Camp Constitution’s 17th Annual Family Camp Report
Camp Constitution’s 17th annual family camp ended last Friday July. While our numbers were down from last year’s camp, we still had an excellent turnout with attendees coming as far as Alaska, Wyoming and Utah.
Returning instructors included Professor Willie Soon, one of the world’s top atmospheric scientists, who attended with his family, Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution, Rev. Steve Craft who serves at the camp chaplain, Mrs. Catherine White of the Constitution Decoded, Dr. Felecia Nace, author of several books, and author and host of the Liberty Sentinel program, Alex Newman. Guest instructors included Michelle Gallagher, author of A Guide to the Forefather’s Monument, Mr. Kurt Hyde, an expert of election fraud, and Mr. Chris Burke who taught an optional class on the use of HAM Radios. A link to our YouTube playlist of classes and activities at our camp:
https://studio.youtube.com/playlist/PL7jnzBzBiNYDeD_94loNG8mUcUMFM2m2N/videos
Sunday, we held out staff and camper orientation, a hearty dinner and our nightly campfire. We start our first full day with an optional run and/or swim at 6:30. Wake up is 7:00 and morning devotions and flag-raising at 7:50. As he has for the past few years, veteran camper Franklin Soon plays “Reveille” https://youtube.com/shorts/cefjwGuxiRs?si=P5TJ7Gissmv
After a hearty breakfast, the camp conducts three 45-miniute classes
During the first class, Head Counselor Chris Kalis conducts room inspection where we look for cleanliness, as well as a Patriotic and Christian theme. Chris will give the room points towards the room inspection contest where the occupants of the winning room get treated to free pizza on Thursday after campfire. . The daily inspection results are posted in the camp’s daily newspaper, “Camp Constitution Journal” distributed in the evening. The paper, edited Mark Affleck, also has articles written by campers about the daily activities and classes. A link to PDFs of the camp paper: https://s3.amazonaws.com/camppictures/CampArchive/Journals/Camp%20Constitution%20Journal%2017-1%202025.pdf
From Monday to Wednesday, attendees were treated to a rendition of The National Anthem led by world renowned clarinetist Jonathan Cohler and “The Camp Constitution Band”: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_rbhDHwabNo
Mr. George Dewhurst conducted an optional martial arts class Monday afternoon: https://s3.amazonaws.com/camppictures/2025/Classes/index.html#02%2520Mon%2520Self%2520Defense%252004.MP4
For the third year in a row, Mr. Keith Hansom of Critical Dynamics conducted optional marksmanship classes on Tuesday afternoon with help from Pastor David Whitney and Mr. Jonathan Cohler:
On Wednesday afternoon, we took an optional field trip to the Calvin Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth, VT:
In the afternoon, attendees had plenty of recreational opportunities including volleyball, chess tournaments, swimming, gaga, basketball, and much more:
Teaching the junior campers ages 5-11 were Mrs. Edith Craft (5-8) and Mrs. Jessica Whitworth (9-12) with help from Donna DeSantis, Mrs. Roberta Stewart, and Mrs. Kathy Mickel:
On Thursday morning, junior campers paraded around the camp dressed in colonial attire:
At our closing ceremonies, the Super Camper Award went to first-time camper Melanie Shrader and veteran camper Eamon Westrick They both get a free tuition for next year’s camp for themselves or a sibling or friend. Westrick. Runner-up honors were Annaliese Westrick, Nyah Johnson and David Tyuvin. Videographer Mert Melfa was awarded the Super Staffer Award, and Pastor David Whitney received the Super Instructor Award.
Next year’s camp will run from Sunday July 12 to Friday July 17, 2026, at the same venue.
Thanks to all who helped to make this event happen.
The Weekly Sam: Devising Your Own Philosophy of Education By Samuel L. Blumenfeld
One of the great freedoms that homeschoolers have is the freedom to devise their own
philosophy of education as well as the freedom to implement it. It’s the most important
freedom we have. It’s what we call educational freedom, which is indispensable to the
maintenance of a free society. The liberals and atheists may succeed in getting the Ten
Commandments removed from a government building, but they have no power to impose
their philosophy of education on you and your children. They can impose it on the
children in the public schools, but they cannot impose it on you. And therein lies the true
freedom of the American people.
Thus, every homeschooler should exercise that freedom so that it becomes an important
part of the homeschool experience. What is a philosophy of education? It is a statement
of principles and beliefs that forces us to define the word education so that it becomes
something of substance and true meaning and not merely a word tossed around by
politicians, judges, and professional educators.
I remember sitting in a courtroom some years ago listening to an attorney, supposedly
defending homeschoolers, who told the judge that he believed that the “state had a
compelling interest in education.” He never bothered to define what he meant by
education. Nor did the judge ask him what the word meant, since we know that what
goes on in today’s public classrooms could hardly be called education. What takes place
there is brainwashing. So, what is education? That’s the question every homeschooling
parent should ask and attempt to answer.
My own definition is quite simple. To me, education is the process of passing on to the
younger generation the knowledge, wisdom, morals, and spiritual values of the older
generation. That’s how a civilization is maintained from one generation to the next.
People often wonder how was it possible for the Jewish people to survive as a people
despite dispersion and persecution, so that they could go from their expulsion from the
land of Israel by the Romans around 131 A.D. to the restoration of the State of Israel in
1948. How did they maintain their identity, their religion, their hopes and dreams for
over fifteen hundred years, scattered all over the world. The answer is simple: the Bible,
the Five Books of Moses, the Torah. That sacred Bible was handed down from
generation to generation and its message kept alive to this very day.
And that adherence to the Bible, from which the New Testament is derived, must be at
the heart ofthe American homeschooler’s philosophy of education. It is all spelled out in
Deuteronomy 6. The American nation was fuunded on that Bible, and that is the reason
why we still enjoy educational freedom in America. And that is why Bible study must be
at the heart of the homeschooler’s curriculum.
The liberals and leftists have been conducting their revolution in America by slowly
weaning Americans away from the Bible. Removing the Ten Commandments from a
state courthouse, where it served to educate the public about the origin of our laws, is one
of the more insolent and blasphemous of their actions. But what it teaches us is that we
must renew our efforts to bring up Christian children in the love and admonition of the
Lord. And so, we must diligently teach our children the Word of God.
If you want your child to be able to read the Holy Scripture with ease and enjoyment, you
must teach your child to read by intensive, systematic phonics. That’s the way it was
done in colonial times, and that is why Americans were so highly literate in those days.
They were taught to read in the correct phonetic manner, which made it possible for small
boys and girls to read the Bible fluently and with understanding.
So, from the start, your philosophy of education will be very different from that
espoused by the public school in your neighborhood, which so many of your neighbo~
children attend. It is very different in concept, since the public schools forbid the
teaching ofthe Bible in their curriculum. It is also different in methodology, since the
public schools teach children to read by the whole-word method, which dumbs them
down and intellectually retards them.
How can one teach American history without reference to the Bible? When John
Winthrop and 700 colonists landed in Massachusetts Bay in l630, he told the
congregation:
We are a Company, professing ourselves fellow members ofChrist, and thus we
ought to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love ….
We shall find that the God ofIsrael is among us, when ten of us shall be able to
resist a thousand of our enemies, when He shall make us a praise and glory, that
men of succeeding plantations shall say, “The Lord make it like that of New
England.” For we must consider that we shall be as a City upon a hill the eyes of
all people are upon us.
Homeschoolers can teach our true history by making their children aware of the deep
religious faith of the founding fathers. But none of this can be taught in the public
school, which means that the history taught there is distorted and false. They cannot even
quote George Washington who issued a National Day of Thanksgiving Proclamation in
1789, in which he stated:
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty
God, to obey His will~ to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His
protection and favor. …
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of
November next, to be devoted by the people ofthese United States … that we then
may all unite unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and
protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; … for
the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish
constitutions ofgovernment for our safety and happiness, and particularly the
national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we
are blessed.
As Christian parents you have the right to imbue your children with these wonderful
statements of our founding fathers, so that your children will know the true religious
origin ofour institutions. Our history is rich with such expressions of religious fervor on
the part of statesmen and politicians who understood the source ofAmerican felicity.
Your philosophy ofeducation should help you choose the materials with which to do the
teaching. Some parents want a highly structured program with much discipline in the
educational process. Other parents prefer a more relaxed approach to give their children
greater freedom to choose what they will study, having confidence that their children will
develop interests in subjects which parents may not have thought of.
One homeschooling mother on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, when required by the local
superintendent to submit her education plan for her son, wrote:
The priorities of our curriculum are daydreaming, natural and social sciences,
self-discipline, respect for self and others, and making mistakes. I encourage an
acceptance of failure so that he will be comfortable taking risks ….My curriculum
was best expressed by Blake: “To see a world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a
wildflower, To hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.”
Not all children can handle so much freedom. I remember reading a letter in a magazine
from a homeschooler who wished that her parents had exerted greater discipline over her
education so that she would not have wasted so much time reinventing the wheel.
In other words, many children want guidance from those who know more than they do.
They look at parents as the experts who can lead them to where they should go. Parents
who are professionals can easily lead their children to take up their profession if that is
what the child fields of interest.
Some parents decide very early what they want their children to become: engineers,
physicians, nurses, lawyers, teachers, military men, politicians, policemen, and other such
well-defined professions. Few parents would urge their children to become poets, actors,
TV anchormen, artists, fashion designers, models, journalists, editors, photographers,
Hollywood stuntmen, etc. Young people take up these professions mainly out of their
own interest, unless they have a parent in that line of work. For example, in Hollywood,
the children of actors, directors, and producers usually go into the same line of work as
their parents because of easy access to the profession and the connections of their parents.
Thus, if you want your child to go into a well-defined profession, you can provide the
kind of education that leads to it. On the other hand, by giving your child greater
freedom in choosing the curriculum, he or she may develop a desire to do what comes
naturally: writing stories, designing clothes, painting pictures, playmg an instrument,
singing, acting, or selling things. But they still have to learn the academic basics.
Many homeschooling moms are happy to maintain warm, comfortable, loving homes for
their families while their husbands provide the means to pay the bills. After all,
housekeeping is a profession as well as a science all its own. Cookillg, cleaning,
decorating, gardening, furnishing, sewing, shopping are tasks that virtually every child
learns by just watching their parents do it. A home is a special place for all of us. It is
where we socialize with parents and siblings and learn how to be civil with one another.
We can all remember the days when we had to share the bathroom, wash the dishes,
make our beds, prepare the meals, set up the decorations at Christmas time. Who would
deny that something is being learned everyday at home?
Stay-at-home moms also serve as models for their children who sooner or later will marry
and have families of their own and will have to do all ofthe things that their parents did.
When a stay-at-home mom supervises the education of her children, she raises her status
in their eyes. And when she and her husband develop their own philosophy of education
on top of all that, they become true educators.
The public schools have not only destroyed true education, but they have also destroyed
the teaching profession. In the old days a teacher stood in front of her class and taught
the basics in a way that made sense and produced excellent results. Today, that teacher is
a facilitator who simply walks around the room conferring with students but doing very
little real teaching. The children leave that system woefully uneducated and miseducated.
And so, parents who want their children to be smartened up instead of dumbed down
have been forced to do it themselves. And that is all to the good because it has forced
parents to free themselves from an institution that has become evil and destructive of
religion and morality.
Once the academic basics are taught, you can then decide what is important for your
children to know. They should know about our political system, and take an interest in
the electoral process. It’s the politicians who must protect our freedoms, and
homeschoolers should take an active role in supporting legislators who are on the side of
educational freedom. Taking part in political races may inspire your child to become not
only a legislator but also the President! Why not? Let your child aim high.
History, geography, science, mathematics, economics, a foreign language, and of course
English must all be in your curriculum. Each subject represents a challenge in terms of
how to approach it.
Homeschool book fairs offer an exciting array of books on all of
these subjects. The public schools offer dull textbooks that put the students to sleep.
You have the freedom to choose books that will make the subject interesting. A good
way to study history is by reading biographies and autobiographies. History is made by
men and women, and we can learn much by how they lived and influenced the future.
In the field ofeconomics you must provide your child with the arguments against
socialism. Economic freedom is as important as educational freedom, and it is vital for
your child to know the basic principles of both.
As for learning a foreign language, you and your child can decide which language to
study. Some languages open a whole new world of culture; others provide a practical
skill that may be of more economic value than cultural value. Usually in school a foreign
language is imposed. But at home you can make your own choice based on your own
criteria.
The fields of science and mathematics are the keys to a career in high technology. The
computer now rules our lives. Television, videos, CDs, DVDs, camcorders and other new hi
tech instruments are the currency of the new millennium. Your children are the ones who
will be living in the future world. If they are now ten years old, they are likely to live to
2080. What we must all hope for is that America in the year 2080 will be as free as it still
is in 2003, and hopefully even freer. All oft hat is up to the children that you and other
homeschoolers will have educated and sent out into the world. With God’s help, your
children will be a blessing to this magnificent United States of America.
The Blumenfeld Archives http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm
The Declaration of Independence and the Men Who Signed It.
Mrs. Wolf, my eight-grade history teacher in a Boston Public School, ensured that her students not only knew the reasons why the 13 colonies united against Great Britain, and declared their independence from Great Britain but had her students memorize a good portion of the Declaration of Independence. They also had to know about the men who signed what could have been their death warrant if they were unsuccessful, and the sacrifices they made.
As a means of honoring the memory of those brave men and my beloved history teacher, I felt that I had an obligation to share this information. Over the years, I would help man information tables on the Boston Common with a sign that reads “Honoring the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. How Many Can You Name?” Many of the people who stopped by our table were in town to attend the Boston Pops annual concert which would end with an incredible fireworks display. Few of them could rattle off more than two or three signers, but they left the table with a copy of the Declaration with all the names of the signers.
July 2, 1776, is the day that the Second Continental Congress voted for independence and for two days, delegates debated and edited the Declaration written over a three-week period by Thomas Jefferson. It is generally believed that John Hancock as the President of Congress was the only delegate to sign the Declaration on July 4th. August 2, 1776, was the date that most of the delegates signed the Declaration of Independence
Delegate John Adams of Massachusetts. the man who probably did more to get independence declared said this prior to the vote:
‘Sink or swim, live, or die, survive of perish, I give my hand and heart for this vote…. You and I indeed may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die colonists; die slaves; die, it may be ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so, be it so
“If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready…. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country and that of a free country…
“Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgement approves the measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it, and I leave off as I began, that live or die, survive or perish, I am for the Declaration, It is my living sentiment and by the blessings of God, it shall be my dying sentiment, Independence now and Independence forever.”
| The Lives of the Signers
One of the best books about the signers of the Declaration of Independence is Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of American Independence by B. J. Lossing published in 1848 and reprinted by Wall Builders. In this excellent book, we get the true historical background of the signing of the document and a brief biographical sketch of the men who signed it. (A link to a free PDF version of the book: https://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/livesofsignersof0000bens.pdf One livesofsignersof0000bens The New York delegates Francis Lewis, William Floyd, Philip Livingston, and Lewis Morris bared a good portion of the British brunt losing their wealth and their property destroyed. Francis Lewis’ wife was imprisoned and died shortly after her release due to the brutal treatment she received. Philip Livingston had his businesses and home confiscated, and he died in 1778 broke and separated from his family. New Hampshire had three signers: William Whipple, Dr. Josiah Bartlett, and Matthew Thornton.
Josiah Bartlett was born in Amesbury, MA in 1729. He moved to Kingstown, NH in 1750 and opened up a medical practice. In 1765, he was elected to the Provincial Assembly. In May of 1774, his house was burned to the ground. Tories were suspected. He was the 2nd person to sign the Declaration. He later became New Hampshire’s first governor.
William Whipple was born in Kittery, Maine, then a part of Massachusetts in 1729. He became a ship’s master at the age of 21. He moved to Portsmouth, NH in 1769. In 1775, he was elected to New Hampshire’s Provincial Congress in 1775. He was elected to the Continental Congress. In 1777, he received a military commission by the New Hampshire Provincial Congress. He rose to the rank of Brigadier General and fought in a number of battles including the Battle of Saratoga. He freed his slave Prince Whipple who served beside him in a number of battles. He died in 1785 and is buried in Portsmouth.
Matthew Thornton was born in Ireland in 1714. At the age of three, he and his parents came to the America and settled in Wiscasset, Maine. In 1722, Indians raided his town and burned their house. The Thorntons moved to Worcester. Matthew studies medicine and became a doctor. He moved to Londonderry, NH, and was appointed a surgeon in the New Hampshire Militia. In 1775, he became the president of the New Hampshire Provincial Congress. He was elected to the Continental Congress but didn’t serve until November of 1776 when he signed the Declaration. In 1780, he retired from his medical practice and moved to Merrimack where he remained active in state politics serving as a state rep. In 1803 while visiting his daughter in Newburyport, MA, he passed away. He is buried in Merrimack, NH In some circles, the term “sacred honor” is considered a silly anachronism of a less enlightened era and regard the signers as “dead white European males whose values must be demeaned. However, we at Camp Constitution-staying true to our motto “Honoring the Past…Teaching the Present…Preparing the Future, along with, what I believe to be most Americans will never forget the true meaning of Independence Day. Happy 249th Birthday United States of America May you have many more, and may its citizens never forget the brave men and woman that have helped keep our nation free. For a free pocket copy of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence with a list of the signers, please sent me an E-mail to campconstitution1@gmail.com
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of the most compelling facts is that not one of the signers betrayed the new nation. Not one “flip-flopped” or became “politically correct.” When they pledged their lives and sacred honor, they meant it. Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration, several of them and their family members died from their wounds or hardships. Five were captured and imprisoned under harsh conditions. Twelve had their homes burned to the ground, and 17 were impoverished. And, no, none of them made these sacrifices to promote the institute of slavery. Indeed, the Declaration of Independence helped pave the way for the ultimate abolition of slavery in the United States.
Free PDF of Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence Book
As we celebrate the 249th anniversary of our nation’s birthday, we also need to honor the memory of the 56 brave men that made that birthday possible. They pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. The link below is for an 1870 PDF version of Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence by Benson Lossing of a book originally published in 1848 contains short biographies of these brave men.
https://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/livesofsignersof0000bens.pdf
New Hampshire Educaton Options: Upsetting the Education Mafia
My late friend and mentor Sam Blumenfeld once remarked that the government school system is a “sick obsolete dinosaur being propped up by powerful lobbyists like the National Education Association, and government officials.” The truth of that statement was on full display recently at the Wolfeboro Library. On June 10th New Hampshire Education Options held an exposition inside while outside on the sidewalk in front of the library were a group of people demonstrating against New Hampshire Education Options’ presence. There were well over 100 attendees at the exposition, mainly young couples with small children who are seeking alternatives to government schools. Some of the attendees were already homeschooling their children or sending them to private or charter schools.
The folks demonstrating against free people making their own decisions about their children’s education outside of the library-about twenty- were trying to preserve the sick obsolete dinosaur that cost the taxpayers up to $30,000 a year per student while not only giving them a substandard level of education but are aggressively promoting a worldview that is hostile to a moral and free people. I suspect some, if not all of them, were government school employees or family members of government school employees that have a financial interest in preserving that sick obsolete dinosaur. The organizer of the protest was Bobbi Boudman who ran unsuccessfully for state rep. This sick obsolete dinosaur supporter called the Education Options organizers and the attendees “hate mongers.” Such a reckless and irresponsible statement from a mouthpiece of the Education Mafia will not deter the folks at Education Options. It will only inspire them. As the saying goes, “If you are catching flak, you must be over the target.”
From Education Option’s website:
Our mission is to provide information, support, and connections to families who want to explore education options. To do this, we hold expos in different regions around the state, connect people to the resources that will help them, and support families in their efforts to educate their children.
EdOpt is a 501(c)(3) non-profit education organization. We accept tax-deductible donations to help us with our mission.
2024 Year Founded 12 Expos Hosted 1000+ Providers Indexed 2+Upcoming Expos.
A few testimonials:
My daughter used to cry every morning and feel sick to her stomach before going to school – she never wanted to go.
We chose a drop-off learning center. Mom of a 10 Year Old
My kids were never excited to learn until they started at Micah Studios in Newport. Mom of 3 (ages 7, 9 and 12)
My third grader was struggling to read at 1st grade level. We chose to homeschool. Homeschool Mom
Its founder is Jody Underwood:
President/Chair Jody Underwood has spent almost all of her life involved in education. Retired in 2023, she’s a learning scientist-she designed and produced software to help students learn or be assessed. For many years she worked for the Research Division of Education Testing Service (ETS), the people who bring you the SAT, NAEP, and other standardized tests.
She served on the Croydon, NH School Board from 2010-2023, serving as chair much of the time. She’s a founding board member of the non-profit School District Governance Association (SDGA) whose mission is to help school board members discover their lawful powers. She has been involved in bill review, focusing on the vast number of education bills proposed each year for the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance and the SDGA.
Along with a small team, she began the process of starting a charter school in the Upper Valley Area. They found that the law wouldn’t allow them to do the type of school they wanted but learned a lot about the process along the way. Jody worked with the founders to set up Micah Studios, a learning center in Newport, NH, which started in September 2024.
She has a PH. D. in Science and Technology Education, and a B.S. and M.S. in computer science with a focus in artificial intelligence. Her dream has always been to revolutionize learning environments to engage individuals to move ahead at their own pace.
Camp Constitution has attended nine of the twelve expos held around the state so far. These expos, usually held in public libraries or churches, are free to both vendors and the public. Attendees find a wide variety of options to the inferior government schools from private prep schools to Christian schools to charter schools, to learning centers and, of course, home schools cooperatives. They also offer extracurricular activities like aviation schools, acting classes, music lessons, , organic farming, gardening, nature hikes forensics for children, organizations offering scholarships, and much more. We offer families our week-long family retreats and our Sam Blumenfeld Archives which is a free on-line resource for educators and homeschoolers.
It has been an excellent experience for us. We have met with dozens of people from young parents who are planning to homeschool their children to parents who are exploring options to government schools to parents looking for after school programs.
Members of the Education Mafia, and their allies are not pleased that their near monopoly on the minds of our nation’s children are under attack. Let’s continue to break that near monopoly. Readers are encouraged to attend and/or host a New Hampshire Education Options exposition in their area. For more information, please visit their website https://edopt.org/about/
Helping Camp Constitution
Camp Constitution’s 17th Annual Family Camp is one month away. Thanks to our generous supporters over the years, we are able to make our week-long camp affordable to families. We have never turned away for lack of funds. We hope this year will be no exception.
We are asking our friends to consider making a donation to help a family attend our camp this year. The full cost for those thirteen and older is $300., and those twelve and under $200. Any donation would be greatly appreciated. Donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage https://www.campconstitution.net or via check payable to Camp Constitution and mailed to me at 146 Powder Mill Rd. Alton, NH 03809
Our recent news release announcing our upcoming camp:
Camp Constitution Announces Its 17th Annual Family Camp
Camp Constitution will hold its 17th Annual Family Camp at the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 13 to Friday July 18, 2025
Returning instructors include Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution, Keith Hanson of Critical Dynamic, Professor Willie Soon, world renowned astrophysicist and climate realist, Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded, Alex Newman, author and host of the Sentinel Report, and Rev. Steve Craft, Camp Constitution’s chaplain.
Guest instructors include Mr. Kurt Hyde, retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US Air Force, and election fraud expert, and Michelle Gallagher author of Forefathers Monument Guidebook. In addition to the classes, the camp will offer marksmanship courses, martial arts, hiking, basketball, volleyball, wiffleball, and optional field trip and swimming, chess, gaga and corn hole tournaments. Campers and staff end the day with an evening campfire.
Camp Constitution’s annual camp is a family camp open to entire families, unaccompanied minors, and adults. The cost for the week which includes lodging, meals and class handouts is $300 for those 13 and over. $200. For campers 12 and under, and three and under with parents are free. A link to the camp registration: https://campconstitution.net/camp-registration/
For more information contact Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309 campconstitution1@gmail.com 
Instructor Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded Returns to Our 17th Annual Family Camp
Camp Constitution is blessed to have an incredible group of instructors and one of those is Mrs. Catherine White. She has been an instructor for at least then years, and she is returning to our 2025 camp which runs from July 13-18.
A Massachusetts native – born in Worcester, raised in Quincy, Mrs. White is a graduate of MIT. Many years, ago she started
a book club to read W. Cleon Skousen’s “The 5,000 Year Leap.” Out of that grew a monthly US Constitution study group. She
also coordinates a schedule of lectures, talks,study groups, and events – all centered on teaching the Constitution. You can contact
her, read her articles and watch videos at her
web site: http://www.constitutiondecoded.com/videos–text-of-talks.html
Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you without our masks: The “Gay” Manifesto from 1988
I first learned about this vile screed from my friend Warren Bradley, a retired Boston policeman back in 1988. He was a subscriber to Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority newsletter, and it had reprinted this manifesto. I didn’t believe that it was true. I called the now defunct “Gay Community News” which was based in Boston and the man who answered confirmed that the paper did indeed publish it. He told me that the author was a “poet from Connecticut.” I asked him if printing such things was a way to gain supporters for the homosexual cause. He didn’t respond.
(First Published in Gay Community News, Feb. 15-21, 1987 and also put into the Congressional Record. Author – Michael Swift)
We shall sodomize your sons, emblems of your feeble masculinity, of your shallow dreams and vulgar lies. We shall seduce them in your schools, in your dormitories, in your gymnasiums, in your locker rooms, in your sports arenas, in your seminaries, in your youth groups, in your movie theater bathrooms, in your army bunkhouses, in your truck stops, in your all male clubs, in your houses of Congress, wherever men are with men together. Your sons shall become our minions and do our bidding. They will be recast in our image. They will come to crave and adore us.
Women, you cry for freedom. You say you are no longer satisfied with men; they make you unhappy. We, connoisseurs of the masculine face, the masculine physique, shall take your men from you then. We will amuse them; we will instruct them; we will embrace them when they weep. Women, you say you wish to live with each other instead of with men. Then go and be with each other. We shall give your men pleasures they have never known because we are foremost men too, and only one man knows how to truly please another man; only one man can understand the depth and feeling, the mind and body of another man.
All laws banning homosexual activity will be revoked. Instead, legislation shall be passed which engenders love between men.
All homosexuals must stand together as brothers; we must be united artistically, philosophically, socially, politically and financially. We will triumph only when we present a common face to the vicious heterosexual enemy.
If you dare to cry faggot, fairy, queer, at us, we will stab you in your cowardly hearts and defile your dead, puny bodies.
We shall write poems of the love between men; we shall stage plays in which man openly caresses man; we shall make films about the love between heroic men which will replace the cheap, superficial, sentimental, insipid, juvenile, heterosexual infatuations presently dominating your cinema screens. We shall sculpt statues of beautiful young men, of bold athletes which will be placed in your parks, your squares, your plazas. The museums of the world will be filled only with paintings of graceful, naked lads.
Our writers and artists will make love between men fashionable and de rigueur, and we will succeed because we are adept at setting styles. We will eliminate heterosexual liaisons through usage of the devices of wit and ridicule, devices which we are skilled in employing.
We will unmask the powerful homosexuals who masquerade as heterosexuals. You will be shocked and frightened when you find that your presidents and their sons, your industrialists, your senators, your mayors, your generals, your athletes, your film stars, your television personalities, your civic leaders, your priests are not the safe, familiar, bourgeois, heterosexual figures you assumed them to be. We are everywhere; we have infiltrated your ranks. Be careful when you speak of homosexuals because we are always among you; we may be sitting across the desk from you; we may be sleeping in the same bed with you.
There will be no compromises. We are not middle-class weaklings. Highly intelligent, we are the natural aristocrats of the human race, and steely-minded aristocrats never settle for less. Those who oppose us will be exiled.
We shall raise vast private armies, as Mishima did, to defeat you. We shall conquer the world because warriors inspired by and banded together by homosexual love and honor are invincible as were the ancient Greek soldiers.
The family unit-spawning ground of lies, betrayals, mediocrity, hypocrisy and violence–will be abolished. The family unit, which only dampens imagination and curbs free will, must be eliminated. Perfect boys will be conceived and grown in the genetic laboratory. They will be bonded together in communal setting, under the control and instruction of homosexual savants.
All churches who condemn us will be closed. Our only gods are handsome young men. We adhere to a cult of beauty, moral and esthetic. All that is ugly and vulgar and banal will be annihilated. Since we are alienated from middle-class heterosexual conventions, we are free to live our lives according to the dictates of the pure imagination. For us too much is not enough.
The exquisite society to emerge will be governed by an elite comprised of gay poets. One of the major requirements for a position of power in the new society of homoeroticism will be indulgence in the Greek passion. Any man contaminated with heterosexual lust will be automatically barred from a position of influence. All males who insist on remaining stupidly heterosexual will be tried in homosexual courts of justice and will become invisible men.
We shall rewrite history, history filled and debased with your heterosexual lies and distortions. We shall portray the homosexuality of the great leaders and thinkers who have shaped the world. We will demonstrate that homosexuality and intelligence and imagination are inextricably linked, and that homosexuality is a requirement for true nobility, true beauty in a man.
We shall be victorious because we are fueled with the ferocious bitterness of the oppressed who have been forced to play seemingly bit parts in your dumb, heterosexual shows throughout the ages. We too are capable of firing guns and manning the barricades of the ultimate revolution.
Tremble, hetero swine, when we appear before you without our masks.
The Weekly Sam: Remembering Sam Blumenfeld
June 1 of this year marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of author and homeschool pioneer Samuel L. Blumenfeld. Sam’s last book which he co-authored with Alex Newman was Crimes of the Educators. A week prior to Sam’s passing, I called Alex and asked when he was planning on visiting Sam. They had not yet met in person but frequently met on conference calls. Alex said that he planned a summer visit. I told him that he most likely won’t be alive by then. We provided an airline ticket for him, and he flew to Boston on the following day, Thursday. I had hoped to videotape an interview of the two of them, but Sam’s condition had deteriorated, and it would have been an injustice to him. They interacted as if they were lifelong friends. Alex, like numerous others, is carrying on the work of Sam.
A number of years ago, Sam told me that he would work until he drops. True to his word, there he was on his deathbed handing out autographed copies of his book to visitors. Sam willed most of his papers, books, and recordings to us but asked that we take possession of them prior to his passing. We pledged to him that his works will influence future generations-more on that later. After the visit, we held a tribute to Sam at his request. Sam died five days later. He is buried in the National Cemetery in Bourne, MA.
Sam Blumenfeld was born on May 31, 1926, in New York City. His parents were Polish immigrants. His mother, who Sam adored, was illiterate. Sam attended a public school in the Bronx where he received an excellent education. Sam was a World War II veteran serving in an artillery unit in Italy. He participated in a prisoner escort where he took pity on a starving German soldier and shared his food with him. After the war, Sam graduated from City College of New York. He returned to postwar Europe visiting some friends he made during the war and returned to the U.S. to start a career in the publishing business. Sam was fluent in several languages. In 1963, he traveled to Madrid, Spain to interview Dr. Moise Tshombe, the pro-Western leader of Katanga who was ousted by the United Nations peacekeepers who committed atrocities against the civilian population and replaced by the Moscow trained Patrice Lamumba.
It was while he was an editor for Grosset and Dunlop when he got a request from a friend Attorney and Hall of Fame tennis player Watson Washburn to join his reading reform organization which he recently started. Sam was surprised by the request telling Mr. Washburn that reading was a basic thing you learned in elementary school. Mr. Washburn suggested that Sam read the book Why Johnny Can’t Read by Rudolf Flesch. The book changed Sam’s life. Flesch pointed out that the look-say or whole word method was introduced to the nation’s schools in the mid to late 1930s. The Depression made it difficult for most schools to buy the new look-say books but by the mid-1940s most schools around the nation adopted this method of reading. It proved to be a disaster.
Sam initially believed that if the educators were convinced that the look-say method wasn’t working, the educators would revert back to intensive phonics. This is when he learned that America’s public schools were in the firm grip of the so-called progressive educators” who were disciples of John Dewey. Their goal was to promote Humanism, and socialism while destroying children’s faith in God. Sam was one of the first to warn Americans that our nation’s children were being deliberately dumbed down in government schools. Sam did an incredible amount of research on the subject writing books like Is Public Education Necessary and The NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education.
Sam used the word menticide to describe what was happening in America’s government schools. Sam learned how the mind works, and how the teaching methods were causing dyslexia-an ailment that was extremely rare until the introduction of the look-say method of reading. Sam was more than a critic of government schools; he was a man of action. He travelled around the country helping local people start private schools. He helped to establish both the South Boston and Hyde Park academies during the height of forced bussing in Boston. Sam was also a pioneer in the modern day homeschool movement. He attended homeschool conventions around the nation where he would conduct lectures on the history of education in the United States as well as phonics workshops. Sam would routinely write letters to mayors offering to take their worst schools and turn them around in one year. He seldom got a response and when he did, it was a “thank you but no thank you” reply. One of the mayors was Corey Booker -now a U.S. Senator.
Sam was prolific writer authoring fifteen books, a monthly newsletter, and hundreds of articles in magazines and on-line media sources like World Net Daily. He even authored a book questioning the authorship of Shakespeare. His most important book was his simplest Alpha-Phonics, a 128 lesson workbook used to teach phonics. Thousands of parents, including my wife and I, used Alpha-Phonics to teach children how to read. Sam volunteered his time with a group called the WAITT-We Are All in This Together-House, an adult learning center in Boston’s Roxbury section where he taught functionally illiterate adults how to read.
My first meeting with Sam was at an event in Windham, NH in 1989. His first words to me were “Don’t let your children set foot in a government school” It was some of the best advice I ever received. As mentioned above, Sam willed most of his books, papers, and recordings to us. It consisted of over 200 legal size boxes full of cassettes of his lectures, hundreds of notebooks, manuscripts both published and unpublished, and hundreds of letters of his correspondence with authors, publishers, educators, and politicians. Thanks to the efforts of Mark Affleck, who serves as our camp newspaper editor, and our webmaster Eric Conover, the Sam Blumenfeld Archive was created. Since its creation, hundreds of thousands of people from the Royal family of the Kingdom of Bhutan to educators in Zimbabwe and South Africa to hundreds of teachers to homeschool parents in the United States and around the world have used the archive.
The archive contains an on-line version of Sam’s Alpha-Phonics with all 128 lessons in either audio or video, courses on cursive, and basic arithmetic. It also contains PDF versions of most of Sam’s books, newsletters, hundreds of hours of Sam’s lectures in audio and video, manuscripts, and his correspondence. For unlimited free access to the archive, all we need is an E-mail address and a username. (Donations are, of course, greatly appreciated.) Here is the link to the archive: http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/main.htm
The Blumenfeld Archives
Town of Alton, NH Memorial Day Observation May 26, 2025
The Town of Alton, New Hampshire knows how to observe Memorial Day. This event was sponsored by the Claude R. Batchelder Post #72. Numerous community groups participated in this event including the Alton Community Church, Boy Scouts, Prospect Mountain High School Band, Alton Dance Academy, Alton Youth League, Alton Police and Alton and New Durham Fire Departments.
Pastor Casidy of the Alton Community Church opened in prayer then a short parade from Monument Square to Riverside Cemetary where a short service was held, and then back to Monument Square where short speeches and the Decoration of the War Memorials were made. It closed with the singing of God Bless America and Amazing Grace led by Alton Selectman Paul LaRochelle.