us, with how we actually are. Our faith in God has declined, and there’s less a sense of community, or belonging, than ever before.

    There’s an interesting study that looked into the shift of our basic American values. The study analyzed the values expressed on the most popular television shows, from 1967 to 2007, namely: Andy Griffith, The Lucy Show, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days; Growing Pains, Alf, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Boy Meets World, American Idol, and Hannah Montana.

    For these television shows, the most expressed values were community feeling, benevolence, tradition, and popularity. The least expressed values included fame, physical fitness, and financial success.

    In the last decade, though, those values expressed have flipped – from top to bottom. The new top values expressed include: fame, achievement, popularity, and financial success (with self-centered, attention getting, comparison to others, and power, all following close behind). It seems we’ve become more narcissistic than ever before.

    So, is this why the recent shootings feel like so different? Like it may be a sign of things to come – unless we can return to the basic American values that made America great?

    If being self-centered or attention-getting are the values that are growing in our country, then such acts of violence will surely continue, and the number of Americans justifying such horrific crimes will only grow, as well. Too many people place blame on others today – but not themselves – for everything that isn’t right in their life, whether it’s shooting at a police officer, or blocking city streets in protest, or setting a neighborhood on fire and looting.

    Have we become so enamored with ourselves, or self-absorbed in what we think, that common sense and decency has evaporated? And that lying, cheating, or hurting others doesn’t seems so out of place, as long as the ends justify the means?

    Well, call me old-fashioned, but maybe it’s time to turn Laverne and Shirley back on.

  • Monumental Error

    Monumental Error

    Why would you ever return to what hasn’t worked? I mean, would you ever choose to go back to your least favorite employer? If you had a drinking problem, would you ever choose to go back to those times when you simply weren’t your very best self?

    If you’ve worked hard to become educated, or experienced in your trade, would you choose to return to those times when you were more ignorant than not, and didn’t really know what you were doing, at all?

    Obviously, you wouldn’t choose any of that, or go back to any time when you were not the very best you could be.

    But this seems to be at the heart of the hullabaloo over the Confederate monuments in New Orleans. Here’s why:

    Those offended by the monuments (and want them taken down) really believe the rest of us want to go back to the time of slavery, when we were not our very best selves, and more ignorant than not.

    But again, who in their right mind would choose to return to what doesn’t work?

    You see, removing monuments, rewriting textbooks, redacting words in literary works (such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), legislating political correctness, snubbing films like Gone with the Wind, or even banning the display of the American flag as racist, is not necessary to make the point that what happened way back then has no place whatsoever in whatever we are doing now.

    The overwhelming majority of Americans need no convincing of that, at all.

    But regardless of whether those monuments are displayed, or pushed into a corner, under the dust heap of history, there will always be those who have hatred in their heart. For them, hiding our past makes no difference in their thinking.

    Instead of the monuments representing an enemy, or our past failures (even though the war was really over states’ rights), what if these Confederate monuments represented the triumph of good over evil. Of justice. Redemption. Forgiveness. Of what’s possible when men and women of principle make a stand. Or the power of God to change the hearts and minds of men.

    America has changed (thankfully), and that’s putting it mildly. Consider that only 15 percent of African-American adults today lack a high school education, compared with 75 percent of adults 50 years ago. There are now 3.5 times more African-Americans enrolled in college than were 50 years ago, and for every college graduate in 1963, there are now five.

    And in positions of power, black elected officials have also made significant gains. Just going back 50 years to when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, there were only five African-Americans serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate – now there are 49 black lawmakers. Over a similar period, the number of black state legislators grew from about 200 to 700.

    Am I saying everything hunky-dory now? No, of course not. There is still prejudice. Bigotry. Injustice. But these have been with us since before Jesus Christ (and will likely be with us until He comes again).

    So, how much does removing monuments make life any better for people of color? You tell me. Maybe the issue isn’t so much as where the monuments are placed, or buried, as much as how we perceive their meaning, in the first place.

    No, no, no one wants to go back to a time when we were not our very best selves. But that doesn’t mean we want to forget when we weren’t.

  • Not Getting It

    Not Getting It

    Sunday morning came way too early for many in Caddo Parish on April 30. It was the day after voters rejected the property tax renewals that had been placed on the ballot. That morning, The Times in Shreveport couldn’t even bring themselves to report the election results in their printed edition. Online, this news must have still been too grim for them to report, as it was posted up with only a simple, almost curt headline, “Results uncertain, pending certification.”

    You see, the day before, there had been an election, and renewing property taxes were the only items on the ballot. And voters had said “no”, or “not so fast,” to all of them. And online, at least, the news seemed tough to bear for some.

    After all, many who had placed those tax renewals on the ballot, and supported renewing them, didn’t understand why. Caddo Parish Commissioner Patrick Jackson thought that voters “didn’t get the message,” saying “there is some misinformation that was put out, there is some more information that the parish needs to put out.”

    Parish Administrator Dr. Woody Wilson, and several commissioners felt the public had been misinformed about the property tax renewals, too. They thought the public just “didn’t get it” and that after the voters get more educated about those tax renewals, they’ll come to see it differently, next time, and vote in favor of those taxes, instead.

    But – what if the public already knows more than our government leaders think, and notices more than they realize?

    Remember in 2010, when the Democrats lost control of the House, and voters handed Democrats more losses than in more than 62 years? Many government leaders then, also, said the voters “didn’t get the message”, and that too many had been manipulated into becoming angry about the wrong issues.

    Back then, Barack Obama explained those 2010 elections as having to do with “anti-immigrant sentiment” or being “troubled” by what an Obama administration represents. Even actress Janeane Garofalo believed the voters just “didn’t get the message” in the 2010 elections, saying “this is about hating a black man in the White House.”

    And just this month, Hillary Clinton explained her election day loss last year on those voters who just “didn’t get it,” or otherwise didn’t understand the issues. “I was on the way to winning,” she said, “until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared off.”

    Obama felt the same way about Clinton’s bid for President last year. He believes that the voters just “didn’t get it” because he thinks Clinton didn’t do enough to get her message out. If only HE had been the one to articulate her message, he says, he “could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it.”

    But this “blame the voter” has happened before, though. The voters get blamed for not getting the message, or not being smart enough to know any better. In 1980, Republican rival John Anderson called candidate Ronald Reagan a sure-fire “loser,” comparing political suicide to the possibility of nominating Reagan as the Republican Party candidate for President. Even Gerald Ford labeled Reagan, “unelectable”. And Jimmy Carter was convinced that Reagan was the easiest Republican to beat.

    You see, it’s not that the Caddo Parish voters “didn’t get the message” in voting “no” to the property tax renewals, it’s that they don’t trust their parish government to spend their tax dollars wisely, or honestly. At least, not yet.

    And why should they? From spending millions to purchase the former General Motors plant (and then allowing millions of dollars worth of equipment inside to be sold off by others), to the Caddo Parish Employees Retirement System or “CPERS” (where it is reported that Commissioners received triple the amount they contributed), to the repeated requests for more revenue through multi-million dollar bond elections (even though the Commission’s reserves are almost double their annual budget), it’s not that voters “don’t get it” on these issues, or why taxes are needed in the first place.

    It’s not that, at all.

    It’s that the voters just don’t want any more of it.

  • You Gotta Read This

    You Gotta Read This

    An average headline is probably only six to 10 words in length, while the average news story is as many as 1,000 words in length. Surprisingly though, only one-half will ever read the news story, at all, beyond the headline.

    Armed with this knowledge, is there really any question as to why so many are so misinformed about the news? I mean, how can anyone glean the important details of a news story, by only reading a 10-word headline?

    You can’t. But they try, anyways.

    And so we lament how our fellow Americans know so little about what is going on in their own community, not to mention in Washington, DC.

    And when you factor in headlines that were seemingly written intentionally by the mainstream media-elites to mislead or confuse us, you’ve got a mess on your hands. This is because the continuing decline of reading skills threatens our very existence as a country, and our individual lives as free men and women. Is that too dramatic?

    I don’t think so, considering that more than one-half of the people in our country are only consuming their news via headlines, and not from much else. How can they ever be informed on complex issues, much less cast their votes to address those issues, in the first place – if most don’t read past the headlines?

    You see, we’ve become a nation of scanners – not readers. No question. We screen every incoming email message or Facebook post for relevance and importance, and if we decide to read it, we usually stop reading once we think we’ve gotten the gist, and then we move on, without going any deeper.

    We do this because we want to know what’s going on, but we end up just reading only summaries of the news, or the headlines, because too many are too lazy, or too busy, to do the work themselves, and read the story all the way through.

    In fact, a recent study found that 60% of the links your friends share on social media have never actually been read by your friends. That’s right: Most people share news and articles without ever reading them, at all.

    This may earn them attention from their friends for what they are sharing, but they are also teaching their brains to overlook the details, and to read with half their focus, instead. This has resulted in our attention spans being at an all-time low, with 50% of adults who cannot even read a book written at an eighth grade level, and over 44 million adults are now unable to read a simple story to their children.

    We know this about reading: 3 out of 4 people on welfare cannot read. 3 out of 5 people in American prisons cannot read. Almost all juvenile offenders have difficulty reading. More than one-half of American adults have an income well below the poverty level because of their inability to read.

    And while illiteracy doesn’t breed illiteracy, it does it make it more likely that children of illiterates will lack the reading skills needed to break the cycle of poverty and incarceration, or to have a basic understanding of what America is, and what she represents.

    How long can our country remain strong when over one-half of the population cannot read at the same grade level as the other half?

    So if you have read this far, congratulations. And the next time you are at your favorite restaurant, or at the gym, and the televisions all along the wall are tuned to various news channels with the volume muted, just remember those headlines are what 50% of Americans consider their “news” for the day.

    And there’s just not a good headline for that.

  • Pay Raise

    Pay Raise

    Superintendent Lamar Goree said this month that he’s been charged by the Caddo Parish School Board with looking at how to give “everyone a raise in our school system”. That’s after nearly 60 percent of Caddo Parish Schools’ were scored by the Louisiana Department of Education as ‘D’ and ‘F’.

    Shreveport Mayor Tyler says that we need to give pay raises to city employees making $80,000 a year or less “to make sure that we’re being competitive with other governmental entities.” That’s after total (government) jobs at City Hall rose last year, while the population of Shreveport continued to decline and we ranked no. 4 in the country for job losses.

    And in Washington, DC, even as he was leaving the White House, President Obama officially authorized a 2.1 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees in 2017, even though our national debt was (and is) nearly $20 trillion. Now, just this month, a House Democrat has introduced a new bill to give federal employees an across-the-board pay raise of 3.2 percent in 2018.

    So from failing schools, to declining population growth, to rising debt – our government seem to be hell-bent on incentivizing poor results – and unfortunately, with devastating accuracy.

    What’s missing in all of these calls for blanket pay raises across the country in government is not just the taxpayer money to do so, but the lack of any real progress – or interest – to develop an effective performance appraisal system of government employees that gives honest feedback, and provides meaningful differentiation between the high-achievers and those who work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit.

    Why is it that some folks just don’t get it? Unless our government has an objective employee evaluation system, to get rid of low performers, and reward high achievers, we’re just rewarding mediocrity – plain and simple.

    Yes, you can hire better people with pay raises, attract better job candidates, etc., but you have to still deal with those whom you already employ and simply are not doing the job that needs to be done.

    You see, study after study shows that retention of an organization’s best and brightest decreases, in the long run, whenever blanket pay raises occur. This is because there’s a demoralizing effect on the high achievers in any organization because they feel their efforts to go above-and-beyond aren’t recognized when those who didn’t make the effort were rewarded, nevertheless.

    And to add insult to injury, not only does your most loyal and best employees feel unappreciated, but a blanket pay raise makes it even more unlikely that these best and brightest will have any chance of receiving a pay raise themselves anytime soon, based on their own merit, because now there’s even less money available in the budget to do so, after the blanket pay raises to everyone else.

    Maybe this is why President Trump has called for a federal hiring freeze, and an end to automatic raises, and to make it easier for our federal government to fire poor performers. As the White House press secretary explained, “Some people are working two, three jobs just to get by. To see money get wasted in Washington on a job that is duplicative is insulting to the hard work that they do to pay their taxes.”

    And he’s right. If we are going to continue talking about blanket pay raises, shouldn’t we be talking about the effects of doing so, other than to one’s own bottom line? In the end, this is all about getting better, and grabbing life by the collar, gutting this out, growing ourselves, and turning our country around. Sure, the money is important, but the value of what you give is even greater, and rewarding mediocrity cost us all.

    After all, as Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

  • Safety Goggles

    Safety Goggles

    In Berkeley, California, masked protesters smashed windows, stormed buildings, and set fires recently on the campus of the University of California to shut down a speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, a Breitbart News editor. The university canceled the event and blamed “150 masked agitators” for the unrest, saying they had come to campus to disturb an otherwise peaceful protest. Five people were injured and the university police locked down the campus for hours, but not until the protesters had caused $100,000 worth of damage to the campus.

    That followed a bloody frenzy in Seattle on Inauguration Day, last month, where protestors tried to prevent a speech by Mr. Yiannopoulos again, but this time at the University of Washington.

    Then there was Madonna on Inauguration Day, who said she had “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” while speaking to protestors at the Women’s March in Washington. On that day, hundreds of thousands marched against Trump, and for everything from gender and racial inequities, to the right to organize and fight for a “living minimum wage” for all workers, plus comprehensive reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and immigrant and refugee rights.

    “This is not just the beginning of the ‘tea party of the left’ but a larger movement for civil rights that could make history,” said Moumita Ahmed, founder of “Millennials for Revolution,” an offspring of the Bernie Sanders campaign. “The steady flow of protests will absolutely continue and get bigger and bigger.”

    These often violent protests, and efforts to silence free speech, remind me of conservative writer William F. Buckley when he wrote, “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”

    But none of us should be bullied into silence, however growing the flow of protests become. The truth is, many of you who feel that your candidate won in November, are still struggling to find your voice. You still bite your tongue, or hold your comments back in polite conversation, afraid that you will be called racist, elitist, sexist, or anti-environmentalist – regardless of whether it’s true or not – simply because of how you voted, or what you believe.

    It’s our natural fear of isolation from others that keeps too many of us from sharing our opinions, and this encourages a sense of apathy, or a “to each his own” mentality, instead. This is where we just go along, to get along. The problem with that, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., is that “(o)ur lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

    With the Democratic Party interests so defeated this past November, and yet so vocal now, especially through the rise of professional protest groups around the country, including those sponsored by brands like Nike and Starbucks, what role do you have now, in taking a stand for what you believe, and the values you hold? A big one.

    In fact, even if you feel you “won” last November, it’s more important than ever to remain vocal about the things that matter.

    No, it’s not enough to watch the same conservative television or radio shows, or read the same conservative-minded publications. Or visit with your friends and families about the decline of our country, or the ridiculousness of the violence by protestors. Or which party or demographic population that is mostly to blame for it all such issues.
    But you shouldn’t keep preaching to the choir, either, and expect much to change, and blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, it will not change you – or our country – and it won’t succeed in changing whatever is making you unhappy, or that you feel is wrong with our country.

    Instead, you must evangelize the principles upon which our country was founded — economic freedom, equal opportunity, and self-determination – especially to those who may very much disagree with your perspective. These are the fundamental principles of our Declaration of Independence, and when followed, these won’t ever confuse caring, with actually helping, or doing, with actually accomplishing something.

    So don’t be silent about things that matter, and call it like it is, no matter what side of the aisle you are on, and even if your candidate won in November. And if anyone happens to get offended by you defending what you believe, especially the intellectuals who “know better” than the rest of us, just tell them to go join a protest. And bring some safety goggles.

  • What Took You So Long?

    What Took You So Long?

    Psychologists call it “confirmation bias,” which is the tendency to search for, or otherwise interpret information in a way that confirms what you already believe, regardless of the facts. You may call it “rationalizing.” Others may call it “missing the forest for the trees.” I call it “denial,” and as the saying goes, denial is not just a river in Egypt.

    But do we really prefer illusion, to the truth? Many do. The truth hurts, after all, and even when we hear the truth, our defenses seemingly kick in to keep the illusion alive – and the pain away.

    So, is this why as many as 1 million women showed up in marches across the country, with not just one grievance, but many? Was the truth of the past 8 years exposed with the inauguration of President Trump, and the protests an attempt to keep the illusion alive – and the pain away?

    Some marched for equal rights for women and against sexism. For minority groups and against racism. For better jobs and higher pay. For environmental responsibility and against global warming. For peace and to end all wars.

    Yes, the conventional wisdom is that these millions of women were expressing their discontent over the election of President Trump. But discontent over what, exactly? He had only been sworn in as President for less than 24 hours before the protests began. And after all, tens of millions of women had voted for him in November. In fact, many say it was women voters in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan that gave President Trump the votes he needed to win the White House.

    So, what’s really going on here? I’ll tell you: we prefer illusion to truth, and the bottom line is that these women have been lied to, especially about the consequences of voting for politicians who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas. Or so-called “leaders” who are more interested in their own well-being, than in ours.

    Instead of promised good jobs for the jobless over the past 8 years, these women see 94 million Americans not even working now – the highest ever in our country’s history. In fact, by the end of 2016, the number of those filing for unemployment benefits was at its highest in more than a year.

    Instead of improving access to healthcare over the past 8 years, and making it more affordable, these women see that there are just 3 percent more Americans with health insurance today, and that the number is dropping every day. They see how many Americans simply can’t afford paying their premiums because insurance companies are raising premiums on everyone by as much as 60 percent to keep from collapsing under the Affordable Care Act.

    Instead of “healing our planet” over the past 8 years, they see that taxpayers are now shouldering more than $2.2 billion in expected loan guarantee defaults from companies like the bankrupt renewable energy company, Solyndra, and at least 36 other taxpayer-funded green energy projects that have vanished like the wind.

    And although we “ended a war” by withdrawing our combat troops from Iraq in 2011, these women see how this single decision to withdraw left the door wide open for ISIS to expand their terror around the world, killing thousands of innocent people, and terrorizing millions more.

    And instead of diversity, these woman saw Obama choose a cabinet overwhelmingly male and white, and racial tensions are higher than ever.

    In 2008, the illusion of “hope and change” sounded like the truth to these women. We were all promised, back then, that healthcare negotiations would be on C-SPAN (they weren’t) and that the budget deficit would be reduced by 50% (but it grew).

    They were promised there would be no earmarks in the $787 billion stimulus bill (but there were). We were promised the “Recovery Act” would save or create jobs (yet unemployment continued to rise to record levels). We were told “if you like your plan, you can keep your plan” (we couldn’t). We were assured Obamacare would pay for itself (but it doesn’t). President Obama said, “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future” (but he did and deficit spending rose to over $5.1 trillion).

    Maybe we could all agree now, at least, that when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But I get it, about the protestors and I’d be mad, too, if I were in their shoes, waiting on “hope and change” all these years.

    Just one question, for those who marched on January 21: What took you so long?

  • For Crying Out Loud

    For Crying Out Loud

    Good grief, Charlie Brown!

    In December 1965, nearly 15 million viewers, or one-half of the television viewing audience, tuned in to watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” It has become the longest-running cartoon special in history, but it almost was canceled before it ever was aired. You see, the CBS network executives were less than impressed. Aside from the technical criticisms, resulting from a rushed production schedule, the executives did not want to have Linus reciting the story of the birth of Christ from the Gospel of Luke. It was thought that viewers would not want to be preached upon by an animated cartoon, especially from Biblical passages. Obviously, after 50 years of airing every Christmas, receiving an Emmy and a Peabody award, those CBS executives got it wrong.

    “There will always be an audience for innocence in this country,” said Charlie Brown’s creator, Charles Schulz. Nonetheless, the religious celebration of Christmas continues to face trivialization by an increasingly vocal and secular strain of society today.

    Retailers have tried calling Christmas trees, “holiday” or “family” trees. They’ve pressed-on with “Happy Holidays,” even though 67 percent of Americans prefer the greeting, “Merry Christmas.” Advertisers have pushed out “Christ” from Christmas and pushed on with “X-Mas.”

    Last year, a group calling themselves “American Atheists” purchased billboards that proclaimed, “Go ahead and skip church! Just be good for goodness’ sake. Happy holidays!” The year before that, another activist group spent big bucks to purchase a billboard advertisement in New York City’s Times Square – a 40 by 40 image that asks, “Who needs Christ?” and answers that question with “Nobody.” In 2012, there was another Times Square billboard that urged viewers to, “Keep the Merry. Dump the Myth,” with an image of Christ beneath a photo of Santa Claus.

    And as our 2016 elections fade, future candidates for public office will increasingly find that secular voters are the fastest growing minority group in America, all who are committed to keep religion out of government.

    After all, the number of people in America who believe in God has dropped almost 10 percent since 2009. And in our public schools, there is increasingly no room for recognition of any faith whatsoever, Christianity or otherwise. And more than 10% of the U.S. House of Representatives believe that the mere presence of our national motto (“In God We Trust”) on currency violates their Free Speech and Free Exercise Clause Rights.

    Goodness gracious. So what is it about Christ, or Christmas, that is so offensive?

    Well, you see, it’s not about Christmas at all – it’s Christ that’s the issue. While many might deny the existence of God, it’s much more difficult to deny Jesus, for whom we have historical evidence of his existence, even from secular sources that are outside of the Bible. Still, the life of Jesus is so powerful, and his words so meaningful, that even atheists cannot seem to get Him out of their minds. They must find it helpful to mock the religious beliefs of Christians everywhere with their billboards, even as they encourage non-Christians to do the same.

    Last year was the deadliest, worst year for Christian persecution than any other time in modern history – over 7,000 were killed. Additionally, over 2,400 churches were attacked, damaged or destroyed last year, which is more than double the number from the year before that.

    Even while it is true that 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, only 51 percent consider it a “religious” holiday – and that number is declining. That means that the odds are pretty good, that when you are out Christmas shopping, the person ahead of you in line, or the person behind you, probably doesn’t consider Christ’s birth as the significant “reason for the season.”

    They may not realize either that buying more and more expensive gifts or all that “stuff” we buy at Christmas doesn’t mean we “care” more about our family or friends, especially when the teachings of Christ can demonstrate that love so much more than buying another gizmo or gadget. In fact, the person in line with you may not know the life of Christ very well at all, or his teachings of tolerance, and respect for one another and the goodness of life. Or of gratitude, and humility.

    So, while Charlie Brown first asked the question in 1965 on national television, “Isn’t there anyone, who knows what Christmas is all about?!” The answer has been the same for over 2000 years – it’s Christ. And for crying out loud, we ought to put that up on a billboard too.

    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

     

  • Getting the Third Degree

    Getting the Third Degree

    Since the day after the presidential election, the number of emails I’ve received has steadily grown. Nearly 5,000 emails now, and the number of messages on my Facebook page has risen into the hundreds. All of these communications have escalated into phone calls, and they are even writing letters – nearly a dozen received in the mail, just today.

    The messages all start out about the same. Here’s an example:

    Dear Elector,

    My name is Jeremy Levine, from Brooklyn, NY.

    The founders created the electoral college in order to safeguard the Republic from giving power to someone unfit for the responsibilities of office. Today, in this election, we have such a case. Not only is Donald Trump inexperienced, he is a threat to the safety and stability of our great nation. Trump has already made clear his positions that both disregard the Constitution and threaten huge segments of our citizenry. Furthermore, the people voted for Hillary Clinton by over a million votes. We ask that you, as an elector, honor the majority of Americans and uphold your duties to protect the Republic by preventing Donald Trump from assuming the presidency.

    Thank you for your time and consideration, I appreciate and respect the role you serve in our electoral process.

    Sincerely,

    Jeremy Levine

    So, what’s going on here? After all, for many folks, they think the Presidential election is over, and that Donald Trump won. Hillary Clinton has already conceded the election, saying, “We owe him an open mind and a chance to lead,” and even President Obama referred to Trump as “president-elect” when Trump visited the White House. Furthermore, Trump has already started assembling the leaders of his new administration, for both his cabinet and other key advisors.

    So, what gives? Well, it’s about the Electoral College, and the fact that on December 19, a slate of electors in each state will cast their state’s electoral votes and elect the next President of the United States, all according to Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution. You see, there are 538 electors in all 50 states, including the District of Columbia, and 306 of those electors are expected to vote for Trump on December 19. But if only 37 of those electors, who are expected to vote for Trump, actually vote for someone else – anyone else – or even abstain, then Trump won’t have a majority of the electoral votes available and Congress will decide who the next President will be. Yes, Congress.

    And this is the faint hope that liberals and progressives are clinging onto – to stop Trump from becoming the 45th President of the United States. So they are harassing electors with a constant barrage of emails, phone calls, letters, and social media posts, sometimes evening visiting their homes.

    There are “peaceful gatherings” being called for, in cities across the country, to reject the Electoral College, and there are online petitions, as well. There is a Change.org petition, now signed by almost 5 million people, and a MoveOn.org petition, signed by almost 1 million people – both of which are growing. The petitions encourage members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for Hillary when the college meets on December 19 because Trump is “unfit to serve” and that Hillary “won the popular vote” and should be President.”

    Sure, at first glance, the Electoral College seems unnecessary, at best, and illogical, at worst. After all, why would anyone support any system that doesn’t weight each person’s vote equally, regardless of what state they live in? For example, currently Wyoming gets 1 electoral vote for each 178,000 citizens, but California only gets 1 electoral vote for each 690,000 citizens.?

    What’s up with that? Why do votes in Wyoming count more than 3 times than those in California? After all, that’s not what our democracy is all about, right? Well, first, we’re not a democracy, we’re a republic and we elect representatives who vote for our laws, instead of us voting directly on those laws – which would be a pure democracy, instead. But you see, the founding fathers were actually terrified of a pure democracy (or “mob rule”) and if any of us want to protect the rights of any minorities in our country, we would be terrified too, because in a pure democracy, the rights of minorities can simply be voted away. As John Adams once wrote, “Remember, democracy never lasts long”.

    So, what does any of this have to do with the Electoral College electing the next President? Everything. It’s an example of the genius of our republic form of government insofar as it places the country’s best interest above any individual states’ interest, or balancing the influence of the farmer in Iowa, or the sugar cane farmer in Louisiana, with the powerful and wealthy industrialists and media elites of the big cities. The Electoral College is merely an extension of our republic form of government, no different than the very reason why each state is represented by two (2) Senators, regardless of population.

    It is an honor and privilege for me to participate in the constitutional process of electing the President of the United States next month — a vote cast by the son of an Italian immigrant, whose rights our founding fathers sought to protect with a republic, and long before most any Americans would fully understood why.