THIS GREAT COUNTRY

Do you ever get tired of seeing your country bashed by our friends on the left? I sure do. The most recent extravaganza into America bashing is the teacher "training" conference where teachers are told that "America is a racist nation FROM ITS INCEPTION!" My, my,- I guess no other culture or country has practiced slavery FROM ITS INCEPTION. But then again, maybe almost all countries and cultures have practiced slavery at one time.

Then again, what nation has practiced freedom and risen to the heights of affluence and success that America has? Oh, that's right- America did that by "taking advantage" of others. Yeah, taking advantage by giving them jobs where they had none before. Kind of like Cuba- supposedly all the Americans that used to vacation their were "taking advantage" of all those waiters, waitresses, hotel maids and trinket sellers. Now the left trumpets tourism as a "clean industry". Go figure- the arguments change daily to meet whatever agenda they are selling at the time.

In Helena, and I presume across the nation, the schools are running into their own arguments at warp speed now. Every year they celebrate "Walk to School Day" for the benefit of some nonprofit in Washington- these people have jobs just to promote "Walk to School Day". Now the new push is for 500 students in a school which will put most of the kids in Helena on the bus. Oh well, " We didn't really mean it- now we want the kids to be bussed."Hmmm. Then there's the home visits. You see we need home visits so that students and their parents can feel"comfortable" at their school. Whoops- we're closing your school, putting your child on a bus, and sending him/her across town away from their family and neighborhood to participate in a 500 student institution. Well, that's comfortable for the student right? You see, it doesn't matter if what we say makes sense. Just do it. We are always right.

In THIS GREAT COUNTRY we used to believe in FREEDOM. We used to believe in the INDIVIDUAL. We used to believe that children belonged to THEIR FAMILY. We used to believe that people could decide for THEMSELVES what was best for them. We used to believe in FREE SPEECH. We used to believe in the FREE MARKET SYSTEM where competition brought the good of all- not "angels" in government as Thomas Jefferson would say. Thomas Jefferson had this to say about self governance ,"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?"There are many on the left who will not believe in individuals and families. Do they think they or their government are these "angels"? By the way, families actually can and do feed their children!! Could it be that these large 500 student schools that are supposedly "Centers of Community" are actually taking our students away from their homes, making their community the Government? Is "community" really just a code word to mean consensus for government agendas?

Is everything perfect in the world of freedom? No, not at all. There will always be poor people and rich people, responsible people and some who are not as responsible. But the argument is that PEOPLE CAN GOVERN THEMSELVES AND TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN FAMILIES. FREEDOM AND FREE MARKETS ARE THE BEST WAY TO ACHIEVE THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. FREE MARKETS HAVE PROVEN THEMSELVES A SUCCESS. LARGE GOVERNMENTS HAVE PROVEN THAT THEY BECOME CORRUPT AND BANKRUPT AND ULTIMATELY FAIL.

Today we see our government failing everywhere, from Obama Care to the Veterans Administration,from the IRS scandal to the national debt. We can not continue on this way. Federal programs have not improved our schools, our society, our economy, our poverty rates or our families.The idea of the rugged individual taught perseverance, hard work, and personal responsibility. These things are often scoffed at by the people on the left, but the truth is, we were doing better under these principals.

In many ways, believe it or not, the left and the right are not that far apart. We care for our future and that of our children. Like government unions, the ideas of Marxism have become corrupt and destructive. It's time for our friends on the left to take a long hard look at what they have done and admit their failures. It's time for our friends on the left to quit listening to hype and realize what a great nation we have and how much we stand to lose.

Let's go back to local control of our schools and paying wages that we can afford, not wages that unions demand and pay for with corrupt donations to the democrats that get them that largesse (remember unions get a percentage of every salary increase). Our children are losing their schools because the unions have been paid off. Our veterans are not getting care because THREE HUNDRED employees, paid by the taxpayer, are doing nothing but union work. Let's go back to freedom and local control. Let's go back to truth instead of obfuscation and lies that change arguments like clock work. Let's go back to the belief in OURSELVES instead of the government in this GREAT COUNTRY OF OURS. Oh, and yes, let's go back to believing in our national heroes like GEORGE WASHINGTON, who taught us about freedom. He really is more important to our nation than Elvis Presley or Tecumseh (American Heroes books being taught to our children). These people have their place, but they are not the heroes that built this nation, and our children need to start learning that.