Committee to Elect
James C. Mitchell, Jr. President
P.O. Box 1259 • Lake Villa, IL 60046
Seventh Annual Friends of the Family Awards Banquet
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Clive, Iowa
Hello friends and families of the Iowa Christian Alliance!!
I am delighted to be included in the 2007 Family Awards Banquet. I am visiting you today because I am a Republican candidate for President in 2008 and am looking for your support. My wife of 33 + years passed away in January two years ago. We raised four children. Our oldest presented us with two grand daughters and our only son, the youngest is in the Coast Guard. Our twin girls live in the Chicago area. Despite the passing of their mother, the values of family still sustain us.
I know this organization - and so many more like it across the United States of America, respects, understand and promotes the importance and values that families add to any successful and peaceful community or society.
The assaults on families from court decisions, political corruption, political interference, internet, television, movies, gambling, drugs, gangs, public school failure, abortion and freedom of choice, are daunting challenges for us.
So how do we improve our “battle plan” to promote, protect and preserve the legacy of families in America and the world community and increase positive opportunities for our children to mature?
We have three weapons for this formidable challenge – the Ten Commandments, our constitution and education – that we need to utilize differently.
We know that belief and faith in God are paramount and are the basis for all inner strength and moral courage. Because for so many this is a stumbling block, let’s reposition it slightly as a destination rather than the first requirement for the people who need convincing.
The fifth Commandment talks about honoring “your father and mother.” In reality, it is about respect within marriage between one man and one woman and their children. The remaining five support the importance of families in our culture and restore the importance of families at the top of our society. Knowing this, hopefully more people will come to understand and embrace the first four Commandments.
Marriage is the first and foremost covenant/contract between two people; stated and accepted orally in front of God, the two families joined, including other families and witnesses. It is a statement of faith, respect and responsibility between the partners and is their joint recognition of responsibilities within the community that they are now joining.
The Commandments following “honoring father and mother” describe how the community of families are to coexist in peace and harmony. Violation of any one of these Commandments (by sowing a seed of mistrust or committing any one of the deadly sins) can undermine either the marriage relationship or family relationships thus degrading society by corruption.
It is culturally sophomoric that many shun belief in God and religion and are confused by “morality legislation.” Under their very noses and within their midst, the succinct statements of the last six Commandments are the defining statements of people to people and people to property relationships within our culture. They have defined civilized, peaceful human coexistence and culture since they were presented to man and have been the basis of our Constitution. What have been incorporated into our written laws are punishments for selfish, destructive behaviors - variations and/or combinations of the seven deadly (sins - lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride).
By contrast, positive behavior, the adherence to the virtues of chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, forgiveness, kindness and humility has only enhanced society as a whole and are not part of any legislation. It would seem that there is a great misunderstanding between bad behavior, good behavior and responsible citizenship. Churches and families are the best places for instructing our youth.
If punishing (legislating against) destructive behavior, activities like – murder, violence, theft, obstruction of justice (lying) and selfishness by individuals on the rest of us is legislating morality? Then, legislate away!! It is wrong that our culture is defined by bad behavior, legislation and the courts.
It is imperative that we continue the struggle to protect and promote families from this onslaught. Our churches are the backbone of our community’s defense supported by families who take the message into the community through home schooling, voucher schools and voluntary organizations like Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and adult conduct in the work place.
One does not have to be religious to practice and promote chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, forgiveness, kindness and humility in their daily behavior. Nor does an individual have to be a Boy Scout or Girl Scout to daily be - trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. But these are the simplest acts that our children can learn and we can practice in our every day lives.
Scouting, for example, is an extension of the family outside the home that provides a positive frame work for children to become adults, learning from other adults, interacting cooperatively with others, developing self esteem, learning life skills for self reliance and introduction to career opportunities or life long hobbies. We need to overturn the Supreme Court interference of these voluntary programs.
Because of the erroneous claim of religious interference and legislating morality in the public school system, vouchers for school choice make the most sense because voluntary involvement requires the historical precept of responsibility upon the family – parents, husband and wife for their children. Legislation and court intrusion into the family based education would be limited.
My deceased wife was an excellent educator for 36 years. What she taught me through her experiences in several school systems is that for some students, the teacher was the only family some kids had. The only person they could rely on! Blaming teachers and/or unions for the failure of the public school systems is a convenient mistake. The real culprits for failing public schools are inadequate lack of parental participation or responsibility; lack of qualified or competing candidates for school board positions, negative media coverage, and poor voter turn out.
The teachers unions have been viewed as bad for education. Perhaps, but just maybe they have been the early unrecognized educational sentinel canary that has gone on record through strikes and contracts calling attention to bad professional management by superintendents, staff and principals; inadequate school boards; minimal parental participation in the school, lack of discipline of kids by their parents, lack of parental involvement in academic achievement; lousy voter participation for school board selection. What young man or women would want to be a teacher today?
Participation in the governance of America is paramount. It is our individual knowledge of the issues. It is our activism promoting and electing candidates and personally voting at all elections. It is our encouragement of our high school youth and young adults to become involved in the political process that will make the necessary changes to protect our values, our communities and their future.
Thank you for allowing me to participate and share my views for such an important responsibility, the family.