I’m 17 and I’m a Conservative
I’ve grown up my whole life in the state of Michigan, so I’ve seen firsthand what it’s like to struggle. I’ve seen others struggle and I’ve witnessed it in my own family. In the past, I’ve seen my dad become an unemployment statistic several times. Most recently, back in November. This time was the hardest (for me anyways). I was at the age now where I could fully understand the gravity of the situation. I remember my mom telling me after school and I broke down in the hallway, I knew how much it meant to my dad to be working and providing for our family and now all of a sudden he couldn’t. My immediate (selfish) thought was “What are we going to do about Christmas.” Quickly, I realized that this Christmas was going to have to be about what I needed not necessarily about what I wanted. Christmas was scant this year, but I wasn’t disappointed. I learned a valuable lesson during this time: thankfulness. It’s a shame something like my dad losing his job had to happen for me to realize all that God has blessed my family with. Not once was my family without food or shelter. God provided for our needs and he has continued to provide for them.
Since that time my dad has started his own DVD business. I’ve learned from my dad what it means to work hard and never give up. I’ve watched my dad work his tail off to get new customers and stay up until 4am working on a project. Anyone who has started a business knows that the first year is the most difficult, and that has proven to be true for my family. He had a part time job selling power chairs and scooters, but that fell through this summer because of the changes going on with Medicare. My dad continues to search for a part time job until he is confident enough that his business alone can bring in sufficient money for my family.
My mother is doing her share as well, in addition to teaching during the school year she started a part time job doing data entry. She’s been working 3x a week this summer, and will continue to do so during the school year, going from teaching all day to working about 5hrs at night. Life hasn’t been easy, but we were never promised it would be. Not by God, or by government. God tells us life won’t be easy, but with His help we will make it through. Neither the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence promises the American person success or complete happiness. We may pursue happiness, but whether we end up happy or not depends on how badly we want that happiness.
I’ve attended a private Christian school and a Baptist church my whole life, so I’ve been taught what is right and what is wrong. I’ve been taught to have good morals and obey authority. But I learned a lesson from a teacher this past year that I hope I never forget. The lesson is: regardless of your great upbringing, family background, and the fact that you call yourself a Christian does not mean you are exempt from failure. Whether it be failing God, family or yourself. All of us are liable to becoming the scum of the earth no matter what our history or how wise we think we are. That is why I feel it important as a young person to nail down what I believe and WHO I believe in, God. Every night I pray that I stay on the right path, not just the right spiritual path, but the right path for my life.
Since I am still in high school my life experiences are limited. And it has become increasingly apparent to me that I’m one of the few teens in this country who has a passion for what is happening. I have found it difficult to relate to teens my age, since none of them know what is going on, nor do they care when I try to explain it to them. I usually get a response like “Haha, Obama is the Antichrist” or “Obama’s so stupid”. That is not the point I’m trying to get across when I tell my peers that our freedoms are being taken away from us! I believe I get these responses because first of all, they probably don’t understand what “cap and trade” is or how big of a deal “nationalized healthcare is,” and secondly, they don’t think it will have any direct effect on them and a lot of kids haven’t read important documents like the Constitution so they won’t know when freedoms are being taken away. When talking to my peers I’m not asking them to have the sudden urge to run for political office or sit around watching the news all day. I simply wish they would take the time to educate themselves instead of sitting in front of the computer or Xbox all day.
I also find it hard to relate to some classmates during the school year. I don’t know what I have in me that has wired me so differently, but I cannot for the life of me get some of my classmates to understand why I study, do homework, and actually read the books being assigned to us. Do I think myself any better than these people because I do my homework? Absolutely not. But these are the people I fear will be sitting on the side of the road one day if they don’t get their act together. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’ve seen what great results come from working hard. I wasn’t blessed with a 4.0 brain but I was blessed with a work-ethic. And I think work ethic will get you farther in life than a 4.0 brain or an Ivy League degree. I’m not the kid who sits in class and doesn’t take notes, doesn’t study, then takes the test and gets an A. I’m the kid that sits in class, takes way to many notes, studies her butt of and gets the excitement of seeing that red A on her paper. For me that is more rewarding than the first kid I mentioned. I never have been nor do I want to be who person that gets everything handed to her. I enjoy working hard because I enjoy seeing it pay off.
I believe the above explanations help shape why I’m a conservative. My values, traditions and outlook on life have helped me realize what it is that makes me a conservative versus being a liberal. Being a conservative or liberal is a choice YOU have to make for yourself-you aren’t told what you are-you decide. I think that is something the youth in America is struggling with. In todays society it’s become more and more popular to be a liberal. Suddenly having morals is “uncool”. It’s cooler now to follow the crowd, and become someone you are not. That is why it is imperative that you find out who you are, who you believe in, what you believe in and why, and at a young age.
I’m a conservative because I believe in freedom, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, the power of the individual, freedom, the free market, small government and most of all RESPONSIBILITY. As a conservative I understand what a tremendous blessing it is to be living in the United States, but I also realize the huge responsibility that comes along with it. The Bill of Rights is where we find things that are considered “rights.” But the 10th Amendment reminds me that we don’t all have a right to everything, like healthcare. Healthcare is a responsibility, just like owning a car or house. I believe competition is good for the country and for the American. I’m a soccer player so I’ve got that competitive drive in me and I think if Americans get used to just being handed things our country will become less competitive making more people lazy, which will harm this country greatly.
As a teen what scares me the most about the direction our country is headed is when I hear men well into their 60s-70s say things like “Well, I’m just glad I’m old and won’t be here much longer. It’s the younger ones I fear for. They’ve got a lot coming.” I see where this country is going and I realize that the youths future is being decided for them and that should scare every teenager. I know history and I know “those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” -Edmund Burke. So my message to teens is: KNOW YOUR HISTORY. Educate yourself, learn about the Founding Fathers, learn about paths other countries have gone down and how it’s failed them. Learn about the Constitution. That way you’ll be able to see when someone is taking something away from you that they don’t have the right to do. I’ve got my whole life ahead of me but I’d like to have the ability to make my own decisions in the future.
I’m 17, I’m proud to call myself a conservative, but even more proud call myself an American!
Pay Your Children To Go To School
Today is yet another sad day for our public education program, our entitlement mentality in America, and our media. Tom Brokaw, a new member of the White House fellows board, is pushing the idea that paying children to attend school is brilliant.
If I were to take some of the statistics used in Glenn Beck’s latest book “Common Sense” I would see a very stark picture of our education system. Glenn states the following:
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- Only 34.6% of kids in Baltimore city’s public school system received a high school diploma in 2004;
- The Indianapolis public school system handed out diplomas to just 30.5% of students;
- Detroit’s public school system struggled to have 25% of its students qualify for a high school diploma;
- 45.2% of New York City public school kids graduated with a high school diploma.
What about our nation’s capital?
On-time high school graduation rates for the D.C. area are not improving according to an Education Week study released Tuesday.
[In actuality the On-Time High School Graduation Rate is Declining]
Fewer than 50 percent of high school students graduated within four years from D.C.’s public schools in 2006, according to the study. That’s down almost 9 percent from 2005, the Washington Post reported. The figures didn’t include public charter schools.
The true rate wasn’t provided for in the biased NBC article however, it still says a lot if liberal media outlets can’t spin the story to a better statistic of over 50%.
What about our education system as a whole when compared with those of other countries?
In a 2003 study conducted by UNICEF that took the averages from five different international education studies, the researchers ranked the United States No. 18 out of 24 nations in terms of the relative effectiveness of its educational system.
So excuse me if I’m just a tad skeptical about the latest idea coming out of Washington, D.C.; the incentive to pay children to go to school. A couple months ago we were paying young women to avoid pregnancy and now we are planning on paying children to get an education!
A July 1 “NBC Nightly News” segment detailed a new use of tax payer dollars in one of the worst performing, financially struggling school systems in the country – the Washington, D.C. public school system. They are paying school children with taxpayer funds, part of a social experiment to improve school participation at the middle school level.
“Keeping the exuberant sixth graders of Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson in line on a sunny Friday is a challenge for principal Brian Betts,” former “Nightly News” anchor-turned-correspondent Tom Brokaw explained. “But this is not an assembly, it’s payday. It’s called Capital Gains – paying students for good grades, behavior and attendance, part of the massive restructuring of the D.C. schools by a 38-year-old Korean-American woman, who as chancellor, wants to transform what is by many measures the worst-performing public school system in the U.S.”
Brokaw credited Washington, D.C. Public School Chancellor Michelle Rhee for being instrumental in making this program a reality. He explained the Capital Gains program was the invention of a Harvard think tank that came with a $1.35-million price tag for taxpayers.
I am very disappointed that this idea was hatched by Michelle Rhee who, beforehand was doing an excellent job at changing the DC public school system. She has taken tenure away from teachers, fired others, and has increased salaries among other measures I personally agree with. However, this idea that America should pay children for an education is despicable and will only cause worse standards among our graduating youth.
My thought on paying children is very similar to the concept of the children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.” When you give the mouse a cookie, he continues to stick around asking for more and more. He got away with the cookie, so why not ask for more goodies and entitlements until the people doling out the cookies and additional perks are broke, tired, and annoyed? This is the enabling concept. If children do not learn maybe we should be looking at the teachers, the parents, or the curriculum! Why should we give incentives for children to just sit in a classroom? What happens when that incentive is gone and a college that admits them does not continue handing out “cookies?” My guess: they will be left with the mentality of a drug addict. Students will now be addicted to money and benefits and will become lazy and complacent if they do not receive their immediate gratification or, in this incident, cash. They will become spoiled and even more uneducated.
What good does paying a child to attend school do, if the curriculum and the teaching is so incredibly horrid? Teachers are not even giving an accurate representation of American history let alone capable of making children smarter via remuneration. What happened to the days when it was fun to go to school? When teachers were interesting and engaging? Where free thought and opinion was allowed and not dissuaded? If we cannot teach our youth and encourage their brains, imagination, dreams, and knowledge to grow – then what good will that really do us in the end?
Meanwhile India, China, Russia, and various other countries are way ahead of us on the learning curve. Their children are engineers, scientists, doctors, and the like. America worries too much about feelings and emotions, and pushing their political agendas on students rather than caring about truth, facts, logic, and wisdom.
I was fortunate to have teachers who believed in free thought and not indoctrination. I was lucky enough to look forward to school, taking electives that fired my synapses, like English Sarcasm 101 (no joke); Graphic Arts, Call of the Wild [an English course where you went camping, dissected poetry/short stories, and studied human nature], etc. I wasn’t stuck in a government mandated curriculum that didn’t engage my brain or hindered my thoughts to the point where I could only think inside a small box. Unfortunately, that same public school that I attended has changed for the worse (and that was since 1999).
As they say when students receive poor grades as a whole – it’s more a sign of the teacher than those being taught. I could say the same regarding graduation and attendance rates – it’s more a sign of the government agenda than those being taught.
Through A Baby’s Tears, God Speaks
After sitting through newscasts leading up to the commencement and watching protesters get arrested who attempted to get onto campus grounds over the weekend and earlier last week, I came to the conclusion that people willingly toss principles aside to jump on a band wagon and in turn become lemmings of a cause or particular individual.
It’s incredibly sad and disheartening that a college that is rooted in Catholic principles could throw away the very tenants on which the school stands. The invitation of the most pro-abortion candidate, who has gone so far as to vote for infanticide, is probably one of the most despicable slaps in the face yet, to the Catholic faith.
I’m not Catholic and don’t feel it completely right to get into detail or opine on the matter, however, I can see where Catholics and ardent pro-life advocates would feel heart broken and devastated that a prestigious Catholic school would stoop to this level when they could have avoided the controversy all together. I personally feel that if Obama were more moderate on the issue, which his record shows anything but, we would not be having this outcry.
Prominent Catholic priests (Father Norman Weslin), politicians (Keyes), and abortion figures (Norma McCorvey a.k.a Jane Roe), all came to protest and support life. They protested in a peaceful manner only to be carted away by police throughout the weekend. Over 40 people were arrested and both Father Weslin and Alan Keyes were arrested twice. Those who were incarcerated with Keyes and Father Weslin said it was the best moment of their lives – they were able to hear two of the most principled national figures speak on the issue in the holding cell – when bail was made for the individuals, nobody wanted to leave – they wanted to continue listening…
I spoke with some moderate friends of mine (pro-choice) on Sunday in regards to the speech and all were in agreement, to my chagrin, that Notre Dame was in the wrong, mainly because it professes to be a religious school and acted against its founding principles.
I watched the speech that Obama gave and listened to his words. If I were a graduating senior and that was the speech given at my commencement, although I didn’t pay money for it, I would at least attempt to get a refund for the 45 minutes of my life that were wasted listening to another campaign speech, pontifications about public policy, and the story of Obama’s life. It’s my understanding that commencement speeches are directed at a graduating class, at their future, and what awaits them. Obama’s speech started out in that manner, but quickly turned into his usual hollow rhetoric.
The most poignant and heart wrenching part of his speech came during his discussion of abortion. It was not what Obama said regarding the issue, but rather a baby in the audience crying the moment he began talking about abortion rights – it even made him stumble and pause when he began his talking points. The baby, over everything else in that convocation center, could be heard. It was something that only God could enact; that baby’s cry was the single best argument against abortion.
That moment, of all others, made my otherwise waste of listening to his empty lecture, all the more worth it. Sure there were protesters and hecklers who were thrown out during his speech and who also made him stumble, but there is nothing as mind changing as the most innocent among us.
Alan Keyes and 20 Other Protesters Arrested at Notre Dame
Pro-life protesters rallied at the Notre Dame campus for Obama’s upcoming commencement speech to show their disagreement with the Catholic university’s decision allowing Barack Obama, the most radical pro-abortion politician to date, to speak at their institution.
Former Illinois U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes and 21 other protesters were arrested this morning when they refused to leave the Notre Dame campus during a protest of President Obama’s upcoming commencement address there, authorities said.
Keyes and the others were arrested on trespassing charges when they refused to leave campus, a university spokesman said. All 22 were being held in the St. Joseph County Jail on misdemeanor criminal trespass charges, in lieu of $250 bond each, said St. Joseph County Sheriff’s Sgt. Bill Redman.
Just one question: If there were 20 some odd people marching in support of Obama’s speech, would they have also received fines for trespassing? One would hope it would go both ways…/yea right!
