FJM Blog

By Herman Cain

I know you are not going to believe this commentary, but try.

I am not going to read, watch or listen to any news stories about what is going on in this country for the next seven days. The only exception would be if I overhear someone mention that there has been another national or natural disaster. Otherwise, nada! Nor am I doing any of my radio shows.

I am taking a vacation from the problems of America.

For one week:

I will not hear another toothless Obama speech.

I will not hear another liberal try and defend the president’s mishandling of the crisis in the Gulf, mishandling of the economy and national security.

I will not hear or read another analysis of President Obama’s leadership deficiencies, and there are many such analyses including mine.

I will not hear about another spending proposal by the Democrats to stimulate the economy, even though the first spending binge did not work.

I will not hear another warning about the unsustainable spending by the president and Congress, which they continue to ignore.

I will not hear about another tax proposal introduced in Congress to prevent further damage to a stalled economy, only to be rejected by the Democrats.

I will not hear about yet another grenade discovered in the Health Care Deform legislation, which raises taxes and impedes our choices and our liberties.

I will not have to endure more congressional bashing of British Petroleum for pure political theater, which has produced absolutely no benefit to solving the problem.

I will not have to endure more deceptive stories about an economic recovery, the ups and downs of the stock market, or the economic pain of the 15 million unemployed people who are suffering because of presidential, administration and congressional incompetence.

The last time I did a national news detoxification was in 2004, and when I came back I had decided to run for the U.S. Senate in Georgia, because I could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch what was happening to this country even then without trying to do what I could do. We owe it to our grandchildren.

Although I finished an impressive second place in that Republican primary race in 2004, I have been defending the pursuit of happiness ever since through commentaries, speeches, radio and TV. Who knows what moment of insanity about public office I might have this time after my news detoxification. I’m just saying!

This country would be better off if the president, his administration and Congress would take an extended vacation for the next four months and nine days until after the November 2010 elections. We could breathe a little easier about cap and trade legislation until we elected a new Congress. Businesses and the stock market might react positively without the uncertainty of that job-killing bill hanging over our heads.

As for the federal operating budgets, just authorize federal agencies to operate at last year’s levels until further notice. That would be an automatic freeze in federal spending. What a novel idea!

There is one thing Congress should do before they take an extended vacation, and that is to make the current tax rates permanent. It would provide some much needed certainty about taxes, which would cause businesses to start growing their businesses again. Yes, we would then see some real job growth instead of imaginary and saved jobs.

If voters could persuade Congress to kill the cap and trade bill and make the tax rates permanent while I am on vacation from America’s problems, my return would be like waking up to a wonderful dream.

If not, I will be returning to the same national nightmare we are in right now.

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By Harry R. Jackson, Jr.

Al Greene’s victory in South Carolina has puzzled everyone - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. When I first heard of the victory of the unemployed veteran, I immediately remarked to my wife that name recognition of the Rev. Al Greene had been a factor.

More specifically, it reminded me of a1992 comedy starring Eddie Murphy entitled, “The Distinguished Gentleman.” The movie featured a black con man named Thomas Jefferson Johnson who decided to shorten his name to Jeff Johnson in order to purposely confuse voters into thinking he was a dead congressman.

In a world in which people often imitate movies, some hapless voters were actually taken in by the name alone. These same voters admitted to national reporters that they thought they were voting for the famous gospel singer.  To my father’s generation, who fought for the right of minorities to vote, they would have seen this approach as irresponsible or squandering a “sacred right.”  Nonetheless, most voters come to primaries fired up and informed about only a handful of races.

Al Greene did not promote himself through the expected campaign activity of public appearances or campaign speeches. Yet, this “nobody” won South Carolina’s Democratic Party nomination for the US Senate easily. So who is Al Greene really? Most of us have discovered that he is a novice at politics and is currently an unemployed veteran.  He also has a very disturbing pornography charge that has been written about ad nauseum.

The Democratic Party is embarrassed by Greene’s victory. There are at least two excuses for Greene’s win. One group is convinced that Republicans have engineered this “hoax.” The problem is that Jim Demint (the Republican incumbant) is probably unbeatable by anyone in the Democratic political stable. Therefore, it is illogical that the Republicans would take such a huge risk at this time.

Another group of people blamed the voting machines. One of the loudest machine blamers was David Axelrod, Senior Presidential Advisor. He stated that Greene’s victory was “a mysterious deal,” when he was interviewed on Meet the Press last weekend. A second person who blamed the machine was Greene’s opponent, Vic Rawl. In fact he filed a complaint with the South Carolina Democratic Party. Rawl asserted that the voting machines were defective from the beginning. He said, the machines “were purchased surplus from Louisiana after that state outlawed them.” Rawl made an even bolder assertion that voters have informed him that when they selected Vic Rawl in the voting booth, Greene’s name appeared.

This week Congressman James Clyburn, a native of South Carolina, joined the chorus of machine critics. He appeared on Fox News and pretended to be separate from his home state’s Democratic leadership. He boldly said that 49 states have rejected these very voting machines, while the South Carolina Democratic leadership wrongly sought to use the machines despite numerous complaints.

Regardless of the reason for Al Greene’s victory, it does not reflect well on either his party or the primary voters in the state. If the machines are really the issue, it would suggest that the South Carolina State Democratic Party is not on its game. In fact they have issued a press statement that there is nothing wrong with their machines. The press release shows a low-level war within the party ranks. The national guys are crying “foul!” As a result, they are throwing their own state party under the bus, by claiming incompetence in their selection of equipment.

Perhaps the most salient point the South Carolina contest is showing us is that modern US politics has recently reverted to the level of our eighth grade class presidential races. Popularity, popularity, popularity was the only thing that mattered back then. The races were nothing more than popularity campaigns. Today, we would say name recognition is the only thing that matters, unless a candidate has earned the reputation of being corrupt or ineffective.

Further, the fact that an unemployed veteran got more votes than a former judge and four-time member of the South Carolina legislature makes a statement about the candidate (Vic Rawl). Even if a large number of machines were rigged, what is it about Rawl that caused some people to vote for a gospel singer who does not even live in the state.

Could a movie star (like Kiefer Sutherland) move to your city and just appear on the ballot and steal your party’s full support from a candidate they have known for 20 years? If the answer is yes, then the candidate would have failed to earn true trust and respect form the voters. In reality, the landslide vote in South Carolina infers that the candidate, Vic Rawl, is probably in real trouble.

In the movie “The Distinguished Gentleman,” Eddie Murphy’s motive was to receive easy endorsements and lobby money.  But when Murphy’s character got to Washington, he realized that the system was even more corrupt than he was. As a result, Murphy decided to change his ways and to advocate for the rights of the people. He realized that the people of the nation deserved better representation than they were getting.

People all over the nation are having the same epiphany that Murphy did in “The Distinguished Gentleman.” There are painful reminders of the corruption and lack of true public service existent in our political system - race by race, region by region, and party by party.

Americans of both parties and independents are vowing to be more vigilant in this election cycle than ever before. We need the right people in our elected positions. We need our officials to live up to the title - Distinguished Gentleman or Gentlewoman.

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Dear Friends and Fellow Conservatives:

I’d like to publicly thank all those who through calls, letters or email have expressed support and/or encouragement for the Eric Wallace for U.S. Senate campaign.

Just as a reminder update; I am not currently running to fill Illinois’  US Senate seat. Someone asked me the other day if I were going to be submitting petitions to run as an Independent candidate—the answer is no.

Every since I pulled out of the GOP primary for US Senate, and stated that I  would be willing to run as an Independent, some people took that as a formal announcement of candidacy. I never made that announcement because, unfortunately, the conditions were never met for what I believed was needed for a successful run. Therefore I never circulated the necessary petitions to qualify as an Independent candidate.

Please know I have not pulled out of politics, nor have I abandoned the fight to preserve the freedoms and values upon which our nation was founded. I will continue to be engaged through our online magazine (Freedom’s Journal Magazine); and it is my prayer, to make a run for office again in the future. In the meantime, my goal is to further the cause of the conservative movement by calling upon “all conservatives” to vote to elect those candidates who truly share our conservative values. The motto of Freedom’s Journal magazine is that “we stand for what we say we believe, and actively engage in the political process that represents us.” I am proud to say, I committed to do this as a candidate for State Senate in 2006, as a potential candidate for US Senate and, again, as  magazine publisher. Although my candidacy ended months ago for me, the fight has not ended and as John Paul Jones once said “I have not yet begun to fight.”

If you wish to follow what we are doing please join Freedom’s Journal Magazine’s face book group and/or join my personal Face book page at Eric M. Wallace. Freedom’s Journal Magazine will soon have a twitter account, as well as an exciting  new format for our website, to be revealed this coming August 2010. I urge you to consider supporting the magazine, if you are not a subscriber already.

Again, to those who took part in our campaign efforts (in any way), I’d like to express my heart felt thanks. I will be personally contacting you in the next few weeks.

Thanks

Eric

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By Ken Blackwell

There’s an old joke about a Transylvanian cookbook. The recipe for an omelet starts off with this: “First, steal two eggs.” If that note really appeared in some country’s cookbook, don’t look for constitutional government or a free market system to arise there anytime soon. That’s because democracy is not something you can just plant, like shaking seeds out of an envelope.

Americans were blessed to have extensive experience of self-government when we made our bid for independence in the 1770s. And Americans at that time–all the most thoughtful ones at least–recognized the profound contradiction that human bondage represented. It was difficult to assert on the one hand that all government “derives its just powers from the consent of the governed” while holding millions of human beings as slaves. Amid many blessings, slavery was held to be a curse. It took another eighty years and fratricidal Civil War before those contradictions were resolved.

A free market can do many things efficiently and justly, but the free market is perverted when it treats humans as objects. Thus, almost all people recognize that slavery and international sex trafficking are wrong. Our laws protect artistic expression, but we demand strict enforcement of laws against child pornography. Such illicit trade cannot be honored as a part of legitimate commerce.

We already know something of the unusual ideas of human rights and commerce held by U.S. Solicitor General, Elena Kagan. Kagan has been nominated by President Obama to succeed the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan also served in the Clinton White House, where she left an extensive paper trail of documented opinions.

Most interesting, perhaps, is Kagan’s support for cloning human beings. Clinton Library documents show that she opposed any effort by Congress to prevent human beings from being cloned specifically to create embryos that would be experimented upon, then killed. Gallup recently reported that 88% of Americans oppose cloning human beings. Kagan does not.

We also know, from her record as Solicitor General in the Obama administration, that there are circumstances in which Elena Kagan would vote to ban political books. President Obama famously attacked the Supreme Court–while its members sat robed before him–during his first State of the Union Address last January. He attacked the Court for its ruling in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The President said, incorrectly, that that ruling permitted corporations to contribute directly to political campaigns and would allow foreigners to come in and influence our elections.

What the Citizens United case did say was that unions and companies, and non-profit associations, do not lose their First Amendment rights to speak on public issues just because an election is less than sixty days away. In fact, the Supreme Court found, during election campaigns was the very time when political communication among citizens was most important.

At issue was a film produced by Citizens United that attacked the public record of Hillary Clinton. The McCain-Feingold law says that such communications are unlawful contributions.

Kagan was asked if, instead of making a movie, Citizens United had published a book criticizing Hillary Clinton and it hit the stands less than sixty days before an election? Could the government ban that book? Yes, she said, representing the Obama administration. Ed Whelan, writing for National Review Online, pointed to the bizarre consequences of Kagan’s reasoning:

As Chief Justice Roberts pointed out, the theory of the First Amendment advocated by Kagan on behalf of the Obama administration “would empower the Government to prohibit newspapers from running editorials or opinion pieces supporting or opposing candidates for office, so long as the newspapers were owned by corporations—as the major ones are.”

Here we can clearly see that the kind of disregard for human rights Kagan denied in her advocacy of cloning human beings extends to property rights and to suppression of free speech.  All our Bill of Rights guarantees–including freedom of speech and assembly–can only be safe in a constitutional order that respects human life. We must stand for free markets, but those free markets themselves are supported by respect for those inalienable rights with which we are endowed by our Creator. When those rights are denied by government, destructive forces are unleashed against free markets as well.

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By Star Parker

The anti-political establishment sentiment that is gripping the country reflects something more basic that is going on. What we have is a national renewal movement - a search and discovery mission by Americans to restate and restore those first principles that define us.

And, indeed, part of what is bothering so many is a sense that we are now in our current mess because of wholesale loss of appreciation that we even have first principles that uniquely define us, let alone understanding what they are.

Now we have a new book that will serve as an invaluable resource and operating manual in this national struggle to “bring back America.”

“The Blueprint: Obama’s Plan to Subvert the Constitution and Build an Imperial Presidency”, by Ken Blackwell and Ken Klukowski, provides comprehensive chapter and verse of what we need to understand and what we can do about the challenges we’re now confronting.

Blackwell is currently a senior fellow at the Family Research Council (and a longtime conservative friend and colleague of mine) and Klukowski is a constitutional lawyer and journalist.

Blackwell and Klukowski provide one stop shopping for understanding the philosophic departure of our current administration from traditional American principles, identification of each key battlefront where they are changing the country, and what, in each case, we can do about it.

American history, of course, has never been defined by smooth and tranquil sailing.

Life itself, and certainly life lived in freedom, is a daily struggle. Our only choices are the battles we choose to fight.

What so uniquely defines today’s times and struggles is the extent to which they are about core principles. Yes, of course, we’re battling daily on policy. Health care, energy, environment, financial services, etc.

But our differences on these questions reflect more profound differences about what defines us as a nation.

Is the role of government to protect life, liberty, and property? Or is the role of government, in the words of President Obama, “redistributive change”?

It is unprecedented in our nation’s history that legislation of the size and scope of the recent health care bill, that will cost trillions of dollars, that will restructure one sixth of our economy and impact even more, passed with effectively zero support from the opposition party.

This is not because of political calculation, as the President suggested the other day. “Before I was even inaugurated congressional leaders of the other party got together and made a calculation that if I failed, they’d win.”

You don’t have to be a constitutional lawyer to sense there’s a problem in America when the federal government defines to the last detail what a health insurance policy must look like and then forces every citizen to buy one.

Blackwell and Klukowski show that the departure point defining American exceptionalism is a nation rooted in God-given first truths and our constitution that defines a federal government, with limited and enumerated powers, that preserves and secures those truths.

Our president sees things differently. Rather than a nation of men who live by laws, he sees us as a nation of men who enact laws to implement particular agendas of what they deem to be fair and just.

Under this leadership, we’ve started up the path of becoming a social welfare state rather than the free nation under God that our founders envisioned.

As result, we’re now seeing unprecedented government expansion and intrusion into our private lives. And the bills that are piling up to pay for this new socialism are strangling us blue.

How it’s all playing out in health care, education, our courts, our media, how we do the census, and how we vote, is laid out clearly and chillingly in this powerful book.

Blackwell and Klukowski have given us a roadmap back to freedom, morality, and prosperity.

This is an important read during this summer of American discontent.

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By Harry R. Jackson Jr.

Editors’ note: this piece is co-authored by Niger Innis and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez

Business and capitalism are dirty words in many White House and progressive circles, except in two ways.

Business is good when it can be co-opted and manipulated by government to advance “progressive” energy, social or economic agendas. And capitalism is a virtue in the sense of capitalizing on every crisis to promote those agendas – through the guiding principle enshrined by leftists like Saul Alinsky and Rahm Emanuel: “Never let a crisis go to waste.”

Thus the tragic Gulf of Mexico oil spill has been incompetently handled by a White House, EPA and Corps of Engineers unable even to make timely decisions about constructing sand berms to keep oil out of fragile estuaries. But the crisis is being exploited brilliantly to justify policy initiatives like cap-tax-and-trade, EPA’s “endangerment” decree, more bans on drilling, and mandatory fuel switching to higher priced options, most notably wind and solar power.

The economic facts of life simply don’t support this agenda.

Senator John Kerry asserts that China and India are spending billions to take our “clean energy” discoveries and technologies, make the wind turbines and solar panels in Asia, and sell them back to us. He is right about what’s happening, but completely wrong about why. The fault, dear Senator, is not in our stars (or in Asia), but in ourselves.

China and India pay their workers less than we do, especially in union shops so beloved by progressives. They use coal to generate cheap electricity to power their factories, while the White House, EPA and Congress strive to tax and regulate American coal-fired power plants into oblivion. China mines its abundant rare earth minerals (essential for wind turbine magnets and Prius batteries), whereas we have made hundreds of millions of acres of superb mineral prospects off limits.

China and India are creating tens of thousands of jobs, financed by American taxpayers and consumers, while we tax and over-regulate productive industries to pay for subsidies, tax breaks and payrolls for wind and solar companies that then must buy turbines and panels from China and India, because we cannot afford to make them here in the United States.

That’s why 240 gigantic wind turbines being installed in Texas created 2,800 jobs – but 2,400 of them were in China. The measly 400 we got were temp jobs: truckers to haul components from the West Coast to West Texas, plus installers, landscapers, lawyers and bureaucrats. This is indeed a great Green Jobs Program – for the Chinese!

Is this the economic transformation that Senator Kerry wants to bring about? So now we are going to be dependent on the Middle East for oil – and on China and India for “alternative,” “renewable” energy?

Equally puzzling, the wind energy industry is exempted from Migratory Bird and Endangered Species laws. Oil companies pay millions in fines, if a few hundred birds die in uncovered treatment ponds or are caught in the Gulf oil spill. And they should. But wind turbine operators get a free pass, even when their “Cuisinarts of the air” slice and dice thousands of eagles, hawks, falcons, geese, ducks and bats annually.

Installing hundreds of thousands of turbines, and millions of acres of solar panels – to replace oil, gas and coal facilities – would be an unprecedented disaster for habitats, wildlife and the environment.

Equally absurd, the 83% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions required by the House-passed climate bill and its Kerry-Lieberman Senate counterpart would send America’s CO2 emissions back to levels last seen in 1870, when population, energy use and technology changes are taken into account. The price impacts on energy use, jobs, working families, living standards, schools and hospitals would be disastrous.

Meanwhile, emissions from China, India and other emerging economic powerhouses would rapidly offset our nation’s painful reductions, and global atmospheric CO2 levels would continue to rise. America is not an island.

This is not sustainable development. It is the unsustainable devolution of our country. It is economically and environmentally ruinous. It is the Greecification of America.

The shift to the new Green Jobs Economy may sound good in the abstract. But a closer look at the current transformative plan reveals substantial complications.

It will not generate wealth and is not the product of wealth creation. It is a manifest wealth transfer, from productive and innovative segments of business and society to regulators, activists, companies and energy systems that could not survive without constant subsidies, tax breaks and environmental “get out of jail free” cards.

The Green Jobs Economy would have expensive, intermittent wind and solar replace reliable, affordable hydrocarbon-based electricity. On a large scale, that would severely impact working class families and small businesses. It would impose a punitive, regressive tax on our nation’s most economically vulnerable citizens. It would slow, if not obliterate, our nation’s chance for economic recovery and growth.

President Obama says he’s trying to figure out “whose ass to kick” over the Gulf oil spill and cleanup. He might want to start with his own regulators, advisors and congressional allies, who are leading him and our country over an energy and economic cliff.

Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr. is founder and chairman of the High Impact Leadership Coalition; Niger Innis is national spokesman for the Congress of Racial Equality; Reverend Samuel Rodriquez is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. They are the co-chairs of the Affordable Power Alliance.

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By R. Dozier Gray

Juneteenth is the June 19 anniversary of the day in 1865 when the black residents of Galveston, Texas learned about the Emancipation Proclamation and their freedom.  Today, its commemoration is a reason for parties and celebration nationwide.

More importantly, however, Juneteenth is a time to reflect on where we as blacks have been and a time to conduct an azimuth check on where we are going.  It is a time for clarity.  It is a time to count the ways in which we are free and a time to take stock of the chains that bind us still.

Juneteenth is a time to take measure of ourselves — as men, as husbands, as women, as wives and sons and daughters.  It is a time to plot a course of freedom from debt, immorality and lethargy.

No one ever truly freed a man but himself, and no one ever really enslaved a man but himself.

Bob Marley, the late and great reggae icon, said it best: “None but ourselves can free our minds.”  With that freedom, he believed we can move on triumphantly.   Obtaining freedom from physical chains is an easy task.  This “free mind” thing is a little trickier.

It is unfortunate that some black bloodlines have gone from having members whose very existence was bound to a slave master to now being bound by government and to the sorrowful empathy of others for their very sustenance.

There are no chains, but is their existence truly free.  If our history teaches us anything, it should be that the fullness of absolute God-given liberty should be jealously guarded.  We should see any infringement on our inalienable freedoms as an infringement on the Spark of the Divine that is within us all.

Frankly, it should not have to be the Ron Pauls, Newt Gingrichs, and Ronald Reagans of the world leading us grudgingly to a future where our biblical talents can be shone freely and unencumbered.  It should have been black America.

Free men do travel among us.  I consider myself among them.  We seek to map a better course.  And, while any journey first requires an understanding of where the traveler is, its continuance requires necessary self-assessments and subsequent course corrections.

We must periodically face hard truths.  Blaming others provokes nothing but pity.  Blaming oneself begets little but shame.  Face these truths and learn from them.  There is no need to blame anyone.

What’s important is knowing where we are as a people and charting a course toward a freer future.

Haven’t we outgrown the leftovers from the 1960s yet?  Haven’t failed nanny states run their course?  When will we truly be tired of black women having babies out of wedlock over 50 percent of the time?  Isn’t it sad and pathetic that, without out-of-wedlock childbirth, the black community in America could not sustain its numbers?

Aren’t we sick yet with politicians who take us for granted or sometimes ignore us?  Why aren’t we more fed up yet with the club-to-church-to-club lifestyle?

I am personally tired and sick and sick and tired of seeing a worn-out old slave mentality rear its ugly head in the form of “fathers” who don’t take care of their kids, “mothers” who have kids without bothering to find and keep a husband and young people without the nurturing or self-determination to reach beyond the situations into which they were born.  The list goes on.

Nonetheless, celebrate Juneteenth!

Right now is not be the time to mark this solemn commemoration with just barbeques and parties — though barbeques are never a bad thing.  Instead, this is a time for calm and reasoned reflection and honest and soul-centered introspection.

#  #  #

R. Dozier Gray is a member of the national advisory council of the black leadership network Project 21.  Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

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By Armstrong Williams

We all should be absolutely alarmed by the current state of fatherhood in this country. It is terribly troubling that our society accepts fatherhood as a luxury, not a necessity. An involved, loving, active father has become the exception in this country, and it’s time we make it the norm again.

On the surface, there are some things that only a father can provide his children. Although a mother is vital to a child’s development, there are some activities that a dad just makes perfect. Shooting baskets or going ice skating becomes more than a bonding experience between father and child, it becomes a moment when boys learn how to carry themselves as men, how to strive for a goal, work hard and strengthen their male personality. It becomes a moment when daughters learn how a man should properly treat a woman, interact with males, try their best, overcome adversity and strive for their potential. There is little in life that can simulate these fathers — child moments that turn ordinary days into treasured lifelong memories.

Like most loving fathers, my father expected a lot out of me and my siblings. He constantly encouraged me and pushed me to reach my potential, but occasionally — and only when necessary — he would use his lash to get my attention. His stern face or grave words would let me know that my behavior or attitude was out of line. My healthy fear for him in these rare moments kept me focused on living a healthy, productive life. I remember his strong grip as he taught me to shake hands like a gentleman, I remember his huge arms wrapping me tight after tough family football losses, and I remember my father’s extraordinary courage to do the right thing regardless of the situation. I would never be where I am today without my mother, but my father taught me how to be a man.

An active father does more than help his son grow into a man or daughter grow into a woman. He provides the spiritual leadership that every family needs. My father taught me how to handle difficult situations by keeping perspective. He taught me that faith comes first, family comes second, then friends; after that, its education and vocation.

My father taught me to rely on God and trust that He would protect me as I walked through the “shadow of the valley of death” or faced unexpected hardships in my life. And more than just teaching it, my father lived it. I saw him read the Bible daily, pray habitually and attend and participate at church every Sunday. My father provided the spiritual leadership that the Bible calls for, and I believe this kind of leadership should ideally be handled by a man. Regardless of the religion, this cannot be done properly if the father is absent.
Kids can truly achieve so much more when their father is present and active in their everyday lives. Studies have repeatedly shown that a two-parent household with active parents is the key to a child’s development.

Certainly many, many children of one-parent households have gone on to great things, but they shouldn’t have to. The idea that a father’s presence is a luxury needs to change. Even if the parents divorce, a father should be present for every sporting event, every school activity and all the ordinary moments that define a child’s early life. Divorce or separation is no excuse for a father to stay away or reduce his involvement in the children’s development. In fact, in the sad case of separation, a father should become more involved, because the children desperately need positive influences during divorce proceedings.

As we remind ourselves of the importance of a Father in the household, we should praise the men who are true fathers — the men who willingly involve themselves in their children’s lives. We should thank them for their love and dedication, and be proud of their achievements.

However, we must also call attention to the cowards who father a child but never become a true dad. We need to take a hard look at why these fathers run out on their families and abandon their children. We cannot lower our standards by ignoring these deadbeat dads and considering them the norm. We cannot overlook the problem or sweep it under a rug. Our children are too important, and they need their fathers. If they are to reach their highest potential, it will be with the help of their fathers.

Being a father is about much more than just bringing home a paycheck. Fatherhood is the basic means by which a family is brought into contact with the public sphere. This is not to say that mothers can’t or don’t do this in many cases. But especially in the case of young males, many of whom have been lost to the influences of street culture over the past two generations or so, having a strong male role model in the home is key to how these males will interact in the society at large. It is the key to how they will conduct relationships, interact with the law and perform on their jobs.

Fathers ultimately bear the responsibility for training ground for new leaders. As such fatherhood is a virtue that needs to be reawakened in America, not just for the poor and marginalized, but for all Americans regardless of their socioeconomic background.

“The Armstrong Williams Show” is broadcast on XM Satellite’s Power 169 channel from 7 to 8 p.m. weeknights.

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By Ken Blackwell

I had an extraordinary experience today. I was welcomed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to the U.S. Capitol. She was greeting those guests who had come to honor the memory of the slaves who contributed immeasurably to building this Temple of Freedom. I sat with my longtime friends—former Congressman J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) and Republican National Chairman Michael Steele.

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.)—who marched with Dr. King for civil rights in the 1960s—spoke movingly of the role of those enslaved black Americans who toiled through Washington’s sultry summers and through those bitter cold winters. These slaves worked for $5 a month. That money was paid not to the slaves themselves, but to their masters! The very foundations of our U.S. Capitol were put in place by hands that bore the cold manacles of bondage. It’s a stirring story which John Lewis—who felt the lash of the segregationists on his own back—told with eloquence.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) co-chaired the House-Senate committee that made possible today’s ceremony. She and J.C. Watts unveiled plaques honoring the labors of those American slaves. For two hundred years, Sen. Lincoln reminded us, there had been no recognition in the Capitol of the work of the slaves.

The high point of today’s event had to be the telling—and telling over and over—of the story of Philip Reid. This young black man had worked for sculptor Thomas Crawford. When the Statue of Freedom that Crawford crafted in his studios in Rome eventually came to America from Italy, the plaster cast had been disassembled. Crawford had died. A dispute on these shores caused a crisis. How to re-assemble the cast so that a bronze statue could be fashioned?

None of the free citizens of Washington knew what to do. But Philip Reid knew. He showed how to rig a block-and-tackle and the workers very slowly tugged at the plaster cast until the first seam was revealed. He did this for each of the five successive sections of the Statue of Freedom.

Thanks to Philip Reid, we now have this magnificent 19-foot monument that stands majestically atop our U.S. Capitol dome. She was put in place in time for President Lincoln’s Second Inauguration. By the time that statue came to stand on her lofty pedestal, Philip Reid and his brothers in toil were free men.

Several of the speakers—Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) re-told the Philip Reid story, or portions of it. That’s actually good and long overdue. The silence of the centuries now yields to a swelling chorus of the Union. Today was one of those rare moments when Republicans and Democrats, Americans black and white, could come together for justice.

I was proud to be a part of history today. But I have one suggestion: we should re-name the Rayburn Room where we met today the Philip Reid Room. There was some confusion getting to the ceremony, since there is already a Rayburn House Office Building just across Independence Avenue. It would be no disrespect to the already greatly honored Speaker Sam Rayburn at long last to give Philip Reid his due.

In that way, we can honor this respected artisan, his labors, and the labors of all those black Americans who worked to build up this Temple of Freedom.

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Raynard Jackson

There is a raging debate about the Democratic Party’s push to end “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT) and to give amnesty to illegal immigrants.  This debate provides an interesting insight into the psyche of Democrats and Republicans.

DADT is a Clinton era policy that simply says gay people can serve in the military as long as they don’t make their sexual preferences known (notice I used the term preference, NOT orientation.  Orientation is very passive and suggests that one had no say in the choice made, therefore the more appropriate term should be preference, since they prefer to be with the same sex).  When you join the military, you sign a contract basically saying you agree to live by the rules of the military, this includes abiding by the DADT policy.

Similarly, illegals enter the U.S. with the full knowledge that they are breaking our laws, yet they want amnesty and citizenship because their motives were “pure.”  They were looking for a better life for them and their family.

Herein lies the fault-line between Democrats and Republicans.  Democrats believe that motives/intentions justifies the means (breaking the law is ok if I am doing it to make a better life for me and my family).  Republicans believe that one’s action is the overriding factor—not the motivation behind the act.

So, according to the Democratic view, Hitler should be forgiven for the Holocaust because his motives were “pure.”  If you study Hitler’s life, he actually thought he was fulfilling God’s will by seeking the perfect race.  Now, everyone knows his actions were wrong, but you can make an argument for forgiveness if you look at his intentions!

A Republican view doesn’t even consider why Hitler did what he did.  His acts were wrong—end of story.

When gays enlist in the military, they know the rules of engagement, just like illegals know they are breaking the law when they enter our country.  If you don’t like the law, then change the law.  But don’t join or engage in an activity and when the rules are enforced claim you are being discriminated against or treated unfairly.

If the rules of engagement had been changed in the middle of the game, I would be the first to fight for the fair treatment of gays in the military and illegals in this country.  But, this is not the case.

If the laws are known upfront and you still decide to violate them, then I can’t support demands for redress.  There is nothing to redress.  Either the U.S. is going to be a nation of laws or we are going to be a nation of anarchy.

DADT and amnesty are not about “civil rights.”  I am quite offended when people attempt to embrace these two movements on the grounds of “civil rights.”  I am further embarrassed and quite angered that radical, leftist groups like the N.A.A.C.P. have allowed these movements to hijack the legacy of the “civil rights” movement.

Martin Luther King did not take a bullet in his head for gay rights or illegals; and for supposed civil rights groups to prostitute King’s legacy for these movements is an insult.  King fought for rights based on one’s humanity and being an American citizen.

King never took a position on gay rights.  Gay folks are protected already by virtue of being U.S. citizens not because of their sexual preferences.  Illegals are protected in this country because they are humans, but this does not extend to the privilege of citizenship.

I challenge my gay and illegal friends to prove to me that they are not already protected based on their humanity.  If I assault a gay or illegal person, I will be prosecuted because they are humans, not because they are gay or illegal.

I am really getting fed up with everyone wanting special rights based on their narrow interests.  So, if the Congress repeals DADT, gay couples want to get housing benefits for their partners, even though gay marriage is not recognized in the U.S.  So, will this benefit apply to me, as a straight person, if I want to live with a girlfriend?

In many states, illegals qualify for instate tuition for university, but an American citizen has to pay out of state fees.  Is this fair?

So, to all my gay and illegal friends, it’s not that I don’t like you or that I believe in discrimination; I just want fairness.

Don’t ask me to accept a lifestyle I don’t agree with and I’m telling you that I don’t support amnesty for illegals.

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm.  He is also a contributing editor for ExcellStyle Magazine (www.excellstyle.com).

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