Handle With Care ![]()
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You receive a package at your door. It says in bold letters, “Handle with Care.” You wonder if the shippers did. You wonder if you will. With great anticipation, you carefully open the package. Mentally, you prepare to handle whatever is inside with tender loving care. ![]()
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Do you wish America gave the same attention to its children? Watch this downward progression according to today’s cultural drift:![]()
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-A baby (an American citizen, btw) can live if the mother decides he/she can.![]()
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-If the baby (an American citizen) lives, it cannot, in many cases, get the milk it needs unless foreign countries supply it.![]()
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-If the baby grows into childhood, he/she can no longer be assured of its identity as male or female, despite scientific evidence to the contrary.![]()
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-If the child learns to read, they can be robbed of innocence by exposure in school to adult concepts through books and discussions; concepts which history has always regarded as non-academic and x_rated.![]()
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-When the child becomes a teen, the opportunities for physical, academic, and emotional excellence are dampened, even snuffed out by American trends in sports, achievement, and family life. ![]()
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- If the teen goes to college, they are ill-prepared for work. University cost-savings have fewer full-time professors with a mastery of subjects teaching students and more part-time personnel. The list of subjects that teach traditional education and an entire body of knowledge has decreased.![]()
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I see that We the People do NOT “Handle with Care” the most precious commodity we have been given- our posterity. We are not bestowing the blessings of liberty to them nor teaching them in the way they should go. Nor are we appropriately equipping them for adulthood.![]()
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Some of you may be thinking, where is the Constitution in all of this? The Constitution limits and defines what the government can and cannot do. It is not a document that tells citizens what they can and cannot do. There are moral laws for that. The Constitution calls these moral statutes “the laws of nature and nature’s God.” The moral laws written on our hearts and learned at a young age (at home, in church, and community) are not restricted to the private domain. These moral laws are to be lived out publicly in American life. Our success as a free nation depends on it.![]()
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Postscript: This article was written before the horrific tragedy in Uvalde. For those who wish to join me, our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with the entire community of Uvalde as they mourn their unspeakable loss.![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship. 🇺🇸![]()
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Has your son, daughter, family member or friend ever discredited your faith by calling it a “crutch?”![]()
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We continue our look at the third in a series of Neo-Communist goals described in the book “The Naked Communist” by W. Cleon Skousen in 1958. If you’ve been with us on this page for a while, you know Skousen is one of my favorite authors for his tenacious love of country, civics, and communication. Let’s continue with goals #11 and #12 from Skousen’s list. (You can find the first two articles about Neo-Communist goals by going to civicsandcitizenship.org and looking under the subtitle “Articles.”![]()
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Goal #11. “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a “religious crutch.”![]()
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I’ve been told that very thing about a “religious crutch” by a loved one. My gut reaction is to say, “Don’t knock it ‘till you’ve tried it,” but that does little good. You and I cannot change people who truly believe in their own intellectual superiority. Our best defense is to listen with our hearts. What really is behind all of this? Listen carefully to them, but stop fighting them. One day these loved ones may be open to God. Meanwhile, take heart in the fact that you now know where this idea of faith being a “crutch” originated. You also can understand why young people cling to many social movements with religious fervor.![]()
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Goal #12 “Eliminate prayer or any phrase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”![]()
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Find where it says in either of our founding documents-The Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution- the words “separation of church and state.” In all the years I’ve taught, no student has ever found that phrase in our founding documents. They may have seen it in private correspondence from Thomas Jefferson in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, but that is the equivalent of finding a phrase in an email, not a ratified document or even a founding document. ![]()
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Furthermore, Jefferson’s original intent was to have NO national church like they had in England. Our First Amendment says it well: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” We have no national established religion.![]()
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Saying a prayer in school does not establish a religion. Neither does a moment of silence. No one is forced to pray. Some time ago, I was in Europe during a moment of silence for a deceased prominent person. That moment was, like, 5 minutes long, and everyone came to a halt right where they were. There was no movement, no protests, and no arguments. The world simply stopped in that country at that time for remembrance: no religion, no prescription, just silent meditation. No church was established. ![]()
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Goal #12 purports a separation of church and state where a Higher Power is only acknowledged in a church building, not in day-to-day life. Respect for others, moral values, and accountability for our one and only life is a daily practice and is foundational to a free society. ![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.🇺🇸![]()
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Please read the guidelines for posting: ![]()
Do not name political parties or personalities. It only leads to an emotionally charged argument that is not educational. We keep it civil and educational here. No additional pictures or links.
Have you ever thought that this or that could be a great idea if only it were given the opportunity? Later, your idea was tried, but it nearly brought disaster. You end up pondering, “How could this be? I thought it surely would yield the best outcome. What went wrong?“ ![]()
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That’s where I am at today as I listen to the continuous drumbeat of bad news. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not giving up hope. Our founding documents, combined with the true grit of Americans throughout our country’s short history, lead me to believe that our Constitutional Republic will survive.![]()
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I heard a commentator say that great empires and governments throughout history have a shelf life of about 250 years. The United States of America will be 250 years old in 2026- a short four years from now. That’s what got me thinking about the state of the nation.![]()
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You see, I thought it would be good if Americans were presented with two polar opposite choices. Surely the person who knew and loved the country, Constitution, and conservative values (meaning conserving the founding documents, patriotism, and loyalty to the nation that we were given) would come to the forefront. I was wrong.![]()
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Who could anticipate that Americans would sharply divide into factions, placing loyalty to those factions above the country? I didn’t foresee a lack of civics education that causes children to be ignorant of their country’s foundational principles. I thought our American heritage would invariably be passed on from generation to generation as it had been. Who would ever believe that our history would be re-vamped to cast deep shadows on our American legacy of faith, family, and freedom?![]()
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It’s good to have a variety of ideas put forward by prospective leaders. However, I never thought Americans would support future leaders who wanted a whole new country based on failed ideologies of the past. I was wrong. But, if I like our American heritage so much, now is the time to be patriotic, not surrender. Now is the moment to stand up and be counted, not sit down and commiserate. ![]()
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Remember: freedom is in our DNA. We have that much in common. It’s time to get the energy of the country flowing toward liberty. ![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.🇺🇸![]()
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Important: We have many new readers joining us. Thank you for being here! There are guidelines for posting. Please refrain from naming political parties or personalities. It only leads to an emotionally charged argument and is not educational. We keep it civil and educational here. No additional pictures or links, please.🇺🇸
How interesting that a headline proclaims Florida's students will now learn about commun-ism one day per school year. It seems like we hear daily about curriculum changes for our young students, but this particular change is creating quite a stir. ![]()
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Every year, I have my students take a class period to explore what I call "The Dirty Dictators of the Twentieth Century." The fearful personalities that rang so familiar to me in my younger years are absent in Generation Z and barely present in the minds of Millennials. They have no idea how to pronounce the names of world leaders that were a part of the evening news and dinner table conversation for decades.![]()
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Enter Florida. This state has decided to educate students about the victims of commun-ism: how many were killed, starved, enslaved, and economically deprived. The argument against teaching students this information is that it is thought to be "political posturing." I think Florida has decided to dedicate every November 7 to this task because, in the 1905 words of George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." That certainly is the reason why I open a conversation in my classroom about this failed ideology and its leaders. ![]()
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Lessons in the Constitution mean little unless students learn the value of self-government and compare it to crumbling societies under commun-ist dictatorships. Our American education system has ignored basic American civics and glamorized other failed forms of government. The amazing thing is that supporters of commun-ism strongly believe that it will be correct once the right people are in charge. ![]()
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Something is seriously wrong in "Glocca Morra." To clean it up, Florida intends to spend one day shining a light on the issue. ![]()
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This is Common Sense Civics and Citizenship.🇺🇸![]()
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Important: Please refrain from naming political parties or personalities. It only leads to an emotionally charged argument and is not educational. No additional pictures or links, please.
