Black Lives Matter Agenda in the Classroom?

Omaha Public Schools in Nebraska held a curriculum day for teachers.  One of the classes offered promoted injecting Black Lives Matter agenda into the lesson plans.

Seeking the American Dream: An Interview with Thomas Peterffy

As we prepare to celebrate America's Independence I wanted to take a moment and highlight just what it is that makes America so great and why it is worth celebrating.  There is no better place to start than with the stories of those whose greatest dream was to come America and sacrificed everything to make that dream a reality.  They were seeking the American Dream.

The term "American Dream" was first used in 1931 by James Truslow Adams, in his book "The Epic of America."  He defined the America Dream as "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." (p.214-215)

That was the dream so many people from around the world came to America for and why so many still seek to.  Thomas Peterffy is just one the many who made their dream a reality.

Thomas Peterffy grew up in socialist Hungary and grew up dreaming of coming to America and make a better life for himself.  In 1965, through many challenges and sacrifices, he finally attached his dream.  Five years later, at the age of 26, Thomas Peterffy raised his hand and became a full citizen of the United States.  He said he felt an enormous sense of pride, a strong sense of belonging, and the start of a new life.

When Thomas arrived in the United States he spoke no English and had no job.  But he learned the language, worked hard, put himself through school and used his talents, skills and knowledge to seek achieve his dream. He began his career as an architect working on highway projects for an engineering firm.  In the 1970's he bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange.  Soon after joining the exchange, he began integrating his knowledge of computers with trading and completely changed the market, playing a key role in developing the electronic trading of securities.  In 1993 Thomas started his own company, Interactive Brokers, growing it to become the largest U.S. electronic brokerage firm in daily average revenue trades, employing thousands.  He has been called the "father of digital trading" and his hard work and dedication has made him one of the wealthiest people in America--a long way from a little boy with dream in socialist Hungary.

And that is why people come to America.  That is what is so great about her.  It is the dream of being who you want to be and the freedom to pursue it, the freedom to succeed, the freedom to fail, and the freedom to keep the fruits of your labors--the dream of a better life for you and your family.

In 2012, out of concern for the direction our nation is heading, Thomas Peterffy released a video sharing his story.  I was incredibly inspired by his video and especially his courage to share it and even spend his own money to get it in the media so Americans all over the country could see it.

Inspired by his story, I reached out to Mr. Peterffy and had the opportunity to interview him.  The full interview is below.  This first part was an introductory message Thomas included.  The definitions and explanation were so well articulated I decided to include those comments as well.  My questions are in bold.  Mr. Peteffy's responses are in blue.

Interview with Mr. Thomas Peterffy-- June 2016

Before I get into these questions I need to explain to your readers what Socialism is.

Capitalism is well understood as a free market economy where people are free to acquire, own, transact and accumulate property including land and operate businesses.

In Communism only the Government owns property and runs businesses. For individuals it is strictly forbidden to own any property other than personal property the nature of which is very limited and clearly defined.

Socialism is any state between the two. It was originally defined as the way to transfer society from

Capitalism to Communism in a controlled and gradual fashion.

Initially Socialism is soft, aside of some regulations and some limits on businesses people are mostly free. Then it slowly hardens, there are more and more regulations, tighter limits on the size of businesses, higher taxes, large firms and farms are nationalized.

As it hardens further, the sizes of houses and apartments any family may occupy is strictly limited in square feet, income tax rises to close to 100% above certain income levels, no private business may have more than x employees, all larger businesses and lands are owned by the government. This progression can be observed over the past 15 years in Venezuela.

Relatively small differences in living standards suddenly loom very large. Can you afford a car?

Buy new shoes? Can you afford to eat meat twice a week or only once a month?

Society separates into two classes, the enforcers and their spies and the people. The enforcers who work for the government, police or state defense forces get the cars, shoes and the meat.

What was it that led to your decision to come to America and why were you so committed and passionate about that decision? 

I grew up in hard Socialist Hungary.

People lacked incentive to do productive or creative work because it was illegal to reap a reward.

Society vegetated on a substandard level, travel to the West was illegal, and people were prisoners of the State. I would read whatever I could about the West and America. The insanity of our self-imposed suffering for so called social justice did not make any sense to me.

What did you feel America could offer you?  Do you feel America still offers those same things today for others coming to the United States and/or those born in the United States?

The freedom to create a better life, to get a job and excel by thinking smart and working hard, to learn a trade, to learn how to run a business and to become part of it or to start my own.

Yes, it is still possible for a new immigrant to become successful in America but it is harder and takes longer. With the possible exception of the software business there are many more regulations a new entrepreneur must comply with and potential success is less rewarding because it is socially frowned upon by many onlookers.

When did you become an American citizen and how did you feel when you received citizenship?

Five years after I came I became a citizen and felt an enormous sense of pride, a strong sense of belonging, the start of a new life at 26.

What are your concerns for the direction America is heading today? 

I refer you back to my discussion on Socialism.

67% of Americans under 40 think positively about Socialism. Academia, Hollywood, the media and many politicians teach and reinforce that belief.

With many new laws and regulations we have started on the road of Socialist transformation and the path of least resistance is to continue.

It is difficult to get young people to think about this rationally.

They do not seem to realize that in a free economy people can spend their money on whatever they choose and the people who satisfy their needs end up with the money.  As long as everybody strives to create goods and services we are a rich and happy nation.

Introduce regulation and free stuff and people will stop striving, less and less will be produced to distribute. Welcome to hardening Socialism.

What influence did your mother and father have on your life?

In school I was taught all about equality and social justice and at home they pointed out the inevitable disastrous consequences. This daily experience after many years formed a strong conviction in me and I hope to be able to convince others to fight to avoid it.

What do you feel is the American Dream and do you feel it can still be attained today?

Young people dream about the kind of life they would like to lead but their potential to achieve that is usually limited in most countries by laws and regulations or social or religious barriers.

These barriers, still today, exist only to a much lesser extent in America. There is comparatively a great deal of individual and economic freedom to achieve those dreams by those who are really determined.

As an immigrant from a socialist country, what counsel or advice would you give Americans today?

Elect politicians who will appoint federal judges who’ll uphold the Constitution and defend individual and economic freedom.

What do you think makes the United States unique from other countries around the world?

The Constitution of the United States with the Amendments and the Bill of Rights.

What is your greatest concern for the future of our country?

Meddling with the above.

What do you think is the most important thing Americans should know and understand today?

That while technology and scientific knowledge advance all the time, human nature has evolved over tens of thousands of years and for all practical purposes remains stable over many life times.

Let’s look back into the past and repeat what has worked and keep away from what hasn’t.

A President Can't Save Us, But Mothers Can

This is an interesting day for America. Citizens across the country are coming to grips with the outcome of the Republican primary. For some it is a day of rejoicing in the belief that the silent majority finally won. For others it is a day of mourning in the belief that our country has been dealt a fatal blow. I completely appreciate, empathize and even identify with both feelings. Today, however, I want to share a nugget of truth and message of hope with all Americans regardless of how you may feel today. The truth: A president can’t save us (no matter who he or she is). The hope: Mothers can!

We spend so much time looking to the federal government to solve our problems that we have completely overlooked where our real power lies – with us. America wasn’t founded by a government. It was founded by families – like yours and mine – uniting together in communities, who then formed a government, organized into states and united those states into a union. But it all started with families. Families founded America and it is families that will save her.

If we want to know what America will look like in twenty years, look at the homes of America today. Are you concerned? You should be.

I have a friend who teaches at Schofield Army Barracks in Hawaii. The school, like many around the country, no longer requires the students to pledge the flag. But my friend, being the patriotic soul she is, had her fifth grade class come in every morning and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. She said the students grumbled wanting to know why they had to pledge the flag when none of the other kids had to. All I could think when she told me this was that the parents of those children put their lives on the line every day for that flag and everything it stands for. If those children don’t have love and appreciation for the flag what hope do we have in America? It is only a matter of time before we lose freedom altogether.

Liberty begins at home and if we don’t start there, nothing else we do will matter. No election, no law, no president can save us.

Mothers, we have to teach our children to love libertybecause no one else will. The proof is in the fact that thousands of millennials are enthusiastically supporting a self-proclaimed socialist for president – the recognized leader of the free world. How is this possible? It is because our schools are not teaching liberty. Society, schools, the media, even churches that once taught these things are no longer doing so and in many cases, teaching the exact opposite. The result is that we now have a nation of children and young parents who wonder why America is so special and what there is to love it.

Home is the center of society and at the center of the home is a mother. That mother is more powerful than any president for she is literally shaping the future. Winston Churchill said, “There is no doubt that it is around the family and the home that all the greatest virtues, the most dominating virtues of human society, are created, strengthened and maintained.”

If our schools aren’t teaching our children about America’s history and heritage, then we need to be doing it. If the media is not going to present truth and facts, then we need to. If liberty is to prevail, if America is to prosper, then we need to foster a love of liberty in our home.

In his book, The Silent Majority Survival Handbook, Peter Wolf says parents must become the first line of defense. “Parents,” he said, “need to devote time and effort to teach their children that America is a good country and to teach them about American heroes and history. They can front-load liberty loving values through strong association and participation in the 4th of July and Memorial Day activities. Parents need to teach their children how liberty and personal responsibility are linked and how tyranny can evolve without them.”

What the future will look like for our children and grandchildren is all being decided right now in homes and families across the country. If freedom is what we want to see, then we need to nurture and foster the principles and ideals of freedom in our homes. HomeMakers for America has many resources to support you from our Patriot’s Reading List to the Hearthstone Education Plan. Libraries of Hope has a beautiful collection of stories to promote a love of liberty in the hearts of our children. In the Constitution has outstanding resources that teach children the Constitution in a very engaging way – even hosting aConstitution Bee with cash prizes.

If you want short term results that wax and wane in four year cycles then put all your hope in the presidential election. But if you want real solutions with lasting results, then we need to look to the homes of America because that is where the real for America lies.

Mothers, we are determining the future right now in our homes today. No president can do that. And no president can save America. But we can!

A Bible Reading People Cannot Be Enslaved

A training meeting for law enforcement officers held in La Junta, Colorado last year included a presentation on how to identify potential terrorists. Undersheriff Ron Trowbridge, present at the meeting, reported that one of the groups listed included “Christians who take the Bible literally” or “too seriously.”

That seems rather odd to me.

I mean after all, the Bible, as Thomas Jefferson stated, “will make better citizens, better fathers, and better husbands.” How then, can a person who reads and believes in the Bible be considered a threat? I’m sure that is a question the Puritans would have loved to ask the King of England.

So just what is it about the Bible that those who seek to destroy liberty and enslave people fear so much?

I would propose that what they fear is the discovery of freedom.

For over 5,000 years, people lived in grass houses, plowed fields with their bare hands, and lived every day just to survive. In a little over 200 years, we have gone from grass houses to Victorian mansions, from wagons to motor cars and from the Pony Express to Federal Express – and it all began with the simple knowledge that men are free.

Our Founding Fathers didn’t just come up with an idea and thought they’d try it out. They studied centuries of history repeating itself. They witnessed tyranny and oppression firsthand. They knew that power corrupts and that ultimate power corrupts ultimately. They knew there must be a better way.

They found that better way at the foot of their mother’s knee as she read to them the stories of the Bible.

Each night, families would gather together and read the stories that gave them hope, direction, guidance and understanding. They read about the unwavering obedience of Abraham, the courage of Stephen, and the devotion of Ruth. They read the stories of Daniel, who risked his own life for what he knew to be right and true; David, who stood against Goliath; and Esther, who sacrificed her own well-being to save her people.

Then, when they read those powerful words of Paul as he stood before King Agrippa and declared, “I was born free,” they came to understand for the first time in centuries, that their rights came from God and not from man.

With tear-filled eyes, our Founding Families read of the Israelites who knew they were free but begged for a king. They traded their freedom for a monarchy, because freedom was too much work. How it must have made our Founders ache to read those words. To them – living witnesses to the evil and oppression of a monarchy – it was the same as trading a divine birthright for a bowl of soup.

The Bible was the foundation that cultivated the soil of liberty, and America was the venue God chose to house it. Our Founding Families knew what freedom was long before it was openly declared in theDeclaration of Independence. Because of that simple, consistent act of reading the Bible together as families, the knowledge that man’s rights came from God and not from government was infused into their very souls.

When they saw that knowledge manifested in the United States Constitution, they embraced it as the banner of freedom that would secure their liberties, not only for themselves, but for their posterity and generations to come.

Our Founding Families learned all the key ingredients to a free society in those well-worn pages of their family Bible – self-mastery, self-reliance, self-sacrifice, and self-governance. With this knowledge, they found the better way; and they thoroughly believed that with these key ingredients, and the divine intervention of a loving God, man could in fact govern himself. They believed it with all their hearts and formed our entire government on that belief.

For over 150 years, families read together, ate together, worked together, and served together. In 1776, we saw the fruits of their labors as 56 men, raised with an understanding of these principles, pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for the greatest contribution of freedom ever made on this earth.

Our Founding Fathers learned what freedom was from the Bible. When they signed the Declaration of Independence they knew they were going against Goliath. When they pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor they – like Daniel and Esther – sacrificed their own lives and well-being for what they knew to be right and true.

When they penned the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” they did so with the words of Paul echoing in their ears and they knew they were “born free!”

For over a century, Americans learned what freedom meant. For the next two centuries they lived it. Now, in this century, we are in danger of losing it. There are troubling times ahead for our nation.

Now, more than ever, we need those timeless stories of faith, courage, and freedom from the Bible in our lives. They are the stories that touched the hearts of our Founding Families; they are the stories that laid the foundation of freedom; and they are the stories that will revive the spirit of liberty in the hearts of this generation; leaving their imprint on generations to come.

“Perhaps,” as KrisAnne Hall has suggested, “our job is not necessarily to win this fight but to prepare the ground; to make the soil fertile and sow the seeds so that Liberty may thrive when the battle is done.”

When we lay that foundation as our Founders did – firmly rooted in the Bible – then the foundation will be sure; and it will be evidenced in the hearts and actions of our children.

When our sons and daughters raise their hands to defend the Constitution of the United States, to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for the cause of freedom, then we will know liberty is secure, because we will know our children know what it means. They will know because they will remember the stories we read to them; because they will remember the love of liberty we shared with them. They will know, because they will remember that story they once heard us tell about a man named Paul, and they will know they were born free!

Horace Greeley declared, “It is impossible to mentally or socially enslave a Bible reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.”

Knowing this, it is no wonder the destroyers of liberty fear it so much.

Is There Hope for America

It seems every day brings more and more dismal news. The riots across the nation, violence in schools, and the senseless shootings in Charleston, all seemed to crescendo with the tragic decisions of the Supreme Court last week. It makes a person hesitant to even get out of bed in the morning. The final nail in the coffin for me was the rainbow White House. Taking the very symbol of the promise God gave his children and using it to announce to the world—and proclaim to God Himself, “We reject you!” was just too much for my heart to take. It is a tragic representation of the times in which we find ourselves.

How do we dispel such darkness? How do we combat such blatant disregard for all that is good? Many of us have begun to ask ourselves, “Is there any hope for America?”

With all my heart I believe the answer is YES! But I also know that hope doesn’t lie in Washington. It lies with us!

I know it is a hard truth to swallow but the fact is, the Supreme Court’s rulings on marriage and Obamacare are a direct result of the 2012 presidential election. Thousands of Christians sat on their hands and refused to vote. Millions just didn’t vote. Regardless of how you felt about Mitt Romney or his religion I guarantee you, you would not have seen a rainbow White House if he were president. Our choices have consequences.

This isn’t about parties, politics, race or religion. This is about right and wrong and standing up for truth. There are many players in this war but there are only two armies–God (light) and Satan (dark). The time has come to realize this and decide which side we’re on. We can no longer hide our heads in the sand, we can no longer sit on the fence, and we can no longer afford to fight amongst ourselves.

The Supreme Court ruling doesn’t change or alter God’s law that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and that it is ordained by God. This is the truth that unites us. It is the truth we need to stand for and it is the truth we must teach and nurture in our homes and proclaim in our churches.

This is our opportunity for people of faith to come together regardless of party, race or religion, and stand united for our children and our families. The enemy is at the gate. This is not the time to be divided. It is not the time to retreat. We must continue to fight the good fight. We must continue to stand for truth and spread goodness.

We don’t, however, need to exhaust ourselves fighting the wicked. God has told us He will take care of that. He will fight our battles if we are on His side. When King Hezekiah faced insurmountable odds against the Assyrian army God proclaimed, “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed… for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles.” (KJV 2 Chronicles 32:7)

We don’t need to fight harder. We need to fight smarter!

As my friend Marlene Peterson of Libraries of Hope so eloquently stated, “There’s only one way I know to dispel the darkness—turn on the light!”

We can’t sit in darkness and convince the darkness not to be dark. But we can eliminate the darkness by flooding it with light! That light must come from our homes, from our churches, and from our own hearts. Abraham Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” So let’s create the future we want to see.

Home has become more vital than ever in teaching and nurturing the values and virtues that we hold dear.

Our children will be under siege—even more than before. This is a government ruling and government schools will be subject to it. The Supreme Court opened the floodgates for the same sex agenda in our children’s schools. The U.S. Department of Education made clear their intentions when they celebrated the court’s decision by adding a rainbow to their logo. There are definitely dark days ahead. This is trench warfare and if we don’t protect our trenches, we may lose our children. It is imperative that we teach our children the principles, values and virtues our nation was founded on. In these dark days we can absolutelynot afford to abdicate this responsibility to anyone else.

We would never dream of sending our children out in the dead of winter and depend on someone else to provide them with a coat and gloves. Why would we send them out in the cold world and expect someone else to teach them right and wrong?

I cannot express strongly enough the vital role that home and family plays in our nation. As C.E. Sargent proclaimed, “A nation is but a magnified home.” (C.E. Sargent, Our Home, 1888) If we want to know what the future will look like 20 years from now, look in the homes today. Deserting our home or neglecting our family is fatal to our nation!

Author Neal Maxwell cautioned that if we desert our child “in order to help defend civilization against the barbarians, we may well later meet, among the barbarians, [our] own neglected child. (Neal A. Maxwell, Wherefore Ye Must Press Forward, Deseret Book, 1977)

America is the last bastion of hope for the world. If the light of liberty and virtue is vanquished here, the entire earth will be filled with darkness. It doesn’t matter which way the world goes, it only matters which way we go.

We need to strengthen our homes, our families, and our churches. When we do, our light will shine like a floodlight dispelling darkness from the inside out.

There will be darker days ahead, but we need not fear. There is hope for America. It is you! God will fight our battles. The outcome is already there. We just need to decide which side we’re on. We need to turn up the light–in our own hearts and in our homes. We need to stand together, stand for truth, and spread goodness. That is how we will win this war. When the days seem dark and the odds insurmountable, remember we are not alone. There are more with us then there are with them.

How to Talk to Your Children about Abortion

“Mommy, what’s abortion?”

That was the question my 11-year-old son asked me yesterday — just a few weeks after asking another tough question, “What does transgender mean?”

I will admit in both cases my knee-jerk, momma bear, reaction was to tell my son as little as possible and shield him from things he shouldn’t have to deal with or even know about at this young age. But the fact that he was asking the question clearly indicated the protective shield had already been penetrated, and I was just grateful he felt comfortable enough to come to me with his question.

With all the stories flooding the news attempting to normalize debauchery and the myriad court decisionsradically changing our culture, questions like these will become much more common.

As tragic as that is, at least our children are asking the questions. It is when the questions stop that we need to be truly alarmed.

As I sat with my son contemplating how to answer his question and how much to tell him, I determined the best answer was the truth. So, in the best way possible, I explained the process of killing a baby in a mother’s womb — sometimes by crushing their little head.

A lump formed in my throat as I tried to explain — in the best way possible — that sometimes the babies live outside the womb and are left to die or the doctor kills them. I then went on to explain the news stories of Planned Parenthood and how the babies’ body parts and little limbs are collected and sold for research. Shock filled my son’s face, tears spontaneously erupting as he clung to me for comfort, trying to understand how such a horrible thing could be possible. Then came more questions.

“Why don’t the police arrest them?” he asked through pleading eyes.

“It’s not illegal,” I answered.

“Why?” he asked confused.

“Because the people in the government say it is a woman’s right. They say mommies can kill their babies because the baby is inside their body.”

“You mean moms can kill their own babies?”

“Well,” I hesitated, “the mommies don’t kill their babies. They pay someone else to do it.”

“What?” he asked horror-struck. “Why would they do that? Why would they want to kill their own babies?”

“Because they don’t want their baby.”

“Why don’t they give the baby to someone else?”

“I don’t know. I guess it’s easier for them not to think of their baby as a baby. Instead, they just think of their baby as unwanted tissue — kind of like a mole you don’t want so you have it removed. Some mommies can’t afford to pay to kill their babies so the government pays for it using the tax money that Daddy and I pay.”

“You pay to kill babies?”

“Not by choice son. It is the law to pay taxes. If Daddy and I don’t pay them the government can take our house away and they can put us in jail.”

“What are taxes?”

“It is the money we pay to the government to build roads and buildings to help our town. Tax money pays for the military, for police and fireman and important things like that.”

“And killing babies?”

“Unfortunately, yes. Our taxes didn’t use to pay for killing babies but they do now.”

“Why don’t you tell the government you don’t want your taxes to pay for killing babies?”

“We have. They said we have to because some mommy’s can’t afford to kill their babies and we should help them.”

At this, my son was absolutely stupefied. “Does the president know about this?”

“Yes,” I said. “He supports it. So do many government leaders and a lot of people in our country too.”

My little boy looked at with me with his questioning eyes. “Who can stop this?” he asked despairingly.

“You can, son,” I said. “You and all the children like you who are growing up knowing its wrong in a world that keeps trying to convince you its right. Never give up on what you know to be true.”

With one last embrace and a wipe of tears, my son went back outside to focus on childhood things like backyard friends and swimming holes and another difficult conversation ended.

Our children are living in a very different world than the one you and I grew up in. Childhood innocence is no longer commonplace. It is a luxury. But this is the world in which we live and we can’t just hide our heads in the sand and hope it goes away. The only way things will change is if we change them!

Our children are the hope of the future. They will have questions. If we don’t answer their questions someone else will and we may not like the answer.

How do we teach our children about these things? We need to provide a firm foundation our children can build from and rely on. We need to help them understand the difference between good and bad, right and wrong, light and darkness. We need to teach them truth, stand for truth and help them navigate in a world gone mad. Most of all, we need teach our children that just because this is the way things are doesn’t mean it always was and it isn’t the way it has to be.

As Ghandi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

If more mothers had conversations with their children like I had with my son, just imagine how different the world would look in 20 years.

Why We Need Statesmen, Not Politicians

“I don’t get involved in politics.”

I hear that a lot from women around the country, especially women of faith. And what mother would want to engage in politics? We spend our whole day teaching our children not to do all the things politics promotes—arguing, name calling, back-biting, lying and so on.

Words have meaning and for a lot of women in America, politics has become a repugnant word that denotes unacceptable behavior. But we are confusing our civic responsibility with politics and they are not the same thing.

Defending liberty and virtue, respecting and honoring the Constitution—these things are not politics. They are our civic duty. Politics is simply a word people hide behind when they don’t have any principles or lack the courage to stand up for what’s right. We can’t talk about life because “it is political.” We can’t talk about God because “it is political.” We can’t talk about right and wrong and the 10 Commandments because, you guessed it, “it’s political.”

Just look at all the things that have been politicized today—life, religion, babies, healthcare, income, work,freedom—even America itself has become a political issue. It’s absurd.

We need to rise above the scum line of politics and realize being proud to be an American and willing to defend freedom is not political—it is our civic duty.

So how do we know the difference? The many years I spent dealing with politics and politicians led me to create some definitions to help us differentiate between the two.

Politics, as we see it today, is a product of pride, worldliness, and a lust for power. That is why so many of us cringe when we hear the word “politician” and look down our noses on the profession as beneath us.

Civic responsibility, on the other hand, is that duty which every American has as a citizen of this country, to respect the law, preserve the U.S. Constitution, be involved in our communities, safeguard the Republic, watch over our government, and seek out and elect good leaders to represent us.

Politics is the result of what happens when not enough of us fulfill that duty.

That leads me to the perpetrators of politics—the politicians!

A Politician is a person who lusts for power, is obsessed with self-importance, and motivated by greed. Politicians have been groomed in politics. They learn the artful craftiness of deceit; the clever tactics of scheming to get gain and win votes and the cunning methods of distraction, distortion, denial and blame shifting. Politicians will say and do whatever it takes to keep and add to their power. They are motivated by self-preservation and personal gain, and put their own interests above the people they serve.

Politicians will vote for anything they feel benefits them regardless of how their constituents feel or whether or not it is in the best interest of the country. Politicians are self-serving individuals who hold little regard for God or country and feel no loyalty or affection for the people they serve.

A Statesman, however, is a person of integrity and high moral character, who possesses a strong desire to serve others, recognizes his/her imperfections and strives to overcome them to be the best person he/she can be. Statesmen have been trained in humanity. They learn the moral code of right and wrong, the positive attributes of honesty, humility, patriotism, accepting responsibility, and the selfless standards of love thy neighbor, the golden rule, and country before self.

Statesmen are people of faith who believe in a supreme being and a future state of rewards and punishments. They research issues carefully and do their best to vote in the best interest of the Republic and the people they represent—even if it means losing votes. Statesmen cherish freedom and liberty, have a deep affection and concern for those they serve and feel a profound sense of duty and loyalty to their country. They live their faith, reverence God, and respect the faith of others. In short, they had good mamas!

Perhaps you feel I am oversimplifying in my definitions. Maybe you think I’m too harsh on politicians. That’s possible.

I am sure there are politicians who possess some of the characteristics of a statesman and I know there are statesmen who fall prey to politics but we must ask ourselves, are we willing to settle with mediocre? Is 80 percent statesman good enough? How would you feel about your husband or wife being 80 percent faithful? It is extremely unlikely we will ever get a 100 percent statesman because none of us are perfect but lowering our standard isn’t the answer. We need to set the bar high because one thing is for sure, we will never rise above the bar we set.

If we don’t separate civic duty from politics and politicians from statesmen our vision becomes blurry and we allow things like killing babies and gay marriage to turn into “freedom of choice” and “equality.” We allow politicians to seize power they haven’t been given and write laws they have no authority to pass.

A statesman thinks he belongs to the State, but a politician thinks the State belongs to him.

Do we want politicians serving in Congress? What about city councils and school boards, the media, or the teachers who teach our children? And most of all, what do we want to be ourselves?

Corruption doesn’t begin in Washington and it doesn’t end there either. We need statesmen in our schools teaching our children, in the media presenting the news and in elected offices serving the people. We need to be statesmen ourselves and it is imperative we teach our children how to be statesmen.

“The difference between a politician and statesman, said James Freeman Clarke, “is that a politician thinks about the next election while the statesman thinks about the next generation.”

As election season nears we have the opportunity to decide the kind of leaders we will have. We might get lucky and find a statesman on the ballot but the most powerful influence we have will be found in the kind of leaders we raise in our own home and the kind of person we determine to be ourselves.