Constitution Day September 17, 2022 “A Republic If You Can Keep It.
Constitution Day September 17, 2022 “A Republic If You Can Keep It.
At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention September 1787, Mrs. Elizabeth Powel, a friend of George and Martha Washington, asked Benjamin Franklin, the oldest delegate to the convention “Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy.” Dr. Franklin replied, “A republic if you can keep it.” How well have we done in keeping that republic. A glance at the current occupant of the White House as well as the majority of members of Congress leads me to conclude that we have done a poor job of it.
Is the U.S. Constitution an outdated relic?
Critics and detractors of the United States Constitution believe that it is an outdate relic of our agrarian past which may have served us well 200 years ago but needs to be replaced. Back in the mid-1990s, I was a guest on the Al Diamon Show- a talk show in Portland, Maine. Mr. Diamon, and the vast majority of his audience did not share my worldview to say the least. I had a very interesting conversation with one of his college age callers. This young man told me, in no uncertain terms, that the U.S. Constitution was outdated, and should be replaced. I asked him if it was written in 1848, would it also be an outdated relic. He replied in the affirmative and I told him that the Communist Manifesto was written in 1848 but oddly we never hear people on the Left demand that it be repudiated. I then asked him if he believed that the 1st Amendment-the one that protects the right of free speech, the press, and the right to peaceable to assemble among other things be abolished. He said that he wasn’t in favor of its repeal. I followed up with asking him about the 4th Amendment that protects us against unlawful search and seizure, the 5th that protects an accused from self-incrimination the 6th that guarantees us a speedy trial judged by impartial jury and the 8th that protects us from being drawn and quartered. He didn’t think that these amendments be repealed either. This caller, like too many American like him are victims of a clique-potentially a dangerous one, that if enough Americans believe, could lead to the end of the liberties we take for granted.
I contend that the U.S Constitution which granted few, defined and specific powers to the United States Government is just as relevant today than when it was first ratified. As King Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” While we went from horse and buggy to the space age and the quill pen and the broadside to Twitter and Facebook, human nature stays the same. Our Founders were learned men who knew history and understood man’s sin nature. This is why they gave us a constitutional that granted limited powers to the U.S. Government.
The U.S. Constitution has a preamble, seven articles and 27 amendments.
Article 1 established the legislative branch, qualifications for office of members of Congress, and grants certain powers including the power to borrow money and declare war.
Article 2 concerns the executive branch which grants very few powers and duties to the president. Being “the most powerful man in the free world” is not one of the duties granted to the president. Nowhere in Article 2 do we read that the president is the most powerful man in the free world.
Article 3 concerns the judicial branch which established “one supreme Court” and gave Congress the power to regulate it. The Supreme Court may be the highest court in the United States, but it is not the highest law of the land.
Article 4 concerns the states. Article 4, Section 4, guarantees every state a “Republican Form of Government and shall protect them against Invasion. Today, it is the official policy of the U.S. Government to aid and abet invasion.
Article 5 concerns the amending process which a made difficult for good reason.
Article 6 makes “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof…. shall be the supreme Law of the Land.”
Article 7 calls for the ratification of nine state before the Constitution will be established. New Hampshire was the 9th state to ratify the Constitution on June 2, 1788, making it the law of the land.
The Constitution has 27 amendments but one-the 21st canceled out another-the 18th. The first ten, known as the Bill of Rights were ratified on December 1791. The 27th Amendment, which concerns Congressional pay raises, would have been part of the original Bill of Rights but wasn’t ratified until 1992.
Keeping this republic begins with us. As is my habit, I am offering free pocket copies. If interested in one, Email me at campconstitution1@gmail.com
What to learn more about this incredible document? Why not attend our weekend retreat which runs from Friday September 30 to Sunday October 2 at Camp Sentinel in Tuftonboro
The Weekly Sam: What’s Wrong With Government Education by Sam Blumenfeld
The enormous failure of our government school system was nicely
summed up by a Boston high school teacher in a recent issue of Education
Week (12/9/98). He said:
“I have about 30 kids in my U.S. history class. They come from nine
different countries: most of them can’t read. Even if they can read the text,
they don’t know what it means. How am I supposed to teach U.S. history to
kids who can’t read? I could come in here every day for 20 years and still
not figure out how to do it.”
Obviously, this particular teacher had no idea how these kids got into
high school without knowing how to read. He had no idea what goes on in
primary school that prevents these children from learning to read, and he
had no idea what to do with older students who are functionally illiterate.
Clearly, the teacher himself is part of the problem. His ignorance of how the
system functions prevents him from helping his students get through it in
one piece. In other words, the compartmentalization of teachers explains
why so many of them have no idea of how the total system works and why
the system can lurch from crisis to crisis without any effective change taking
place.
The real blame for the system’s dysfunction, however, must lie with the
professors of education, the state departments of education, and the
administrators who have all conspired to create the functional illiteracy that
plagues the public schools of America — once considered the most literate
and advanced nation on earth. Deliberately induced illiteracy among
students is a vital part of the plan to dumb down Americans so that they will
be unable to resist the imposition of social and political control by an
arrogant universitarian elite determined to create a new world order based
on humanist-socialist values.
This “education” plan is part of the utopian socialist agenda set down
by the progressives at the turn of the century. The progressives were
members of the Protestant academic elite who no longer believed in the
religion of their fathers. They put their new faith in science, evolution, and
psychology. Science explained the material world (matter in motion),
evolution explained the origin of life (organisms crawling out of the
primordial ooze), and psychology explained human nature and provided
the elite with the scientific means of controlling human behavior.
These men were also socialists. Why? Because they had to deal with
the problem of evil. The Bible tells us that evil is the result of man’s innate
depravity, his innate sinful nature. But since the progressives did not
believe in the Bible, they decided that evil was caused by ignorance,
poverty, and social injustice. And what was the cause of social injustice?
Why, it was this horrible capitalist system with all of its inequities. Socialism,
it was believed, would remove these inequities and thereby solve the
problem of evil. By the way, the progressives did not get their model of
socialism from Karl Marx. They got it from an American by the name of
Edward Bellamy whose book, Looking Backward, published in 1888,
projected the fantasy of a socialist America in the year 2000.
And so, the progressives, dedicated to their utopian ideal, decided to
do all in their power to change America from an individualistic, capitalist,
and religious society into a socialist, collectivist, humanist or atheist society.
How were they to accomplish that? Through the education system. They
would change the curriculum and teaching methods in the public schools so
that American children would emerge as young socialists willing to change
our way of life into a socialist one.
The socialists realized that the transformation might take as much as a
hundred years to complete. In fact, John Dewey wrote in 1898: “Change
must come gradually. To force it unduly would compromise its final success
by favoring a violent reaction.” Dewey then outlined the long-range strategy
which the progressives were to adopt:
What is needed in the first place is that there should be a full and frank statement
of conviction with regard to the matter from physiologists and psychologists and from
those school administrators who are conscious of the evils of the present regime.
Educators should also frankly face the fact that the New Education, as it exists today, is
a compromise and a transition: it employs new methods but its controlling ideals are
virtually of the Old Education. Wherever movements looking to a solution of the
problem are intelligently undertaken, they should receive encouragement, moral and
financial, from the intellectual leaders of the community. There are already in
existence a considerable number of educational “experiment stations,” which
represent the outposts of educational progress. If these schools can be adequately
supported for a number of years they will perform a great vicarious service. After such
schools have worked out carefully and definitely the subject-matter of the new
curriculum,–finding the right place for language-studies and placing them in their right
perspective,–the problem of the more general educational reform will be immensely
simplified.
One hundred years later we can see how successful the Dewey plan
has been in transforming our educational system into one that serves the
needs of the atheist socialist state. Dewey was aided and abetted by a
cadre of reformers that included such luminaries as Edward L. Thorndike,
James McKeen Cattell, Elwood P. Cubberly, George D. Strayer, Charles
Judd, James R. Angell and a host of others. Thorndike, Cattell, and Strayer
ra~ an educational mafia out of Teachers College (Columbia), Cubberly
reigned at Stanford, and Angell became president at Yale.
Change in the curriculum of public education has happened so
gradually that most parents haven’t the faintest idea what is happening to
their children, four million of whom are being drugged daily with Ritalin so
that they can sit in their classroom seats and be socialized without
resistance.
What is truly amazing is the coherence and continuity of the
progressive agenda which is as much alive today at it was when Dewey and
company were pontificating. For example, The Whole Language Catalog, a
sort of bible of the whole-language movement published in 1991, has 15
entries for John Dewey in its index. After citing his debt to Dewey, Kenneth
Goodman, the leading guru of whole-language philosophy, writes:
Whole language picks up where the progressives left off. … [It] takes the
philosophy and positive, child-centered view of the progressive educators and adds
the knowledge of language, of learning, of child development, and of teaching, and
builds a strong scientific base under them. It is this combination of science and
humanistic educational and social philosophy that forms the foundation for whole
language curriculum. … We use the psychological concepts of Piaget and Vygotsky to
underscore Dewey’s concept of learning as transaction: pupils making sense of their
world and being changed themselves in the transactions. (p. 281)
In the early days, the progressives were mainly supported by the major
philanthropic foundations. Today the reforms are being underwritten by
federal and state governments. Three recent federal programs are funding
the massive restructuring of American education in accordance with the
progressives’ plans: Goals 2000 (enacted 3/31/94), School-to-Work
Opportunities Act (enacted 5/4/94), and the Improving America’s Schools
Act, a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of
1965 (enacted 10/20/94). Thus, the Congress of the United States has
become an accomplice in the progressive plan to restructure American
education in the socialist mold.
Apart from needing the funds to carry out their plan, the progressives
also realized that coherence and continuity of their agenda over a hundred
years was vitally necessary if the plan was to be successful. Thus, in 1901
they created the National Society for the Study of Education, wherein the
progressive leaders would be able to formulate their programs of reform,
debate their effectiveness and pass on the baton to their loyal disciples. By
studying their yearbooks, the first of which was published in 1902, one can
follow the inexorable progress of the socialist takeover of American
education.
All of this was accomplished by tenured professors of education and
behavioral psychologists, working within a maze of well-funded professional
organizations, publishing journals, writing textbooks, holding hundreds of
conferences, seminars, and conventions each year. None of this has been
visible to the average parent who puts a child in a public school. Parents
assume that their schools are run by local school boards, superintendents,
principals, and teachers. What they don’t see is the invisible hand behind
this constant pressure for reform that keeps recreating the curriculum.
The average teacher may feel that there is some kind of invisible hand
at work, but teachers would rather blame failure on cultural trends,
excessive television viewing, dysfunctional parents, and such student
disabilities as attention deficit disorder and dyslexia.
Obviously, this is a system of education that cannot be supported by
any Christian. Local control no longer exists. It was inevitable that a
government education system would become a federal system controlled
by those who have been leading us toward totalitarian socialism. Do I
exaggerate? To be convinced that the end goal is a totalitarian system, all
one has to do is read the Student Data Handbook for Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education (NCES 94-303). This is the official
guidebook for the computerized data-gathering system dreamed up by our
totalitarian bureaucrats. The data will include massive information on
health, family, religion, attitudes, psychological assessments, etc. For
example, the attitudinal test is described as: “An assessment to measure
the mental and emotional set or patterns of likes and dislikes or opinions
held by a student or a group of students. This is often used in relation to
considerations such as controversial issues or personal adjustments.”
All of this sensitive, personal data will be housed in a central computer
in Washington making it easy for “educators” to control just about everyone.
But the question is simply this: does the government of a free people have
the right to collect this kind of information on all of its citizens for its own
political or social purposes? Should the government of a free people record
the attitudes and opinions of its citizens so that it can engineer their
personal adjustment?
The time has come for Christians to realize what has become of the
“land of the free and the home of the brave.” If Christians want to restore
the full measure of our freedoms, they will have to do what they are
reluctant to do: remove their children en masse from the public schools.
What is needed now is not accommodation to the plans of the American
Pharoah but a full-fledged exodus of Christian children. That’s the easiest
and most peaceful way to put an end to the socialist agenda and return
America to its basic constitutional principles. Will Christians have the
courage to do what must be done? That test will be upon us sooner than
anyone anticipated.
Please visit and sign up for the Samuel Blumenfeld Archives: https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/
Camp Constitution’s 1st Annual Weekend Retreat Less Than One Month Away
Camp Constitution’s 1st Annual Family Weekend Retreat is less than one month away. It will run from Friday September 30 to Sunday, October at Camp Sentinel in Tuftonboro, NH: https://www.campsentinel.org/
Instructors include Barbara from Harlem, author of Escaping the Racism of Low Expectations, Rev. Steve Craft, author of Morality and Freedom America’s Dynamic Duo, Pastor William Levi, author of The Bible or the Axe: One Man’s Dramatic Escape from the Persecution in the Sudan, Professor Willie Soon, one of the world’s top atmospheric scientists, and Mrs. Catherine White of the Constitution Decoded.
Topics include Celebrating the U.S. Constitution, America’s Godly Heritage, and Refuting the Climate Alarmists. We have a program for junior campers 5-11 taught by Mrs. Edith Craft. Recreation activities include volleyball, basketball, canoeing, and an optional field trip to the Wright World War II Museum.
Cost is $150. per person which includes two nights of lodging, and six meals. A link to the camp application: https://campconstitution.net/2022-weekend-camp-release-form-2/
For more information, please call me at (857) 498-1309 or E-mail campconstitution1@gmail.com
The Weekly Sam: The Great American Math Disaster by Sam Blumenfeld
One of the reasons why Americans are so confused about the large numbers being tossed
around by our leaders in Washington these days, is because of how poorly they’ve been
taught mathematics in the public schools they attended. Numbers in the millions,
billions, and trillions are almost impossible to visualize as anything more than just strings
of numbers. Most Americans can barely deal with thousands, let alone trillions.
The basic problem is that American children are no longer being taught arithmetic. They
are taught math, which includes more than our simple counting system. Arithmetic deals
with quantity. Math deals with relationships and uses complex symbols. When you
submerge arithmetic in mathematics, without making sure that the children have mastered
their counting skills, you get math failure. And this is nothing new. Back in 1991
Newsweek magazine reported (6/17/91):
How bad are eighth graders’ math skills? So bad that half are scoring just above
the proficiency level expected of fifth-grade students. Even the best students did
miserably; at the top-scoring schools, the average was well below grade level.
Hardly any students have the background to go beyond simple computation, most
of those kids can add but they have serious trouble thinking through simple
problems….
What’s really frightening about these results is that the alarm has been ringing
since the 1983 publication of “A Nation at Risk,” the federally sponsored study
that highlighted vast problems in the public schools. Yet despite years of talk
about reform–and genuine efforts of change in a few places–American students
are still not making the grade and remain behind their counterparts in other
industrialized nations.
All of those kids who did miserably in math in 1983 and 1991 are today’s voting adults in
their thirties and forties. And let us not forget the disaster called the “New Math” which
swept through America’s elementary schools like a hurricane during the 1960s and ’70s,
creating today’s math illiterates among Boomers in their fifties and sixties.
The educators blame the problem on traditional arithmetic, which hasn’t been taught in
years, but is a perfect scapegoat. They complain that too much time is wasted practicing
adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. The solution? More calculators and
computers.
The real problem is that our educators really don’t know the difference between
arithmetic and mathematics, and if you don’t know the difference, you will not know how
to teach either.
Our arithmetic system is an ingenious method of counting, keeping track of quantity. It
uses 10 symbols and place value for all of its notations and operations. As such it is one
of the greatest achievements of the human intellect, an invention that permits human
beings to perform any counting feat with mere pencil and paper.
But the key to its proficient use is memorization of the basic arithmetic facts. If you
don’t memorize the facts, then you are stuck with unit counting and you might as well
learn to use an abacus. Memorization requires rote drill, which is forbidden in today’s
schools, even though it is the easiest way for a child to learn anything. When educators
think that children can learn to compute without memorizing the arithmetic facts, they are
deluding themselves and cheating the children.
Why is it important for children to memorize the arithmetic facts? Because
memorization will give them mastery of the system. And once the arithmetic facts are
memorized through drill and practice with pencil and paper, they will later be able to use
calculators and computers with accuracy, spotting errors when they make them, always
able to do the calculations on paper if necessary.
Why did eighth graders do so poorly even in wealthy suburban schools? Because of bad
teaching. Obviously, when even the richest and brightest fail, one cannot blame it on
rote memorization when we are told that memorization is what makes the Japanese
student so much better than the American. If teachers do not even know how to teach
simple arithmetic effectively, how can we assume that they know how to teach algebra,
geometry, trigonometry, or calculus effectively?
Besides, very few of us will need to use algebra, geometry, trigonometry or calculus, but
all of us will need to use arithmetic–in doing tax returns, figuring out mortgages,
balancing our checking accounts, using credit cards, making change, planning our
retirement. So if everyone must use arithmetic in order to survive economically, why
don’t the educators emphasize the need to develop good arithmetic skills?
Back in 1983, John Saxon, the celebrated author of superb mathematics textbooks used
by home-schoolers and private schools, wrote:
“For the last twenty years, these [mathematics] experts have worked unwittingly to bring
matters to a point where only the brilliant can learn mathematics. They have tried to
teach advanced concepts and a general overview before the student has learned the
basics….In an important sense, these authors are experts neither in mathematics nor in
education. They do not know which mathematics topics must be mastered at which level
and have no understanding of the capabilities of the average student. Their books are
visible proof that they do not know how children learn and assimilate abstractions.”
(National Review, 8/19/83)
Until rote learning is restored in our primary schools in the teaching of arithmetic, we can
expect math failure to plague American public education for the foreseeable future.
Semi-Fascist–The Great Unifier Strikes Again
Joe Biden, “The Great Unifier” recently called Trump supporters “semi-fascists.” At a recent Democratic National Committee fundraising event in Bethesda, Md, Biden said: “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism,” Biden said.
The term “fascism” is one of most misunderstood term in politics. Fascism is an economic system in which the state has control over the economy. Private property and private ownership of the means of production is allowed in a fascist economic system but it is highly regulated. Biden, his handlers, and the Democrat Party have more in common with fascism or semi-fascism that their political opponents Pictured below is a 14-page article from the February 1977 “American Opinion” magazine that properly explains Fascism and its close relative National Socialism. Copies are available for $5. postage included from our on-line shop: https://campconstitution.net/product/fascism-and-national-socialism/ Readers who would like a free PDF version, may E-mail me at campconstitution1@gmail.com
Rev. Craft’s Warning To Those That Cause “One of these little ones to stumble.”
Camp Constitution held events in Aroostook County, Maine this weekend and as we were visiting the Fort Fairfield Block House where an old millstone was on display, Rev. Craft wanted to give a message from Matthew 18:6:
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
The Weekly Sam: The NEA Trojan Horse in American Educaton
Sam Blumenfeld was a prolific writer who dedicate his life to expose the pernicious influence of the change agents who have taken over America’s government schools and teaching people how to read via intensive phonics. His book was one of his most important works. While hard copies may be found on-line, we make a PDF version available on Sam’s archive: http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/Books/NEA-Trojan%20Horse%20In%20American%20Education.pdf
Please consider a donation to Camp Constitution. Donations may be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage: https://www.campconstitution.net
Camp Constitution’s 15th Annual Family Camp YouTube Playlist
Our videographer Mert Melfa does an incredible job videotaping the classes and activities at our annual family camps. He uploads them to both our Rumble and YouTube channels. Last week, he uploaded our videos to our YouTube channel. Here is a link to the playlist:
This playlist contains 27 videos which include classes by Professor Willie Soon, Pastor David Whitney, Mrs. Catherine White, Attorney Jonathan Alexandre, Rev. Steve Craft, Alex Newman, Michael King, Karen Testerman, Norman Tregenza, and General John Stark reenactor Richard Wright. Please subscribe and share these videos far and wide.
Camp Constitution’s Float Wins 1st Place in the Alton, NH Old Home Week Parade
Camp Constitution’s float in the annual Alton, NH’s Old Home Week Parade won first place. Over the years, Camp Constitution has had floats in Dedham, MA’s Flag Day Parade, Roslindale Day Parade (Boston, MA), and the annual Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in South Boston. This was our second year in the Alton Parade. In addition to the float, Camp Constitution hands out pocket copies of the U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence to parade spectators. In today’s parade, we handed out over 300. Like, every other parade, our float and presence at the parades are well-received by parade spectators. The award included a trophy and $150. prize.
Special thanks to Michael and Paulie Heath, Maura Shurtleff, Steve Wanager and his dog Gracie.
The Christian Flag Project
Mr. Scott Newman of the Christian Flag project contacted us after learning of our Christian flag raising in Boston last week. He told us of his and his organization’s goal to get one million Christian flags raised around the United Stated by September 26.
Here is the interview we did with Scott on Catching Fire News:
https://catchingfire.news/2022/08/08/the-christian-flag-project/
From the Christian Flag Project’s website:
Join Us
The Christian Flag Project was formed to have at least 1 million flags flying by Sept 26th by Christians across America on their homes and businesses. We passionately move towards this goal with each flag hoisted bravely in our communities.
Join in our passionate mission to achieve our 1 million+ Christian flags flying together boldly as Brothers and Sisters in Christ. It’s easy to join in the movement without leaving your home.
How To Participate
1) Plant a flag in your community by flying your Christian Flag on your home or business
2) Post your Christian Flag flying on social with #ChristianFlagProject so we can add your community to our map
3) If you don’t have a Christian Flag, order the Official Flag Project Flag .
WHY SEPTEMBER 26TH?
The story goes that the Christian flag dates back to an impromptu speech given by a Charles C. Overton, a Sunday school administrator at Brighton Chapel in Brooklyn, New York, on September 26, 1897. Since the guest speaker didn’t show, Overton had to step in.
While noticing the American flag near the podium, he starting talking about flags and their symbolism. The concept was born when Overton proposed that Christians should have their own flag, and it continued to stay on his mind for years to come after the speech.
Eventuallly, in 1907, Overton teamed up with Ralph Diffendorfer, an officer with the Methodist Missionary Movement, to help in creating the flag.
It’s interesting to note that the colors on the flag match those on the American flag. White represents purity and peace, blue indicates fidelity, and red stands for Christ’s blood sacrifice.
The Christian flag is regularly displayed outside of buildings, churches, and in classrooms, but few realize its important history and significance dating back over a century.
