TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
Preface - America’s Treasures
1 - To the Reader
2 - What Others Would Have Us See
3 - Our Eroding Democracy
4 - It’s Really We the People
5 - The Colonists’ Independence
6 - The Preamble
7 - The Constitutional Powers of the Federal Government
8 - The Congress
9 - The President
10 - The Supreme Court
11 - Our Constitutional Protections
12 - Why We Need the Constitution / Bill of Rights
13 - The Power of the Bill of Rights
14 - The Freedom of Speech
15 - Must We Judge Each Other?
16 - The Metamorphosis of Mankind to Peoplekind
17 - The Fourteenth Amendment
18 - Federal Encroachment on States’ Rights
19 - Our Common Law Legal System
20 - The Dual Aspects of Jury Nullification
21 - Fear Crimes
22 - Religion’s Past Repeats
23 - The Freedom of Religion
24 - Education for a Generation
25 - The Failure of American Education
26 - Our Intra-National Wars
27 - The Lens of Welfare
28 - Economics: More than Just Numbers
29 - Economic Manipulation
30 - Foreign Aid Affairs
31 - Freedom of the Press
32 - The Special Interest Lens
33 - How Do You Now See
Appendix
Mayflower Compact
Declaration of Independence
Constitution and Amendments
EXCERPTS
from
WE ARE OUR CHILDREN’S FUTURE
Chapter 7: The Constitutional Powers of the Federal Government
Current government fiscal and social policy steps far beyond the Constitutional rule of law, costing us more than we bargained for. It costs us our freedom of choice, our common law, and ultimately our Democracy. Our nationally elected officials are micro-managing our enterprise and our society with political correctness, taxation, regulation, subsidies and a plethora of social regulations, all which classify us according to the current politically correct whim.
Chapter 10: The Supreme Court
Supreme Court rulings become the law of our whole land, affecting all people, yet no jury is present at its hearings. America’s founders saw no need for a jury, because peer juries represent
people at hearings involving common law, and the Supreme Court hears only statutory (Constitutional) cases. When social issues, such as harassment, abortion, familial relationships, religion, and
education, are heard before this Court, people's authority is nullified. When no jury is present, we are not being heard. Our ability to make that choice is invalidated, challenging our sovereignty.
Chapter 13: The Power of the Bill of Rights
Common law is synonymous with civil rights and civil liberties, and our control of it is the heart of Democracy. How did we get to this point? In part, the statutory law of the Bill of Rights filtered down to us on eddies of federal government funds.
The reasoning? If it is federal money, it must be held accountable to federal legal constraints; those very same laws that freed us from governmental power now bind us to it. Statutory strings hold hostage our common laws for federal funds. Lawyers and politicians are omnipresent, because the task of debasing our self-responsibility and the revocation of our common law is daunting – [they are] alchemists who turn responsibility and self-respect into excuses.
Chapter 18: Federal Encroachment on States' Rights
State constitutions were predicated on the Constitution/Bill of Rights. They reflect the powers states are supposed to have, authority the federal government is not to have.
For example, the Commonwealth of Virginia has a Constitution and a Bill of Rights. Virginia's Constitution was conceived on the premise that particular powers were left to it by the
Constitution/Bill of Rights. The government in Virginia also consists of three branches and concerns itself with real property rights, infrastructure, taxation, local government powers, corporate
licensure, conservation, the state militia, crime and punishment, divorce, the courts, and education.
It seems to have been forgotten that all of the 50 states have their own constitutions. The term “state” has come to refer to one entity only, the federal government.
Chapter 24: Education for a Generation
In the ideal classroom a teacher balances what must be learned with how it can be learned, a shared experience sometimes directed by unexpected tangents of student fascination.
But teachers are no longer permitted the pleasure of losing control of the context of subject matter, they must walk the narrow confines of standardized tests. As a result, classrooms are less
energized and effective, and the better teachers are quitting. Adhering to the discipline of standardized tests is so time-consuming that recess has been eliminated in many school systems,
strapping the overflowing minds and bodies of young energy to a desk.
The sheer wonder of education is the stirring of curiosity in a classroom, the force that enlightens as it entertains. Standardized tests should be only a companion to learning, not the driving
force. Test makers, a committee sitting in an arid room, are smothering the excitement of expanding awareness. A small group of people with horizons limited by their own experience is directing the
scope of education to which our children are forced to adhere.
Chapter 25: The Failure of American Education
After 25 years and 125 billion federal dollars, America ranked near the bottom when literacy levels were tested and compared with 21 developed nations. Federal control of education is more
corrosive than we imagine. Schools have become more apt to teach a new socially acceptable fact than actual fact. Real information is the only basis one has for assessment of situations.
Chapter 27: The Lens of Welfare
.... the human spirit flows from nurturing, love, and accomplishment. Nearly a half-century ago the course of our human spirit was diverted by the welfare state. Our great society, our Democracy,
was diverted by political social engineers, and now a poverty of values has overtaken us.
Chapter 29: Economic Manipulation
The merger of business and government is just as risky to our people as [mixing] government and religion. Millions and millions of dollars are harvested from the business community by Washington insiders, both parties reaping the benefits, so consuming political thought that alternatives to corporate demands become moot and lost to political consciousness. Money can all too easily erode integrity.