THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

I started my long and winding road in Berkeley, California. Yes, the home of the hippies and where the destruction of America, for all intensive purposes, began. I had graduated from High School in 1967, not far from Berkeley, and the hippies were in the streets singing "give peace a chance". Our parents told us the Communists were behind all this, and they were, but we didn't believe it at the time. Unbelievably, later, when the communist radicals got ahold of the democratic party, our parents failed to see this and voted with them!

I had gone to California colleges and I was the first in my family to graduate from college, a story you hear often. So, I was educated, I thought. I thought those socialist profs were real smart, certainly smarter than my parents. They taught me that the church was a palliative for the masses and I believed that, until one day I realized that allowing the hippies to be God wasn't working out that well. My real education began when my husband and I drove our little rental car over the border, behind the iron curtain, into Yugoslavia (it was a country then), and through Bulgaria and into Romania. The first thing I noticed was the stark change to somberness and grey, next I noticed the police with machine guns on the corners. These people meant business. I was frightened. It occurred to me that the American State Department would send a letter on my behalf if I disappeared but I doubted they would send an army. I COULD JUST DISAPPEAR- THESE GOVERNMENTS WERE THAT POWERFUL.

In Berkeley we had heard some of these stories, but we did not believe it. We wanted to see for ourselves. We did. We drove for a very long time over roads that had pot holes you could bury a horse in. We had to change the rims on this new car's tires many times. When we finally reached my cousin's apartment she began to tell us all the sad stories- quietly, if anyone heard they could report you and the government just might make you disappear. The sadness wasn't that they were poor, though they WERE poor, my cousin who was a language professor at the college, and her husband who was an engineer, lived in a tiny apartment and had rationed food as everyone else did- about a pound of pork a month, no beef. The rich people, as in America today, were the government officials, although at least in America this is not exclusive yet. But why do government officials like Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama become millionaires while in public office? You got what the government said you could have. No, the sadness was not that you were poor, or even that my cousin's brother had died because the free health care was essentially no health care, the sadness was because the only thing free, as she told me, was the little flower she had growing on her windowsill. Try to imagine what it would be like not to matter. You are no one. The only thing that mattered there was the "good of all". The ALL POWERFUL government decided what that was. There would be this wonderful panacea somewhere in the future. She told me that when she bought clothes they asked her size and gave her the first item on the rack. You were treated rudely, remember, you didn't matter at all, no one had to please you. She so much wanted to learn and to travel but this was impossible. Even to travel in Soviet States took layers of bureaucracy. You could take very little money with you and you had to be strip searched. One day my cousin did disappear. The police picked her up and didn't even notify anyone. They picked her up because she had a friend that got engaged to an American. They thought it was her fault. Eventually they let her go. Would you like to live like that? Would you like that to be the future for your children and grandchildren? Once the government gets that much control you can not change it. You WILL live the way the government tells you.


Ho, ho, ho,- but that could never happen here!! YES IT COULD. The only thing that makes America special is that wonderful constitution that will protect our rights if we respect it. But tragically, our government is moving away from our constitution at a warp speed pace now, and our supreme court will not even protect us. The government can now make you buy anything they want, "it's a tax". Just think of that. Another way that we used to be free in America was in our schools and cities and counties and states. But do you think our cities, counties, schools and states are free now from federal control? Have you been to any of those meetings where nothing makes any sense and the people stand up in mass protest? What happens? Nothing happens, the school board or city commission or county commission, just do what they were going to do anyway. They do exactly what the Federal Government wants them to do. Do you think it was the city of Helena that thought up "Urban Foresters" or "Complete Streets"(bicycle paths) , or disability parking and new annoyingly red curbs everywhere, or a "non-discrimination ordinance", or history signs in front of houses? No indeed- this is all from the policy wonks in Washington. These all powerful people run your life whether you like it or
 not. How about the smoking ordinance- was that because the people of Helena wanted it? NO! What about our little city recreation programs that have now all been taken over by the Rocky Mountain Development Council, it's all Federal grants. All Federal now.

What about the schools, they're still free aren't they? NO INDEED!! They haven't been locally controlled for a long time. Even before the new National Curriculum called Common Core they were taken over by the Federal Government. Do you think the Helena School Board came up with the Comprehensive Health Plan that teaches little children about anal sex? Not any more than they came up with the Bully program, the Buddy program, the Dare program, the Artists in Residency program, the Community Garden program, Head Start, Youth Connections, Intermountain in the schools, how the disabled will be taught or Common Core, to name a few.

I just learned this fact, and it's a stunner- 66% of the funding for the Office of Public Instruction comes from - guess who?- yes, you're right- once again- THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! And who accredits our schools? The Office of Public Instruction! The Communists are wrong and they are dangerous- but they are clever. By controlling the office of public instruction they control education in the state! Who goes to the legislature with Federal Programs? The Office of Public Instruction. Who goes to the Montana State School Board for mandates to the schools? The Office of Public Instruction.The Federal government provides only 7% of the funding for our schools but controls them almost completely.

Behind the iron curtain you could not get good information- everything was propaganda- the government controlled the press. But the government doesn't control the press in America does it? Yes, it does a lot, especially in Helena. Did you know that the Helena School District is proposing to close FOUR schools in the city? Yes, that's the proposed long range plan and the Independent record never even reported it to the people!! Now, why is that? Do you suppose the superintendent and school board members asked them to soft soap the story to manipulate the public? Is this propaganda? Yes, it is. The Helena School District plans to build 2 schools in the valley- an enlarged Jim Darcy and a new middle school and they propose to close Hawthorne, Bryant, Central and Broadwater. They want the elementary students to be in huge schools of from 450-500 students. If you think this is a local plan you are wrong. Once again, everything from the plan to how they control the public, is being managed nationally. If you don't believe this you better wake up. Amy Yurko from Chicago doesn't get her ideas from Helena. Why do they want huge elementary schools and small middle schools ( 500 for elementary and only 700 for middle schools), my guess is that too many small schools have too much freedom. Big schools will enforce compliance with collaboration- this will be the new "academic freedom".

It's a long and winding road and those of us that are not complete idiots or self serving anti-patriots learn things along the way. Every path is different,but I am hoping that there are enough of you, my fellow Americans, to get in the fight and save what that flag of stars and stripes really stands for, OUR FREEDOM. If you think you're selling your freedom for some security- think again. What are you paying and what are you getting? What is the Federal Government doing for you that your local governments and schools couldn't do better on their own? I hope you'll think again, because there will come a time, if we continue down the road we're on, that your opinion will matter less than it does today, and then it will be too late. When the government gets the kind of power and control they had in Romania, you don't change that.