My Speeches

“The Democrats Must Go This November”; “The Managers of America’s Decline”; “A Call to Muster”; “To Thine Own Self Be True”; “Too Many Laws, Too Little Responsibility”; and “Velma Kane:  The First One Hundred Years (1904-2004)”

 

The Democrats Must Go This November

Presented by Jerry A. Kane

Tea Party Rally
Indiana County Court House, Indiana, Pennsylvania
October 2, 2010

How yuns doin’? Living in the belly of the beast and in the People’s Republic of Maryland for the past twelve years makes me long for Western Pennsylvania and use that plural pronoun again.

I.M. Kane, I write social and political commentaries and report goings-on at my blog, The Millstone Diaries. I’m married with three kids in their thirties, three grandchildren, and one wife who thinks I make George Costanza an appealing catch and Cosmo Kramer a towering intellect. So there’s really only one reason why you should pay any mind to what I have to say here today, and that is it’s the truth.

Now that I’ve dispensed with the pleasantries, let me say upfront that I’m not a motivational speaker, nor am I here to ingratiate myself to any political party or even to the tea party movement for that matter. Think of me as someone back from a reconnaissance mission with information that describes the situation at hand. Therefore, if you find what I say offensive, remember to keep the message separate from the messenger. That is, don’t shoot me, I’m only the piano player, not the piper who makes mice dance. 

In 1933, Winston Churchill tried in vain to alert his countrymen to the dangers of the charismatic corporal and the Nazi Party that had come to power demanding German “living space” from neighboring countries. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis built super highways and affordable cars for the common man and won the affection of many Germans. But at the same time, he was building munitions factories, tanks, ships, submarines, and airplanes in preparation for war.

Churchill repeatedly warned his government and the British people to prepare for war against the rising tyranny, but he was derided by Parliament and mocked by the media. The majority of the British people were weary from fighting the First World War and worn out from striving to survive the Great Depression of 1929, so they denied the truth about what Hitler and the Nazis were planning and refused to confront the approaching tyranny.

Today, a majority of Americans are weary from the war on terrorism, worn out from the worst recession since the Great Depression, and live in denial much like the Brits of the early 1930s. A majority of Americans reject the truth about Barack Obama and the Democrat Party and refuse to confront the approaching tyranny.

You heard it right. I am comparing the current situation in the United States to Germany in the early 1930s and Barack Obama and the Democrat Party to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party, and for good reason.

Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party could have been stopped July 31, 1932, in a special election had a majority of Germans read Mein Kampf and comprehended the outline of what he planned to do. But not enough did, and the Nazis won 230 seats and became the largest political party in the Reichstag.

On the basis of that special election, Hitler demanded to be appointed chancellor in control of the state, and six months later President Hindenburg met his demands. What’s interesting is that the Nazis never captured more than 37 percent of the national vote or gained a majority of seats in the Reichstag. However, with Hitler in the chancellery they were able to consolidate power and take control of the government with relative ease.

Hitler and the Nazi Party were driven to change Germany and that change brought down the republic and established a fascist state and dictatorial rule. The Germans instinctively knew that Hitler and the Nazis were bad news; they just didn’t know how bad the news would be.

Obama and the Democrat Party are on a mission to transform America, and that is bad news; yet far too many Americans remain clueless to the significance of that fact. Back in 2008, they heard the word change and turned the nation over to Barack Obama and the Democrat Party to take the country in a different direction from where George W. Bush and the neoconservative, RINO Republicans had been taking it.

They just assumed that Obama and the Democrat Party meant to change the direction of the country; they didn’t stop to think about the parsing of “is” during the Clinton years or Ronald Reagan’s signature phrase—trust, but verify.
Now they know that change didn’t mean direction; it meant speed. Obama and the Democrat Party haven’t changed the direction of the country; it’s still on the road to ruin. Only the arrival time has changed and the throttle shifted from impulse power to warp drive. But not to worry, dutiful Democrats have promised to manage the nation’s decline every step of the way.
So let’s rummage through Obama and the Democrats’ management handiwork over the past 18 months:

 ·       They managed to push through the largest spending bill in history, an unread $787 billion porkulus package purported to jump-start the economy and create jobs; however, it served only to jack up the national debt 23 percent to $13 trillion. The bill failed badly, but that hasn’t stopped them from boasting that the stimulus “saved or created” 3 million jobs even though economics offers no quantifiable way to calculate the number of “saved jobs.”

·       They managed to nationalized General Motors and the student loan industry, and meddled in the closings of thousands of General Motors and Chrysler dealerships.

·       They managed to transform the American health care system in a way that harms taxpayers, health care providers, and quality patient care, and administer a stranglehold over the health care industry, forcing every American to buy health insurance.

·       They managed to increase government control over tobacco and food, and under the pretense of fairness have been ruthless in their efforts to regulate political speech over talk radio and the Internet.

·       They managed to seize TARP funds meant to bailout the banking system and redirected them to Congresswoman Maxine Waters’ husband’s bank that didn’t qualify, the cash-for-clunkers program, teacher unions, union supporters, and blue states that supported Obama.

·       They managed to increase federal control over finance and mortgages causing housing prices to plummet wiping out equity and making it harder for people to move and take a job in a different city or state

·       They managed to place a moratorium on off-shore drilling that is destroying the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico and wreaking havoc on the region’s economy.

·       They managed to add jobs in the public sector while jobs in the private sector declined.

·       They managed to foster an environment where more Americans are now working for the government or are on food stamps than ever before.

·       They managed to quadruple the deficit and spend the nation to the brink of bankruptcy.

·       They managed to have Justice Department officials sue the state of Arizona for passing an immigration law that mirrors the federal immigration law, and turn over the sovereign state of Arizona to the United Nations for prosecution of potential human rights abuses.

·       They managed to allow Justice Department officials to dismiss an open-and-shut voter intimidation case against members of the New Black Panther Party and to adopt a no-prosecution policy for blacks who violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  

In 18 short months, the policies implemented by Barack Obama’s Bread and Circuses Salvation Sideshow Administration and the legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled Congress have made the current Democrat Party the greatest enemy of economic liberty and personal freedom in American history, and this is why the Democrats must go this November.

Now I realize that the Tea Party movement prides itself on being nonpartisan, but neutrality in this environment is a heinous word. Obama and the Democrat Party will not stop their relentless pursuit of power. You can write letters, sign petitions, and rally in DC til the cows come home, but the combined efforts of your angry protestations will never persuade them to abandon their radical agenda to transform America. The truth is the Democrat Party is controlled by leftist ideologues and led by true believers.

Our country’s future is imperiled because too many patriots in the Tea Party movement refuse to draw a clear distinction between the two parties and blame both parties equally for the problems America faces.

Granted, the Republican Party’s neo-conservative/RINO wing deserves some blame, but the Party does have a conservative-leaning, libertarian-minded grass roots base; whereas the Democrat Party doesn’t have a conservative/libertarian wing and its Astroturf base consists of labor unions and leftist-leaning, statist-minded special interest groups.

In other words, the Democrats act like gangsters, and the Republicans like bad cops on the take. So the question before you this November is which of the two parties can be reformed?

George Soros and the leftist elite have invested too much time and money and are too close to transforming the U.S. into a fascist state under a socialist dictator to allow grass-root commoners from the Tea Party movement to gain control of their Party. Besides, real reform needs a party base to support and carry it out, and there’s no chance of that happening as long as iron-fisted union and special interest thugocracies rule the base. Like it not, the answer is the Republican Party by default.

The 2010 midterm election is as vital for the survival of our Republic as the 1932 special election was to Germany’s. Had the German people put aside their differences and united to defeat the Nazis in that election, the world would never have known one of its worst mass murderers and the Nazi Party would have faded into the shadows.

Churchill called World War II the unnecessary war because he believed it could have been prevented had the European democracies not backed down from the tyrant. When Hitler threatened to seize Czechoslovakia in September 1938, he told General Keitel that he would not enter the country unless he was convinced that France and England would not intervene.

The French and English forces were vastly superior and outnumbered those of Germany at the time. Hitler was the typical tyrant. He preyed on weakness and respected superior force. Had the French and English people not been led by weak and fearful leaders willing to appease Hitler, he would have backed down. But instead they fed the crocodile hoping they would be the last to be eaten.

World War II is the greatest tragedy of the modern era for it could have been averted if the German people had voted against the Nazis in that ’32 election or the British had heeded Churchill’s warning about the rising threat in ’33.

However, a worst catastrophe awaits us if we fail to learn the lessons from that election and Churchill’s warning. I submit that you are here today because you sense that the upcoming November election is not politics as usual, that something terrible is about to happen to our country if we don’t prevent it.

You have such a sense of urgency and foreboding that you can almost feel the enveloping inhuman repression crushing you. You sense that the dreams from Obama’s father are really nightmares for America. Inwardly you’re screaming, “Stop the madness … the Chicago-style politics … the overreaching regulations … the overbearing nanny state.”

You approach the media for redress of your grievances, and they report that you are too stupid, too uninformed, and too uneducated to understand the nuances involved in all that Barack Obama and the Democrat Party are doing to transform America.

The truth is the American media have been reduced to a gaggle of crippled weaklings controlled by fear serving up Democrat talking points and Party propaganda. They won’t recognize wickedness and immorality unless it’s to denounce those who do. You trust them at your own peril.

So the battle lines have been drawn. It remains to be seen whether or not the electorate will be fooled with Democrat attack ads, appeals to petty distractions, or cries of independent-mindedness. They are running from Obama, Pelosi, and Reid now, but never forget the cheers of “Yes We Can!” when they passed the stimulus bill, and they yelled it even louder when they passed ObamaCare, and they will scream it at the top of their lungs when they cram cap and trade and immigration reform down our throats if they are not stopped this November.

If Churchill was right in saying that “Democracy is based on reason, a sense of fair play, and freedom and a respect for other people” and “is not some harlot in the street to be picked up by some man with a Tommy gun” then the Democrat party is anything but democratic for it has shown nothing but contempt for democracy.

America is special, a unique country worth saving. It is not just another nation; it embodies the ideal of man’s inalienable rights. If America is to survive, it must undergo a major change in the balance of power. Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and the Democrat Party have plundered this nation’s wealth and destroyed its free market system long enough.

November begins the reckoning, and “we are the guardians of causes so precious to the world, that we must … ‘Lay aside every impediment.'” After all, what is the use of the tea party if it is not to strive to uphold the American ideal for those who will live in these United States after we are gone?

Wake up, Tea Party patriots. You are the hope of America.

Thank you and God’s speed.

The Managers of America‘s Decline

Presented by Jerry A. Kane

 Tea Party Rally
John P. Murtha Amphitheater, Kittanning, Pennsylvania
April 24, 2010

I’m here today to elaborate on the Democrat Party’s management of America’s decline, and to tell you that the fate of this nation is in your hands because the founding Spirit of America has awakened you to resist the tyranny at her doorstep.

This is why the Tea Party movement identifies with America’s first revolt against tyranny, the Boston Tea Party, and why many in the movement dress in colonial garb and brandish the country’s founding symbols such as the “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag and Benjamin Franklin’s snake cut into eight parts depicting the danger of disunity.

As Franklin’s drawing was a call for patriots to unite against the tyranny of the British monarchy, to those same ends I call upon the tea party patriots today to set aside political differences and unite against the tyranny of the progressive oligarchy.  

America’s Founders had the wisdom to recognize their common enemy, to put aside their political differences, and to hang together to keep from hanging separately. Today, however, too many tea party patriots don’t recognize the progressive enemy and far too many are blinded by their pet political issues to see the overarching socialism that is destroying this country.

For the many who have not yet figured it out, the “change” that Brother O promised during his campaign involves the dissolution of the Republic and the imposition of a socialist state, and from the outset of his coronation in January 2009, his Bread and Circuses administration and the Democrat Party have been working feverishly to that end. 

I’ve heard radio talk show hosts and so-called conservative leaders who identify with the Tea Party movement blame corrupt politicians and America’s two-party system for her demise, but if truth be told, the blame lies squarely at the feet of the Democrat Party and the piper who calls the tune, George Soros—the party’s billionaire benefactor and creator of the Shadow Party, which is a nationwide network of more than 60 unions, 527 groups, and think tanks designed to ensure Democrat dominance in the electoral process and to achieve one-party rule in the United States.

The background of the world’s thirty-eighth richest man is replete with effecting political “change.” He helped finance the 1989 “Velvet Revolution” that brought Vaclav Havel (Vass lass Have vule) to power in the Czech Republic. He also helped to engineer coups in Slovakia, Croatia, Georgia, and Yugoslavia.

Before effecting political change in a country, Soros first establishes a shadow government, which is a fully formed government-in-exile, ready to assume power at the opportune moment. The Shadow Party control center that he created inside the Democrat Party is patterned after the shadow governments that he created in other countries before instigating a coup.

To bring change to America’s political system, Soros had to limit the ability of the political parties to raise money.  So in 2002, he engineered campaign finance reform complete with a loophole for private 527 organizations such as MoveOn.org that could collect soft money. 

Once the McCain-Feingold campaign finance laws were established, Soros assembled a coalition of political strategists, activists, and major Democrat donors at his Southampton beach house in Long Island, New York, in 2003, and there he built the Shadow Party to circumvent those very laws that he engineered.

To test the political waters, Soros dumped more than $300 million in Democrat coffers, and created Americans Coming Together or (ACT), a group made up of big government and teacher unions to coordinate media ads and carry out the ground war. ACT gathered 100,000 campaign workers and collected large amounts of money to knock on doors and get people to the polls.

When his candidate John Kerry lost the presidency in 2004, Soros assessed what went wrong then assembled 70 plutocrats in Scottsdale, Arizona, to form the Phoenix Group in the spring of 2005, and there he laid out a five-year plan to create a network of think tanks, media outlets, and training centers to promote his progressive-socialist-Marxist politics.

The Shadow Party is the center of power of the Democrat Party; certainly no Democrat can be elected without tapping into its constellation of organizations. Actually, the Shadow Party is the Democrat Party. It works behind the scenes pushing a radical socialist agenda and few Democratic voters know it even exists.

In December 2004, the Executive Director for MoveOn.org declared the Democratic Party George Soros’s property: “Now it’s our Party. We bought it, we own it …” And in 2006, Joe Lieberman discovered the accuracy of that statement when the three-term incumbent U.S. senator and former vice presidential nominee of the Democrat Party was ousted from the Party by an unknown in the Democratic primaries.

Soros views America’s free enterprise system as the greatest obstacle to world justice and stability, so he’s on an ideological mission. He’s assembled a coalition of billionaires, giant unions, street radicals, and seasoned political operatives, never before seen in American politics, to subordinate America’s interests to global interests; her sovereignty to global government; her law to global courts; her wealth to global taxation; and her productivity to global redistribution schemes.

For Soros to realize his mission, the Democrat Party will need to remain in power through the November Midterm election. Last September Vice President Joe Biden said that if the Republicans take back control of the House, it’s “the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do,” in other words, doomsday for their socialist agenda.

He went on to say that the November election is the “one shot” Republicans have at stopping the Democrat agenda, and if they don’t “the dam will break and a new era of bipartisanship will begin.” Biden’s “era of bipartisanship” will end America’s experiment in representative democracy and usher in the dawn of a new age of progressive socialist governance and dictatorial one-party rule.

In 1932, the German people were afforded a rare opportunity to vote the Nazi Party from power. They had the chance to save their republic from a socialist dictatorship but chose instead to remain divided and cling to their petty political differences.  Because the majority of the German people wouldn’t unite to defeat their greater enemy, the Nazis stayed in power with 42 percent support and every German shared in the guilt of Hitlerism.

Unlike the German majority in ’32, we have the luxury of hindsight. We know that a government that’s big enough to supply our every need is also big enough to take away everything that we have. Friedrich Hayek and Ronald Reagan warned us that big government destroys individual liberty, personal freedom, free enterprise, and the rule of law. And socialism is big government squared; it is a profoundly un-American system that provides a ruling oligarchy with the power to control all aspects of human life from cradle to grave.

Winston Churchill said:  “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” Simply put, socialism, also known as progressivism or leftism or statism, is America’s natural enemy.

The socialist beast that fully controls two of the three branches of America’s government is analogous to the nine-headed Lernaean (ler knee ian) Hydra in Greek mythology. As the story goes, each time Heracles would destroy one of the monster’s heads, two more would spring up in its place. He discovered that the only way to kill the beast was to find and sever its one immortal head. 

Heracles’ discovery regarding the vulnerability of the Hydra also applies to the socialist monster governing America. As Andrew Brietbart’s investigative reporters proved by exposing the corruption at ACORN, it is possible to take down and neutralize the effects of a Soros-funded organization. However, like the heads of the Hydra, when one is destroyed more will emerge to take its place, and in the case of ACORN it will be more groups bearing different names and acronyms.

Metaphorically speaking, the only way to destroy America’s governing monster is to sever its immortal head, and the Democrat Party is that immortal head. And whether we like it or not, the Republican Party is the only weapon in our arsenal that can remove the socialist monster from power. Supporting Libertarian, Green, or even lesser third parties will only diminish the power of the electorate and ensure Democrat rule and a socialist dictatorship.

Those who claim there’s not a dimes worth of difference between the two parties either aren’t paying attention, or they have some other agenda for parroting such misinformation. Take for instance the charge that the president and the Congress won’t listen to the will of the people and apply it to the previous administration:

What happened when George W. Bush and the Republicans tried to push through the Dubai Ports deal? The people rose up in anger, flooded the White House and the Congress with letters, phone calls, faxes, and e-mails, and Bush withdrew deal.

What happened when Bush and the Republicans tried to push through the controversial Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Myers? Again, the people rose up in anger, flooded the White House and the Congress with letters etc, Bush withdrew the nomination.

And what happened when Bush and the Republicans tried to push through the McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill? Once again, the people rose up in anger flooded the White House and the Congress with letters etc, and the amnesty bill was abandoned.

Now apply the same charge to the current Bread and Circuses administration:

What happened when Brother O and the Democrats tried to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, that massive Keynesian waste product commonly referred to as the Stimulus Bill? The people rose up in anger, flooded the White House and the Congress with letters, phone calls, faxes, and e-mails, only this time Congress passed the bill and Brother O signed it into law.

What happened when Brother O and the Democrats tried to push through controversial Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor? Again, the people rose up in anger, flooded the White House and the Congress with letters etc, but this time the nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate and she’s an Associate Justice of U.S. Supreme Court.

And what happened when Brother O and the Democrats tried to push through the health care reform bill, known as ObamaCare? Once again, the people rose up in anger, flooded the White House and the Congress with letters etc, only this time Congress passed the bill and Brother O signed it into law.

Still think the parties are the same? Answer these questions: 

Which political party has tried to discredit the tea parties?

Which political party has been slandering tea party activists?

Which political party has called tea party protesters Astroturf and has falsely accused them in the national media of shouting racial invectives and of spitting on congressmen?

And which political party stereotypes tea party activists as racists, homophobes, and bigots?

Now if memory serves me well, didn’t the Congressman, for whom this amphitheater is named, stereotype his very own constituents as racist rednecks over the national media in 2008?

What’s more, I can name several libertarian and conservative Republicans who champion those very principles the tea party movement supports:  free markets, fiscal responsibility, limited government, the original intent of the Constitution, and the sanctity of the rule of law, but I can’t name even one congressional Democrat who values those principles. Can you?

Denial is not just a river in Africa, it’s also counter-productive. If Republicans don’t take back control of the House and Senate in the Midterm Election, Soros’ Democrat Party has plans to fix subsequent elections to permanently control America’s democratic process.

First, they will grant amnesty to illegal immigrants and speed up their citizenship status to add millions of new Democrat voters.

Next, they will use survey sampling instead of an actual head count for the census to increase the population figures for northeastern cities so their states will get more congressmen and more electoral votes to offset the population shift of the sunbelt states.

Then they will eliminate the secret ballot in union elections to add more unions, which means more union members to vote Democrat.

Finally, they will silence dissent over the Internet through Net neutrality regulations and over talk radio by establishing community advisory boards consisting of local political activists who will monitor radio programming for the FCC and rate whether the content meets community needs. The FCC will levy hefty fines and revoke licenses for low ratings.

Under the guise of progress and compassion, socialism concentrates all the wealth in the hands of an oligarchy in the name of social justice; it reduces people to misery in the name of sharing resources and to ignorance in the name of science; it creates inequality in the name of equality and constructs a network of concentration camps in the defense of liberty.

With disaster looming, are you going to wait until freedom is gone before you understand what freedom means? Are you going to wait until you have no future before you discover the purpose of life? It’s time to decide whether you will be free men or slaves.

 

“A Call to Muster”

By Jerry A. Kane

TEA Party Rally, Annapolis, Maryland

July 2, 2009

My name is Jerry Kane, and I are a recovering English professor.  Over the past nine months I’ve written several commentaries, many have been published on the Web at WorldNetDaily, The American Thinker, Canada Free Press, MichNews, and the American Daughter Media Center.  A collection of my writings also appears on my blog The Millstone Diaries.  

Fritz Gerlich, a journalist who warned the German people of the dangers of Adolf Hitler in the early 1930s, wrote, “the worst thing we can do, the absolute worst, is to do nothing.”  

For too long now, many Americans have been sitting idle, listening to their radios, watching their TVs, allowing their favorite personalities and celebrities to articulate their rage and do their thinking for them.  They have been cajoled to bide their time, be non-combative, and let the talking head opinion makers plead their cause over the airwaves.  

But now Americans must decide whether to remain passive and docile or take a stand for their founding principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, and limited government and fight against progressive socialist governance.

The lesson to be learned from the recent success of the progressives is that is they view politics as war, and if freedom, liberty loving Americans don’t begin to view politics the same way, they will lose their freedoms and liberties as well as the country that has been, since its inception, the beacon of hope for freedom-loving people throughout the world. 

America’s president is not dangerous because he’s a black, inexperienced junior Democrat Senator from Illinois who has skyrocketed to the pinnacle of world power; no, he’s dangerous because he’s a progressive ideologue, hell-bent on making the United States into a union of Socialist Republics.  

Simply put, socialism is a totalitarian system that controls a nation’s production and distribution of goods through a centralized government, which plans and controls its economy. To complete the transition to socialism, Obama has been appointing dictators or czars and turning elected representatives into rulers, using their power to distribute the nation’s wealth to their political allies and cronies. 

Recently on the House floor, Representative Michele Bachmann (Minnesota Republican) mentioned an article she had read about a constituent who had contacted Representative Barney Frank (Massachusetts Democrat) for help to get a dealership reopened. Frank was able to administer the strong-arm tactics and string pulling because he knew the right people and had the right connections. 

In Bachmann’s words, “We now have a total Gangster Government!  They don’t even pretend anymore.  It’s total, in-your-face cronyism….The Federal Government has set up a new cartel, and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their … Congressman or their Senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business…. No business is safe when you see the administration appoint … over 20 czars….We now have an imperial presidency where the President has appointed various czars reporting directly to him.”

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, a completed transition to socialism is the “change” that Obama promised to bring, and from the outset of his coronation back in January, the Bread and Circuses Salvation Sideshow Administration has been working at breakneck speed remaking America. 

Back in May, the Republican National Committee (RNC) passed a resolution accusing Brother O’s Administration of “proposing, passing, and implementing Socialist programs through federal legislation” and of pushing the country “towards European-style Socialism and government control.” It’s hard to believe, but it looks like an actual spine is beginning to form in the elephant.

Think about what has transpired in our nation. Four years ago the Democrat Party was in disarray after failing to win the White House and Congress even though George Soros and the Hollywood leftists contributed record amounts of money.  Following their 2004 defeat, Soros and his wealthy cohorts formed a secret donors’ collaborative, the Democracy Alliance, to elect Democrats and to permanently realign U.S. politics.  They created a permanent political infrastructure by funding nonprofit think tanks, media outlets, leadership schools, and activist groups to confront, combat, and destroy the conservative movement. Soros and his colleagues funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to favored leftist nonprofit organizations, ensuring their control over the Democrat Party and the progressive movement.  

The Democracy Alliance helped change Democrat fortunes, and they went on to defeat Republicans in 2006 and again in 2008. The Democracy Alliance currently has state-level chapters in at least 19 states, and bankrolls the “Secretary of State Project” which has helped elect the chief electoral officials in nine states, including Minnesota, where the Secretary of State, ACORN, and vote fraud played significant roles in stealing Coleman’s Senate seat for Stewart Smalley, a.k.a. Al Franken.  Talk about a state of bi-polar people; first they bless our House with Michelle Bachmann, and then curse the Senate with Al Franken.  Then again, it’s unlikely a curse will produce an effect on such an accursed body. 

When I consider what must be done to save America from progressive socialist governance, I am reminded of a scene from the movie The Matrix.  Shortly after Neo is freed from his bio-pod canister he asks Morpheus why his eyes hurt.  In a rather nonchalant way Morpheus tells him it’s because he’s never used them before. 

Americans whose eyes are open are witnessing a fundamental reshaping of their country, with the potential to definitively mark the end of personal freedom and individual liberty and give rise to a collective fascism. 

With such dire consequences ahead, I offer Colonel Bull Simons’ prescient reminder, “History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight, someone who has the will to fight will take over.” 

 

“To Thine Own Self Be True”

Presented by Jerry A. Kane

CommencementSpeechTESSTCollege of Technology

RooseveltHigh School Auditorium, Greenbelt, Maryland

April 20, 2005

 

In Act I, scene III of Hamlet, Polonius offers the following bit of advice to his son Laertes, who is leaving home to attend college in Paris.

 

                        This above all: to thine own self be true,

                        And it must follow, as the night the day,

                        Thou canst not then be false to any man.

 

To thine own self be true… How profound! Unless we are true to ourselves, we can not be true to others. Polonius advises his son to be a person of integrity. The word itself comes from the mathematical term integer, which is a whole number. Therefore, people with integrity are not divided, they are not two-faced, nor are they back-stabbers. People of integrity, do their best; they do the things they say they will do; they are honorable, true to themselves, and they follow their own conscience.

 

To thine own self be true… How many of us have a hard time being true to ourselves? We have been defined by an action, a job we perform, or a role we play, so much so that we no longer know who we are, and consequently we lose our ability to grow inwardly.  We no longer are able to discern the truth about ourselves than from the lie.  For many of us, we have accepted lies about who we are for so long, that to find out what is really true about ourselves will take a long time. Although the journey to self-discovery is often frustrating and difficult, it is important to know who we are, not only to help us come to terms with our weaknesses, but to help us appreciate our strengths. 

 

In my composition and oral communication classes, I try to give my students the nourishment they need for that journey to self-discovery. I encourage them to know not only what they think, but why they think it. In other words, I teach them to think for themselves, to form their own opinions, attitudes, values, and beliefs, based not upon the authority of parents, peers, and professors, or upon ignorance, whim, or prejudice. I teach them to examine both sides of an issue, evaluate the facts or evidence supporting each side of the issue, and then contemplate the claims presented by each side of the issue.

 

My desire is for my students to be actively engaged with knowledge in the thinking process, and not be just a passive recipient of boring facts. I encourage them to think independently so that they will make good decisions when they face the pressures, distortions, and overemphasized truths of advertisers and politicians who use so-called experts, technical or sociological jargon, and psychological tricks to prey upon an uninformed public.

  

To thine own self be true… was a higher precept for Polonius, that’s why he prefaced his bit of advice with the words “This above all.” A few of his lesser precepts included: watch what you say and don’t say everything that is on your mind; accept criticism and don’t be judgmental, pick your friends wisely, mind your manners, dress conservatively, and never borrow or lend money because that is an irresponsible way to manage your finances.

 

As an instructor of composition and oral communication, like Polonius, I too have varying degrees of knowledge to pass on. Although I spend most of the time stressing the importance of writing and speaking Standard English and how to organize and convey ideas to communicate effectively, my higher concern is to sow the seeds of wisdom so that students will discover the full truth of not only who they are, but the truth that knowledge itself is a unified whole with every field of study a bit or a partition of it.

 

Most jobs require more knowledge than that of one field of study. As someone once said, “When the only tool you have is a hammer, there is a tendency to see every problem as a nail.” That is, students who believe that all they need to be a good doctor is a thorough understanding of biology, pharmacology, and diagnoses, will be of little help to their patients unless they realize that over 80 percent of a typical doctor’s patients will need assistance with emotional problems, in addition to or instead of their physical treatment. The doctor who has studied psychology, literature, history, and sociology will be more perceptive and understanding than the one who has read a few extra medical books.

 

Knowledge moves us from judging appearances or external matters to judging issues that are right and worthy of consideration. This pursuit of knowledge will provide a basis for truth; however, truth is active, and it cannot be accepted without change, and once accepted it will set you free to be true to yourself.

 

·        Patrick Henry was true to himself when he said, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death.”

 

·        Abraham Lincoln was true to himself when he said, “Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it.”

 

·        Franklin Delano Roosevelt was true to himself when he, First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

 

·        John F. Kennedy was true to himself when he said, “And so, my fellow Americans… ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”

 

·        Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was true to himself when he said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.’”

 

·        Ronald Reagan was true to himself when he said, “Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.”

 

·        And finally, the Protestant reformer Martin Luther was true to himself when he said, “It is neither safe nor prudent to do aught against conscience. Here I stand; God help me, I cannot do otherwise.”

 

Not only were these men true to themselves, but they followed their own conscience and had the courage to act on their convictions. By being true to themselves, their actions changed not only the course for this nation’s history, they changed the course of history for the world.

 

Let me close by saying that my prayer for all of you is that you will continue to pursue knowledge and come to understand who you are, and live lives that are true to yourselves. For when you live a truthful life, you are honest with yourself about all of your imperfections, and therefore are not in need of the approval of others.

 

I will always cherish this opportunity I have been granted this evening to speak before such an esteemed group of people. This has been an honor, and I am humbled by it. I would like to leave you with the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said:

 

What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.

 

 

Too Many Laws, Too Little Responsibility

Presented by Jerry A. Kane

PineTownship Supervisors Special Meeting

Heilwood, Pennsylvania

Approximately 300 Township Residents

 

First, let me say that I am not here to levy a personal attack or to malign anyone. I do not know personally, nor have I been acquainted with any of the supervisors, and my complaint and criticism is directed toward their acts as elected representatives of this township.

 

We are facing a great crisis in our country. To quote former Ambassador to the United Nations Alan Keyes, “We no longer have the self-confidence to have the trust and faith in ourselves to hold on to those things that are essential to our liberty.”

 

There is a concerted effort among our officials and our elected representatives to undermine our individual liberties by convincing us that we are incapable of disciplining and controlling ourselves.

 

They tell us we know you are a people incapable of managing your own lives and families and we are here to help you, to protect you and to make you safe. All they ask from us in return is that we open our minds and let them fill it with what we should think, what we should do, and how we should behave.

 

If you think I exaggerate, consider…

 

·        They don’t think we have the capacity to control our passions; so what do they do? They promote the use and distribution of condemns.

 

·        They don’t think we have the capacity to control our tempers; so they lobby to take away our rights to own guns.

 

·        They don’t think we have the capacity to meet our charitable obligations and love for one another; so they provide the aid and welfare.

 

·        They don’t believe parents can be trusted with the moral guidance and upbringing of their own children; so they provide diversity training and education to teach the proper attitudes toward people of differing races, disabilities, and sexual orientations.

 

They perpetuate a concept that is based on fear and distrust of people and they invite us instead to put our trust in the benevolent attention of government.

 

An example of this recently occurred in Alabama when a judge ordered monitors be placed in the hallways of schools to make sure that nobody does any inappropriate praying.

 

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “But what does any of this have to do with the Nuisance Ordinance that was recently passed by our township supervisors. Our committee has appointed other speakers to speak to the problems contained in the ordinance. I am here to address what I perceive to be the overt arrogance and the blatant disregard exhibited by our supervisors toward a group of about 100 township residents who presented them with a petition with 275 signatures.

 

I have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation as to why this ordinance wasn’t tabled in the face of such opposition, knowing full well that the more than 300 people opposing such an ordinance was far greater than the ten or so who supported it.

 

The country’s government represents the first example of a federal republic founded upon the principle of representative government. Although our government is not a pure democracy, the principle of democracy provided the framework that constructed the world’s largest democratic republic.

 

As Abraham Lincoln so eloquently said, “Our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” However, based on the recent actions taken by this board of supervisors, it appears they believe tht some men are more equal than others.

 

In the society depicted by George Orwell in his book 1984, the people were ruled by a government that was the eternal guardian and benefactor of the weak. The slogans implied that the government did not seek power for its own ends, but for the good of the people.

 

The Orwellian government took power because individuals were perceived as weak, frail, cowardly creatures who would not endure liberty or face the truth, and therefore must be ruled over and deceived by a collective government that was stronger than the individual.

 

The governing principle in Orwell’s 1984 society was that happiness and freedom are incompatible, and if the choice for man lay between freedom and happiness, for the majority of mankind, happiness was better.

 

The government ruled the masses for its own good because men had been convinced that they were incapable and unfit to govern themselves.

 

Today, we are witnessing what happens once people are convinced that there is no basis for individual responsibility, that they can no longer make right choices, and that government will do a better job. Ambassador Keyes said it best, “If we can be convinced that we are such a people who can’t be trusted with our liberties, then we will abandon liberty. And when we no longer trust ourselves, we will no longer want our freedom.

 

I am here to tell you that I still believe we are people who are capable of doing what is right, what is just, and what is decent. We do not need any more laws governing our behavior and our actions. We have more laws than we need already.

 

To those people who have problems with their neighbors, I suggest you go to your neighbors and try to work things out, and if that fails, then use the power of the existing laws to achieve your ends.

 

But please, don’t include the rest of us in your fight. Leave the rest of us alone, and in the future, should we have a problem with our neighbor we’ll deal with it like the responsible people we are.

 

 

Velma Kane:  The First One Hundred Years (1904-2004)

Presented  by Jerry A. Kane

Velma C. Kane 100^th Birthday Party

Rustic Lodge, Indiana, Pennsylvania

February 14, 2004

 

I jotted down a few notes on the back on an envelop on my way here today.

 

Five score and four days ago, Frank and Crissie Johns brought forth on

this continent a new girl, Velma Carolyn Johns. Received in Kinport and

dedicated to the proposition that “One should not be, where one does not belong.” 

 

In these rustic surroundings, we have gathered here to honor Velma and to wish her a Happy 100^th birthday.

 

She was born and raised in Kinport, a coal mining town western Pennsylvania, in the house she would live in for the next 95 years. Her Father Frank was a carpenter who built many school houses throughout the surrounding area and also owned and operated a general store, where Velma was nourished on what she would later credit for her longevity, her life’s elixir, that ambrosia for the gods … candy! As she would often say, “I was raised on candy!”

 

She attended grammar school in both Kinport and Cherry Tree and received her high school diploma from Barnesboro in 1922. After high school, she joined and held office in the Daughters of Rebecca, an organization so secret she would never divulge its esoteric knowledge of the hierarchy of the chairs or the oaths of the order.

 

Following her father’s death in ’29, Velma contracted with the Kitchen Cupboard Company and operated a general store outlet for ten years, a job in which she not only got to eat her candy, but could sell it too. When the mines closed and business waned, and her brother Cecil died from complications of pneumonia, Velma went to work at the Barnesboro Shirt Factory.

 

The following year, Velma bought a 1940 Ford, the car she and Walter Hugh Kane would use to elope in only a few months later. Although her elopement would include her mother and Roxie Stiffler-Fisher, it was a daring venture none the less. She had dated Walter for seven years before agreeing to accept the stealthy proposal. Velma was being cautious because of a broken engagement with a two-timing snit whom she had discovered with another woman. After handing back the engagement ring, she told this womanizer to give it to the other woman with the instructions designated to stuff it in a particular part of the anatomy where the sun does not shine.

 

Her marriage to Walter would last until his death in 1975. During those 35 years, she cared for her mother Crissie, who had suffered a stroke in 1950 and was bedfast until she died in 1956. She also opened a foster care home in 1953 and for over 16 years, cared for 60 children, one of whom she took in when he was 10 days, adopted in 1956, and now stands before you. In 1970 she opened a home for the aged and cared for elderly people until she retired at age 95.

 

Velma has lived through interesting times: two world wars, the Great Depression, the Counter-Culture, and the Me-Decade. She has buried her father Frank, her brother Cecil, her mother Crissie, her husband Walter, and the cousin she loved as a sister, Roxie. Velma is and will forever remain, a most remarkable woman. She is an unsung member of Tom Brokaw’s Greatest Generation.

 

I am here today, not just to sing her praises for living to be a hundred years old, but for displaying the grit and the determination to do so. Happy Birthday, Velma Carolyn Johns-Kane, on your First One Hundred Years.