American Minute with Bill Federer Patriots’ Day: Lexington & Concord, and Ri “To Disarm the People is the Best Way to Enslave Them” George Mason Right to Bear Arms –

Published April 18, 2026 | By campconstitution

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The sun never set on the British Empire.

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Miracles in American History-Vol. TWO: Amazing Faith that Shaped the Nation

Out of nearly 200 countries in the world, only 22 were never controlled, invaded or attacked by Britain.

In April of 1775, the British Royal Military Governor of Massachusetts, General Thomas Gage, sent 800 British Army Regulars, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, on a preemptive raid to seize guns from American patriots at Lexington and Concord.

George Mason of Virginia stated:

“To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”

A warning was sent from Boston’s Old North Church that the British were coming, as recounted in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”:

“Listen my children and you shall hear

Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,

On the 18th of April, in 75;

Hardly a man is now alive

Who remembers that famous day and year.

… He said to his friend, ‘If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light …

One if by land, and two if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm …

Through the gloom and the light,

The fate of a nation was riding that night;

And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight.”

Paul Revere was captured along the way, but William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott continued the midnight ride.

Revere wrote:

“About 10 o’clock, Dr. Warren sent in great haste for me, and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington, where Messrs. Hancock & Adams were …

I got a horse of Deacon Larkin … (and) set off … It was then about 11 o’clock … After I had passed Charlestown Neck … I saw two men on horseback … When I got near them, I discovered they were British officers.

One tried to get a head of me, and the other to take me. I turned my horse very quick, and galloped … to Medford Road.

The one who chased me, endeavoring to cut me off, got into a clay pond, near where the new tavern is now built. I got clear of him …

I went through Medford, over the bridge, and up to Menotomy … I alarmed almost every house, till I got to Lexington …”

Revere continued:

“I … mentioned, that we had better alarm all the inhabitants till we got to Concord; the young Doctor much approved of it …

We had got nearly half way.

Mr. Dawes and the Doctor stopped to alarm the people of a house: I was about one hundred rods a head, when I saw two men … in an instant I was surrounded by four …

The Doctor being foremost, he came up; and we tried to get past them; but they being armed with pistols and swords, they forced us in to the pasture; -the Doctor jumped his horse over a low stone wall, and got to Concord …

Six officers, on horseback … ordered me to dismount … He asked me if I was an express? I answered in the affirmative. He demanded what time I left Boston …

Major Mitchel, of the 5th Regiment, clapped his pistol to my head … and told me he was going to ask me some questions, and if I did not give him true answers, he would blow my brains out.”

In a related story, four months earlier, on December 13, 1774, two British warships set sail for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to seize gunpowder and weapons patriots had taken from Fort William and Mary.

Riding all night to warn the citizens of Portsmouth that the British were coming were Paul Revere and 29-year-old African American Wentworth Cheswell.

Cheswell was constable of Newmarket, New Hampshire, being considered the first African American elected to public office in U.S. history.

Paul Revere also described a spy, Dr. Benjamin Church, who leaked patriot plans to British General Gates before the Battle of Lexington:

“Dr. Church … appeared to be a high son of Liberty. He frequented all the places where they met …

I came across Deacon Caleb Davis. … He told me, that the morning Dr. Church went into Boston … General Gage and Dr. Church came out of a room, discoursing together, like persons who had been long acquainted.

He appeared to be quite surprised at seeing Deacon Davis there …

I was told by another person … that he saw Church go in to General Gage’s House … that he got out of the carriage and went up the steps more like a man that was acquainted …

He did not doubt that Church was in the interest of the British; and that it was he who informed Gen. Gage … that a short time before the Battle of Lexington … Church had no money … (and) all at once, he had several hundred New British Guineas.”

A “guinea” was a British coin containing one quarter ounce of gold.

On April 19th, “Patriots’ Day,” the British continued their march to Lexington and Concord intent on seizing arms and arresting Tea Party leader Samuel Adams and Massachusetts Provincial Congress president John Hancock.

On the way, the British passed through Arlington, Massachusetts.

They stormed the inn where lodged the patriots Elbridge Gerry, Azor Orne and Jeremiah Lee, who was America’s largest colonial ship owner and the wealthiest man in Massachusetts.

Jeremiah Lee was using his ships to smuggle in supplies to the patriots.

When the British stormed the inn, Gerry, Orne and Lee fled wearing only their night clothes and hid, laying on the cold ground in a wet cornfield for hours.

Jeremiah Lee caught a pneumonia and died a few weeks later.

John Hancock had previously experienced British tax collectors confiscating his merchant ship Liberty in 1768

Hancock had declared to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, April 15, 1775:

“In circumstances dark as these, it becomes us, as men and Christians, to reflect that, whilst every prudent measure should be taken to ward off the impending judgments …

(a day) … be set apart as a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer … to confess their sins … to implore the Forgiveness of all our Transgression.”

Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull, whom Washington called ‘the first of the patriots’, was the only colonial governor at the start of the Revolution to support the patriot cause.

Trumbull proclaimed a Day of Fasting, April 19, 1775, that:

“God would graciously pour out His Holy Spirit on us to bring us to a thorough repentance and effectual reformation that our iniquities may not be our ruin;

that He would restore, preserve and secure the liberties of this and all the other British American colonies, and make the land a mountain of Holiness, and habitation of righteousness forever.”

As the sun rose, April 19, 1775, there were 800 British regulars approaching Lexington’s town green.

To their surprise, they were met by Lexington’s militia, comprised of 77 men who were mostly members of the Church of Christ, pastored by Rev. Jonas Clark, whose wife was a cousin of John Hancock.

Patriot captain John Parker told the militia:

“Stand your ground; don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have War, let it begin here!”

It is disputed who fired first, but the British opened fire and killed or wounded eighteen of Captain Parker’s men.

In his sermon preached a year later, April 19, 1776, Pastor Jonas Clark described:

“Under cover of the darkness, a brigade of these instruments of violence and tyranny, made their approach …

They enter this town … like murders and cut-throats … without provocation, without warning, when no war was proclaimed, they draw the sword of violence, upon the inhabitants of this town,

and with a cruelty and barbarity, which would have made the most hardened savage blush, they shed INNOCENT BLOOD! …”

Pastor Clark continued:

“And the names of Munroe, Parker, and others, that fell victims to the rage of blood-thirsty oppressors, on that gloomy morning …

And from the nineteenth of April, 1775, we may venture to predict, will be dated, in future history, THE LIBERTY or SLAVERY of the AMERICAN WORLD, according as a sovereign God shall see fit to smile, or frown upon the interesting cause, in which we are engaged.”

The American militia retreated, growing to number 400, and took a stand at Concord’s Old North Bridge.

The British fired first, wounding four and killing two.

Militia commander John Buttrick yelled:

“Fire, for God’s sake, fellow soldiers, fire!”

Taking many casualties, the British began a hasty retreat 20 miles back to Boston, being ambushed along the way by John Parker’s militia in “Parker’s Revenge.”

Tragically, in the anger of their retreat, the British shot or bayoneted almost everyone in the town of Menotomy.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow continued his poem:

“You know the rest. In the books you have read

How the British Regulars fired and fled,—

How the farmers gave them ball for ball,

From behind each fence and farmyard wall,

Chasing the redcoats down the lane,

Then crossing the fields to emerge again

Under the trees at the turn of the road,

And only pausing to fire and load.”

Longfellow ended:

“So through the night rode Paul Revere;

And so through the night went his cry of alarm

To every Middlesex village and farm,—

A cry of defiance, and not of fear,

A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,

And a word that shall echo for evermore!

For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,

Through all our history, to the last,

… In the hour of darkness and peril and need,

The people will waken and listen to hear

The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,

And the midnight message of Paul Revere.”

Though it took eight long years, Americans won their independence.

A century later, on April 19, 1875, at that same Old North Bridge, patriots were honored by the dedication of the “Minute Man Statue” designed by Daniel Chester French.

On the statue’s base is a stanza of the poem The Concord Hymn, written Ralph Waldo Emerson, April 19, 1860:

“By the rude bridge that arched the flood,

Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;

Here once the embattled farmers stood;

And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;

Alike the conqueror silent sleeps,

And time the ruined bridge has swept,

Down the dark stream that seaward creeps.

… On this green bank, by this soft stream,

We place with joy a votive stone,

That memory may their deeds redeem,

When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

O Thou who made those heroes dare,

To die, and leave their children free,

Bid time and nature gently spare,

The shaft we raised to them and Thee.”

Two months after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the Continental Congress, under President John Hancock, declared, June 12, 1775:

“Congress … considering the present critical, alarming and calamitous state … do earnestly recommend … a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer,

that we may with united hearts … confess and deplore our many sins and offer up our joint supplications to the All-wise, Omnipotent and merciful Disposer of all Events, humbly beseeching Him to forgive our iniquities …

It is recommended to Christians of all denominations to assemble for public worship and to abstain from servile labor and recreations of said day.”

Flash Drive – Miracles in American History: Vol. ONE (40 video episodes-contents of all 4 DVDs)

The Revolutionary War began with an attempt by government officials to seize citizens’ guns.

Patriots had prepared for this with the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, October 26, 1774, organizing their defenses with one-third of their regiments being “Minutemen,” men who were ready to fight at a minute’s notice.

This idea came from the Bible, where in Ancient Israel every man was armed and ready to defend his family and community:

David B. Kopel wrote in “Ancient Hebrew Militia Law” (Denver University Law Review, July 15, 2013):

“New Englanders intensely self-identified with ancient Israel … Thus, ancient Hebrew militia law is part of the intellectual background of the American militia system, and of the Second Amendment …

Every male ‘from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms’ … were obliged to fight, to go forth ‘armed to battle.’

Men who failed this duty ‘sinned against the Lord.'”

E.C. Wines wrote in Commentaries on the Laws of the Ancient Hebrews (NY: Geo. P. Putnam & Co., 1853):

“Moses’ constitution made no provision for a standing army …

The whole body of citizens … formed a national guard.”

“Thus says the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side” (Exodus 32:27);

“They all hold swords, being expert in war: every man hath his sword upon his thigh” (Song of Solomon 3:8);

“Every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. For the builders, every one had his sword girded by his side (Nehemiah 4:17-18).

James Madison wrote (Letters & Writings of James Madison, 1865, p. 406):

“The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation … forms a barrier against the enterprise of ambition …

Kingdoms of Europe … are afraid to trust the people with arms.”

Noah Webster wrote in An Examination into the leading Principles of the Federal Constitution, October 10, 1787:

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.

The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword because the whole body of the people are armed.”

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States, 2nd Edition, 1833, p. 125):

“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium (safeguard) of the liberties of a Republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers.”

Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (trans. L. Ricci, 1952, p. 73, 81):

“An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens.”

Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Cooley wrote in The General Principles of Constitutional Law (2nd Ed., 1891, p. 282):

“The Second Amendment … was meant to be a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers …

The people … shall have the right to keep and bear arms, and they need no permission or regulation of law for the purpose.”

Patrick Henry wrote (Elliott, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions, 1836, 1941, p. 378):

“Let him candidly tell me, where and when did freedom exist when the sword and the purse were given up from the people?

No nation ever retained its liberty after the loss of the sword and the purse …

The great object is, that every man be armed … Everyone who is able may have a gun.”

Joel Barlow, U.S. Consul to Algiers and France, wrote in Advice to the Privileged Orders in the Several States of Europe, Resulting from the Necessity and Propriety of a General Revolution in the Principle of Government (1792, 1956, p. 46):

“The foundation of everything is … that the people will form an equal representative government … that the people will be universally armed …

A people that legislate for themselves ought to be in the habit of protecting themselves.”

Miracles in American History-32 Amazing Stories of Answered Prayers

Jeffrey R. Snyder, esq., wrote in “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, 1993, no. 113):

“Classical republican philosophy has long recognized the critical relationship between personal liberty and the possession of arms by a people ready and willing to use them.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote (Cicero, Selected Political Speeches, trans. M. Grant, 1969, p. 222):

“There exists a law … inborn in our hearts … that if our lives are endangered by plots or violence or armed robbers or enemies, any and every method of protecting ourselves is morally right.”

Montesquieu wrote in The Spirit of the Laws (trans. T. Nugent, 1899, p. 64):

“It is unreasonable … to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.”

Machiavelli wrote in The Prince (trans. L. Ricci, 1952, p. 73, 81):

“It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willing one who is unarmed.”

Cesare Beccaria wrote in On Crimes and Punishment (trans. H. Paolucci, 1963, p. 87-88):

“False is the idea … that would take fire from men because it burns, and water because one may drown in it …

The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws of such a nature.

They disarm those only who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.

Can it be supposed that those who have the courage to violate the most scared laws of humanity, will respect the less important and arbitrary ones, which can be violated with ease and impunity …

Such laws … serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.”

Thomas Paine wrote (Writings of Thomas Paine, Conway, ed., 1894, p. 56):

“The peaceable part of mankind will be continually overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self defense.

The supposed quietude of a good man allures the ruffian; while on the other hand, arms, like laws, discourage and keep the invader and the plunderer in awe, and preserve order.”

Aristotle wrote in Parts of Animals (trans. A. Peck, 1961, p. 373):

“Animals have just one method of defense and cannot change it for another …

For man, on the other hand, many means of defense are available, and he can change them at any time …

Take the hand: this is as good as a talon, or a claw, or a horn, or again, a spear, or a sword, or any other weapon or tool it can be all of these.”

Aristotle wrote in Politics (trans. T. Sinclair, 1962, p. 274):

“Those who possess and can wield arms are in a position to decide whether the constitution is to continue or not.”

Thomas More wrote in Utopia (trans. R.M. Adams, 1975, p. 71):

“Men and women alike … assiduously exercise themselves in military training … to protect their own territory or to drive an invading enemy out of their friends’ land or, in pity for a people oppressed by tyranny, to deliver them by force of arms from the yoke and slavery of the tyrant.”

Roman historian Livy wrote (trans. B. Foster, 1919, p. 148):

“Formerly (in the reign of Rome’s 6th king, Servius Tullius, 578-535 BC) the right to bear arms had belonged solely to the patricians (ruling class).

Now plebeians (common citizens) were given a place in the army …

All the citizens capable of bearing arms were required to provide their own swords, spears, and other armor.”

Machiavelli wrote in On the Art of War (trans. E. Farnsworth, 1965, p. 30):

“Citizens, when legally armed … did the least mischief to any state …

Rome remained free for four hundred years and Sparta eight hundred, although their citizens were armed all that time, but many other states that have been disarmed have lost their liberty in less than forty years.”

Machiavelli wrote in Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius (trans. L. Walker, 1965, p. 492):

“If any city be armed … as Rome was … all its citizens, alike in their private and official capacity … it will be found they will be of the same mind …

But, when they are not familiar with arms and merely trust to the whim of fortune … they will change with the changes of fortune.”

Adam Smith wrote in The Wealth of Nations (ed., Cannan, p. 309):

“Men of republican principles have been jealous of a standing army as dangerous of liberty …

The standing army of Caesar destroyed the Roman Republic.

The standing army of Cromwell turned the Long Parliament out of doors.”

Earl Warren wrote in The Bill of Rights and the Military (37N.Y.U. L. Rev. 181, 1962):

“Our War of the Revolution was, in good measure, fought as a protest against standing armies …

Thus we find in the Bill of Rights, Amendment 2 … specifically authorizing a decentralized militia, guaranteeing the right of the people to keep and bear arms.”

Rise of the Tyrant – How Democracies and Republics Rise and Fall (Vol. 2 of Change to Chains)

Jeffrey R. Snyder, esq., wrote in “A Nation of Cowards” (The Public Interest, 1993, no. 113):

“Political theorists as dissimilar as Niccolo Machiavelli, Sir Thomas More, James Harrington, Algernon Sidney, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau all shared the view that the possession of arms is vital for resisting tyranny, and that to be disarmed by one’s government is tantamount to being enslaved by it.”

The Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836, stated:

“The late changes made in the government by General Antonio Lopez Santa Anna, who having overturned the constitution of his country, now offers, as the cruel alternative, either abandon our homes acquired by so many privations, or submit to the most intolerable of all tyranny …

It has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense – the rightful property of freemen — and formidable only to tyrannical governments.”

Theodore Brantner Wilson described in The Black Codes of the South (Univ,. of Alabama Press, 1965, p. 56) laws passed by Democrat Legislators:

“Mississippi quickly passed one law … outlawing possession of weapons by Negroes. The militia proceeded to disarm the Negroes in such a brutal fashion as to cause much criticism.

Alabama Negroes were disarmed by similar methods with like results.”

Frederick Douglass, the African-American advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, stated:

“A man’s rights rest in three boxes: The ballot box, the jury box and the cartridge box.”

Mahatma Gandhi wrote in An Autobiography of the Story of My Experiments with the Truth (trans. M. Desai, 1927):

“Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.”

Islamic sharia law forbids non-Muslims from possessing arms, swords or weapons of any kind.

Adolph Hitler acted similarly with his Edict of March 18, 1938:

“The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms;

history shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected people to carry arms have prepared their own fall.”

German Firearm Act of 1937 stated:

“Firearm licenses will not be granted to Jews.”

Richard Munday reported in “The Monopoly of Power,” presented to the American Society of Criminology, 1991, the Nazi order regarding arms, SA Ober Führer of Bad Tolz:

“SA (Storm Troopers), SS (para-military Gestapo), and Stahlhelm … Anyone who does not belong to one of the above-named organizations and who unjustifiably keeps his weapon … must be regarded as an enemy of the national government and will be brought to account without compunction and with the utmost severity.”

Democrat Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was quoted by David T. Hardy in The Second Amendment as a Restraint on State and Federal Firearms Restrictions (Kates, ed., Restricting Handguns: The Liberal Skeptics Speak Out, 1979):

“The right of citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.”

Jefferson wrote to George Washington, 1796 (The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia, John P. Foley, ed., New York & London, Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1900, No. 2138, iv, 143; Paul Leicester Ford, ed., vii. 84):

“One loves to possess arms, though they hope never to have occasion for them.”

Similar to the midnight ride of Paul Revere, when Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, British Colonel Tarleton led his cavalry to Charlottesville to capture him.

Jefferson barely escaped, June 3, 1781, thanks to 27-year-old Jack Jouett, Jr., the “Paul Revere of the South,” who rode all night to warn to warn him.

Jefferson wrote in the Declaration on the Causes and Necessity of Taking Up Arms, July 1775:

“We … most solemnly, before God and the world declare

that … the arms we have been compelled to assume we will use with perseverance, exerting to their utmost energies all those powers which our Creator hath given us, to preserve that liberty which He committed to us in sacred deposit.”

—

Downlaod as PDF … Lexington & Concord, and the Right to Keep & Bear Arms “To Disarm the People is the Best Way to Enslave Them”-George Mason

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Camp Constitution Report for the First Quarter of 2026

Published April 17, 2026 | By campconstitution

The first three months, even with some bad weather that forced us to cancel a few events, was very productive for us.

Info Table Homeschoolers of Maine’s Annual Convention

For the first time since the Covid lockdown, this event returned to its Rockport venue with a three-day event for vendors. There were close to 400 attendees at the event. Victoria Buckland helped work the table giving Civics Savey tests to young people who visited the table. We donated numerous copies of “Alpha-Phonics” to young families and a quantity of books to a homeschool family starting a lending library in Thomaston, Maine.

Information Tables at Other Venues

We had information tables at two New Hampshire Education Options Fairs in Dover and Dummer. This group, founded by Dr. Jody Underwood, helps parents find alternatives to public schools as well as extracurricular activities. We promote the Sam Blumenfeld Archive, and of course, our annual family camp. We also donate copies of “Alpha-Phonics to families with small children who are ready to learn how to read.

Keynote Speaker at Constitution Party of New Hampshire

Hal Shurtleff was the keynote speaker at the Constitution Party of New Hampshire’s state conference which took place on the birthday of George Washington. The topic: The Presidents of the United States and the Constitution

On George Washington’s Birthday, we were the keynote speaker at the

YouTube and Rumble

Our channel had 177,000 views, giving us a total of 2.3 million. 229 new subscribers giving us a total of 17,500. We uploaded 84 videos on our YouTube channel this quarter. Our Rumble channel received 7,371 views and uploaded 19.

Camp Constitution Report Podcast

We did seven shows this quarter including interviews of authors Dr. Chase Spears and Dr. Owen Anderson. Due to our show being listed by FeedSpot as one of the top 15 best Constitution based podcasts, we have received a number of invitations to interview authors and activists.

Podomatic

This is our platform for podcasts, our former radio show and classis and historical recording that included the Dan Smoot Report, Sam Blumenfeld’s lectures and many speeches by Gary Allen.

We received 71 plays and 790 downloads. May of our audios and videos have been embedded on websites. And we remain in the top ten for the category of conservative/right.

Website

We received 6.9 thousand views and 5.4 thousand visitors. While the vast majority of the visitors are from the U.S, a good 20% come from around the world. We had forty articles posted on the site. We are always looking for writers. Readers who would like to have their articles posted, please contact Hal Shurlleff at campconstitution1@gmail.com

Camp Constitution Media

In January, we made a video of an Education Option Fair in Dover, NH. In early March, we attended the Rhode Island First Rally where we videotaped presentations by Ramona Bessinger, a public school teacher whistleblower, and Matt Light, former player for the New England Patriots.

Facebook

We had 4,155 views with 3.6 thousand follower

Camp Constitution Press

We published a batch of 17″ x 11″ frameable Dunlop Broadside version of the Declaration of Independence.

Sam Blumenfeld Archives

350,000 hits, 95 GB 150 Workbooks and75 Instruction Manuals downloaded.

We had a 6′ floor banner made to promote the archive at our information tables.

The Blumenfeld Archives

Special Projects

We have been working with the Matrix Coalition; a New Hampshire group whose goal is to get copies of Guidebook to the Forefathers Monument and a framed poster of the monument into schools and libraries. This quarter, we donated copies of each to the Cornerstone Christian School in Ossipee and Prospect Mountain High School in Alton, NH.

We have been donating copies of James Perloff’s book Tornado in a Junkyard which refutes evolution to Christian youth groups.

Like last year, Freedom Project Academy will offer an essay with winners getting their fees for our annual family camp paid.

We got permission from the New Hope Chapel in Alton, NH to use a sizeable room in the church both to house the hard copy filed of the Sam Blumenfeld Archives but more importantly to start a literacy center using Sam’s “Alpha-Phonics.” Our plan is to have the room ready for reading classes in the fall

Van Fund Raising:

In late February, we had to scrap our 2019 Van. We had over 180,000 miles and it needed a new transmission and other repairs that would have cost us well over $7,00. We expect to spend $30,000 Since early March, we have raised $7,000. Thank you to all those who donated.

Looking into the 2^nd Quarter:

We will return to the annual Mass HOPE Homeschool Convention later this month. Our ladies retreat in the first weekend in May takes place at the Alton Bay Christian Conference Center May 1-3.

We are co-sponsoring Patriot Camp in June in Rockport, Maine run by Mrs. Jessica Whitwotth and Mrs. Victoria Buckland, and will have info tables and numerous event some for the first time.

And our 18^th Annual Family Camp

Camp Constitution will hold its 18^th Annual Family Camp at the Singing Hills Christian Camp https://www.singinghills.net/ Plainfield, NH. from Sunday July 12 to Friday July 17, 2026

Returning instructors include Pastor David Whitney of the Institute on the Constitution, Catherine White of The Constitution Decoded, Alex Newman, author and host of the Sentinel Report, Kurt Hyde, retired U.S. Air Force Lt, Col, and Rev. Steve Craft, Camp Constitution’s chaplain.

Guest instructors include Mr. Rich Howell, historian, and Revolutionary War reenactor. 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.

Our theme: Celebrating our nation’s 250th Birthday

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. The camp offers an “Early Bird” discount of $50, per person by registering by May 1. A link to the camp registration: https://campconstitution.net/camp-registration/

For more information contact Hal Shurtleff (857) 498-1309 campconstitution1@gmail.com

How You Can Help

Pray for our Nation

Pray for Camp Constitution

Consider becoming a Camp sponsor for your business or like-minded non-profit.

Volunteer at some of our events.

Donation to our Van fund raiser.

Share our videos and blog articles everywhere.

Sponsor a camp speaker.

Thank you for all you do to make Camp Constitution possible.

Christian Persecution Presentations and Banner Displays in Aroostook County, Maine

Published April 16, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

Last week from Wednesday April 8th to Saturday April 11, Camp Constitution was hosted by five churches where we conducted presentations on the topic of Christian Persecution Around the World and in the U.S. We started at the Union Baptist Church in Littleton on Wednesday evening then Thursday morning at the Living Waters Apostolic Church. We then had two presentations at the Caribou United Baptist Church-an afternoon presentation to a prayer group and an evening presentation to the church’s youth group where we had to make the presentation age appropriate. During the question-and-answer session, a girl age 11-12 asked us why some people go to different churches. While it was not a question that was germane to the topic, we think we answered it to her satisfaction. Our Friday Noon event, in Madawaska was set up with less than 12 hours’ notice. Our Saturday morning presentation was hosted at the Global Methodist Church in Presque Isle. A link to a video of that presentation is below.

After our Saturday morning event, we had the opportunity to speak at the Aroostook County Republican Committee about the dangers of an Article V Convention. There were a number of state reps and state senators on hand-none of whom had any objections to our position. We thank all who helped to make this trip a success. A special thanks to Bob Roy, Pastor Chris Cain, Pastor Ron Doughty, Pastor Sid Kear, Jill McCarthy Kalata, Pastor Choi, and Chris Lydon. We also want to thank William Brown who donated the banners from Save The Persecuted Christians used in the presentations.

The Weekly Sam: Marva Collins and Sam Blumenfeld and the movie “Marva Collins’ Way”

Published April 7, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

Sam Blumenfeld and Marva Collins were friends. Below is a letter Marva sent to Sam back in 1983. Sam visited Marva’s school where she used intensive phonics to teach her students to read

This is Sam’s review of Marva’s book which is based on the movie:Book Review of Marva Collins Way by Sam Blumenfeld
(This is a review from Sam’s June 1987 newsletter titled “Eugenics and the Making of a Black Underclass.”) http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/1987/BEL%2002-06%20198706.pdf
Marva Collins is the black educator who spent 16 years teaching in the Chicago public school system before deciding that she had had enough. “The longer I taught in the public school system, the more I came to think that schools were concerned with everything but teaching,” she says. In September 1975 Marva began a private school of her own with four students and one classroom.

Today,. her Westside Preparatory School is considered the nation’s most successful private alternative in a black community. Its success has been widely acclaimed by the media but not by the public educators of Chicago who continue to do what they do best: miseducate. I have known Marva for many years through my association with the Reading Reform Foundation. She has been one of America’s strongest and most vocal advocates of intensive phonics in the teaching of reading. Because of this she is not very popular among reading instruction professionals and specialists who use look-say basal programs.

Marva Collins’ Way is an important book for anyone who wants to understand what one woman is doing to pull black children out of the underclass. Mrs. Collins writes: “I prepared my children for Iife.” And I bluntly told them to face that fact that no one was going to hire them for a job if they walked into an office wearing picks in their hair, if they slinked into a room as though their hips were broken, or if the boys wore earrings or high-heeled shoes or wide-brimmed hats. I teach them to become universal citizens of the world. encourage people,
She writes “I did not teach black history as a subject apart from American history, emphasize black heroes over white, or preach black consciousness rather than a sense of the larger society. My refusal to do so was a sore spot between me and some members of the black community. “I’d say to my students, ‘Is there anyone in here who doesn’t know he’s black?’ And the children would shake their heads and laugh. Then I’d ask, ‘Is there any black child in here who plans on turning white?’ Again there would be laughter. ‘In that case let’s get on with the business of learning,’ I’m opposed to teaching black English because it separates black children from the rest of society; it also implies they are too inferior to learn standard language usage.” I was convinced black English was another barrier confining my students to the ghetto, “Instead of teaching black pride I taught my children self-pride.
All I wanted was for them to accept themselves. I pointed out that in many ways the ghetto is a state of mind. If you have a positive attitude about yourself, then no one can put you down for who you are or where you live.” This book will also teach you more about education then you’ll ever learn in a teachers college. It goes against everything John Dewey, Cattell, Thorn dike, Gates, Judd, Gray, and the others stood for. It’s what every teacher and student teacher in America should read. But let’ s face it. How many teachers actually read anymore books for pleasure.

Lamb of God sacrificed on Passover; In tomb on Feast of Unleavened Bread; Resurrected on Feast of First Fruits – American Minute with Bill Federer

Published April 4, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

LISTEN (text to speech)

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Christianity is the largest religion in the world, around a third of the Earth’s population, and since Easter is the most important day to Christians, this day could possibly be considered the most important day in the world!

The word “Easter” appears only once in the King James Bible, Acts 12:4. In every other place and in every other Bible translation the word used is “Passover.”

President Ronald Reagan stated April 2, 1983:

“This week Jewish families … have been celebrating Passover … Its observance reminds all of … the battle against oppression waged by the Jews since ancient times …

And Christians have been commemorating the last momentous days leading to the crucifixion of Jesus 1,950 years ago. Tomorrow, as morning spreads around the planet, we’ll celebrate the triumph of life over death, the Resurrection of Jesus.”

BELIEVE – An Inspiring Devotional of Scriptures & Quotations

Passover is the first of the seven major Feasts of Lord, as given to Israel in Leviticus 25. The feasts are in three groups:

In the Spring are the Feast of Passover; the Feast of Unleavened Bread; and the Feast of First Fruits.

Fifty days later is the Feast of Pentecost at the beginning of the harvest. “Pentecost” means 50th.

At the end of the summer harvest are celebrated the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Let us examine these feasts.

Passover was first observed around 1,400 BC, the night before the exodus from Egypt.

Egyptians had enslaved the Israelites. The Pharaoh had ordered their infant boys thrown into the Nile River.

In response, God sent ten plagues upon Egypt as judgments.

Similar to the Egyptian Pharaoh’s command to kill Hebrew infants, God’s final plague on Egypt was the angel of death sent to kill the firstborn of the Egyptians.

On the 14th day of the Hebrew month Nisan, each Israelite family was to kill a lamb and put its blood over the doorposts of their house so that the judgment of the angel of death would “pass over” their home, indicating their faith that the sacrificed lamb had taken the judgment in their place.

Exodus 12:8 gave instructions regarding the Passover lamb:

“And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.”

A Hebrew day began at sunset and lasted until the next sunset.

In 33 AD, Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples in the evening and then in the morning he was crucified — on the day of Passover.

The Apostle Paul wrote in First Corinthians 5:7:

“For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”

The lamb is considered the most innocent of animals. John the Baptist saw Jesus and exclaimed:

“Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!” John 1:29.

Justin Martyr, who live c.100 to 165 AD, described:

“That lamb … was commanded to be wholly roasted … a symbol of the suffering of the cross which Christ would undergo. For the lamb … is roasted and dressed up in the form of the cross. For one spit is transfixed right through from the lower parts up to the head, and one across the back, to which are attached the legs of the lamb.”

Crucifixion was designed to stretch out the agony of death as long as possible. It was the most painful of Roman tortures, reserved for slaves and rebels.

Dr. Alexander Metherell, M.D., Ph.D. wrote:

“The pain was absolutely unbearable … In fact, it was literally beyond words to describe; they had to invent a new word: ‘excruciating.’ Literally, excruciating means ‘out of the cross.’”

Cicero called crucifixion, “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.”

Historian Will Durant wrote that “even the Romans … pitied the victims.”

Isaiah chapter 53 prophetically foretold the Messiah’s suffering:

“Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed …

The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent …

He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished …

Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer …

The Lord makes his life an offering for sin …

My righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities …

For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Jordan Peterson described on the Joe Rogan Experience (episode #1769, 1/25/22):

“The imagery of the crucifix and the story that surrounds it … You cannot write a more tragic story. Its impossible. Technically. Why? … Because it is the story of the aggregation of everything that people are afraid of.

There was no death more painful than crucifixion. That’s why the Romans invented it. It was to punish political miscreants.

It was a slow agonizing death by suffocation, essentially, and dehydration and exposure. Extraordinarily painful … That’s pain, man!

Plus you know it is coming. That is part of the story. Plus your best friend betrayed you into it. Plus your people turned against you. Plus you’re led by a tyrant who doubts truth. Plus you are a victim of the Roman Empire.

Plus you are completely innocent. Plus everybody knows it. Plus they choose a criminal to be released from this experience even though they know he’s a criminal and they know you are innocent.”

The next Jewish Feast after Passover was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Mark 14:1:

“After two days was the feast of passover, and of unleavened bread.”

“Leaven” is another name for “yeast.” On this feast, Jews would get all the leaven or yeast out of their homes.

Leaven is symbolic of sinfulness.

Matthew 16:6:

“Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees …

Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

On the exact Feast of Unleavened Bread, when Jews were getting the leaven out of their homes, Jesus was in the tomb – He “who taketh away the sins of the world.”

Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:6–8:

“Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven …

Let us keep the Feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

Theologians have debated what Jesus may have experienced when He suffered. In Matthew 12, Jesus replied to those demanding a sign:

“None will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

The Book of Jonah recorded:

“Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly … out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.

Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight … the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever.”

Next is the Feast of First Fruits marking the earliest harvest of the spring, the winter barley, which is the first grain to ripen in Israel’s growing season.

As soon as it appeared above ground it was harvested and brought to the temple.

Leviticus 23:9-14:

“When you enter the land … and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest …

The priest … shall wave the sheaf before the Lord.”

Jesus rose from the dead on exact day of the Feast of First Fruits.

Paul wrote in I Corinthians 15:20–23:

“But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept …

But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”

Jonah declared:

“Thou hast brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord; and my prayer went up to You, into Your holy temple …

Salvation is of the Lord.’ So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”

The fact that the Gospels have women being the first to testify of Christ’s resurrection is evidence that the disciples did not make up the story, as women were not accepted as witnesses at that time.

Josephus included in the Antiquities of the Jews this first century legal policy:

“Let not the testimony of women be admitted.”

Anyone wanting to fabricate a story would certainly have had made it up with the most reputable men being the first witnesses, not uneducated fishermen and women.

The fact that the Gospels record Jesus first appearing to women is evidence that the resurrection account was not a made up story.

Sir Lionel Luckhoo (1914-1997) was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as world’s most successful criminal attorney. He wrote:

“The bones of Muhammad are in Medina, the bones of Confucius are in Shantung, the cremated bones of Buddha are in Nepal. Thousands pay pilgrimages to worship at their tombs which contain their bones. …

But in Jerusalem there is a cave cut into the rock. This is the tomb of Jesus. IT IS EMPTY! YES, EMPTY! BECAUSE HE IS RISEN!

He died, physically and historically. He arose from the dead, and now sits at the right hand of God.”

President Donald J. Trump posted Truth Social @TrumpDailyPosts, 04/13/25 08:53 PM:

“This Holy Week, Christians around the World remember the Crucifixion of God’s Only Begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and, on Easter Sunday, we celebrate His Glorious Resurrection and proclaim, as Christians have done for nearly 2,000 years, ‘HE IS RISEN!’

Through the pain and sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, we saw God’s boundless Love and Devotion to all Humanity and, in that moment of His Resurrection, History was forever changed with the Promise of Everlasting Life.”

In closing, one last question needs to be answered. Why did the Lamb have to die?

To answer that, we must ask:

Why did God make us?

Out of everything God created, we are the only ones made in His image with a free will ability to love God back.

Secondly, God has to hide himself behind His creation for us to have a free will, because if He ever revealed Himself in all of overwhelming, omnipotent, universe creating power, your response would be involuntary. And for love to be love it must be voluntary!

Thirdly, God is just and therefore must judge every sin. If He does not judge a sin, His silence would be giving consent to sin.

Numbers 30 explains silence equals consent. This is seen in a wedding ceremony, where the minister asks if anyone objects they should speak now or forever hold their peace. By staying silent, those in attendance are giving their consent. In law, this is called “the rule of tacit admission.”

If God is silent and does not judge a sin, even the smallest, His silence would effectively be giving consent to the sin. And if God gives consent to one sin one time, He denies His just nature, He denies Himself. And 2 Timothy 2:13 declares “God cannot deny Himself.”

So He has to judge every sin.

In mathematical equations, there are constants and variables.

In the equation of redemption, the constant is God is just, forever was, is, and forever will be just. That will never change.

The variable is who takes the judgment – you or a substitute.

The Lamb is our substitute. The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you.

Charles Wesley wrote the hymn: “Amazing love! how can it be, That Thou, my God, should die for me!”

God is just in that He judges every sin, but God is love in that He provided the Lamb to take the judgment for our sins.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.” John 3:16.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45.

The sacrifice of the Lamb was foreshadowed by the coats of skins God made for Adam and Eve.

It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices made by Abel, Noah, and Abraham.

In Genesis 22:7-8:

“Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, ‘Father?’ ‘Yes, my son?’ Abraham replied. ‘The fire and wood are here,’ Isaac said, ‘but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?’ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for burnt offering.”

It was foreshadowed in the Law of Moses with the Passover lamb, and on the Day of Atonement when the High Priest brought the blood of lamb into Holy of Holies and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. The blood changed it from a “judgment” seat into a “mercy seat.”

It was foreshadowed by the sacrifices of David, Solomon, and Elijah.

Finally, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and declared:

“Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world.”

Believers in the Old Testament had faith in the Lamb to come; believers in the New Testament have faith in the Lamb that came, but salvation is through the Lamb.

The Lamb of God took the judgment for all of your sins.

Another question is, how was Jesus’ sacrifice enough to pay for the sins of all mankind?

Jesus is divine and experienced judgment in a dimension we will never understand.

2 Peter 3:8 says:

“A day with the Lord is as a thousand years.” Jesus experienced the day on the cross as if it were a thousand years.

In God’s perfect justice:

the eternal Being, Jesus, who is innocent suffering for a finite–limited period of time

is equal to

all of us finite–limited beings who are guilty suffering for an eternal period of time.

Infinity times finite equals finite times infinity.

An unlimited Being suffering for a limited period of time equals all of us limited beings suffering for an unlimited period of time.

Jesus suffered the equivalent of eternal judgement in all or our places, and He is THE ONLY ONE who could have done it!

Jesus, out of love for the Father and love for you and me became the Lamb, “endured the cross,” and took the wrath of a just God upon Himself on the cross in our place.

And then He rose from the dead to prove He was who He said He was.

The Lamb is God’s way to love you without having to judge you!

When someone believes the Gospel – that Jesus suffered in their place, that their sins have been taken away, and that they are accepted by God – they are filled with joy and gratefulness.

You experience the unconditional love of God which brings a change from the inside–out, a polarity change in the heart.

Instead of avoiding God, you are drawn to Him through Jesus the Son.

John 14:6:

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Then, you are filled with Holy Spirit, who brings about a change in your behavior, drawing you to share the unconditional love of God with a lost and hurting world.

—

Download as PDF …

BELIEVE – A Captivating & Inspiring Devotional of Scriptures, Thoughts & Quotations

American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate.

Please consider donating to American Priorities 501(c)3. Thank you

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Reposted with permission.

Record Heatwaves: Total Garbage Says Astrophysicist Willie Soon

Published April 2, 2026 | By campconstitution

Scientist Willie Soon refutes the climate change hoax by using the records. Professor Soon is an instructor for Camp Constitution. This video originated at Gorilla Science’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@WatchGorillaScience/shorts

Record Heatwaves: Total Nonsense

Published April 2, 2026 | By campconstitution

In this short video, Camp Constitution instructor Professor Willie Soon refutes the climate change hoax by-using the U.S. Government’s own records.

Nine to Nothing: A Song About Our 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court Victory Written by Chet Higa

Published March 31, 2026 | By Hal Shurtleff

Mr. Chet Higa was a friend of our late co-founder Charlie Everett. Chet and Chalie served in the U.S. Navy’s “Silent Service” and remained lifelong friends. Chet wrote a tribute song about Charlie and a song about Camp Constitution. When he learned of the “Shurtleff v Boston” case, a 9-0 U.S. Supreme Court decision, http://www.lc.org/flag he was motivated to write this song. While it isn’t likely to be a Top 40 hit song, we are grateful to Chet.

Gloucester, 400 Years In A simple request — and what people would only say in private by Alexander J Destino

Published March 28, 2026 | By campconstitution

Gloucester, 400 Years In

A simple request — and what people would only say in private

Gloucester marked its 400th anniversary in 2023.

Very few places make it four hundred years and still know who they are. The city put real resources behind it — $100,000 in taxpayer money, events across town, banners, ceremonies. The committee highlighted people who shaped this place: Roger Babson, Captain Ben Pine, Howard Blackburn. Names that still mean something here.

But I kept noticing something else.

For years, the city had made its priorities clear at City Hall. Pride month meant a full thirty days of flags. Rainbow crosswalks painted into the streets. A month-long public celebration that the city embraced without hesitation. That was the standard they had set for what the city was willing to say publicly.

So during the 400th anniversary — a year meant to honor four centuries of this city’s history — I made a request.

Raise the Christian flag during Holy Week. One week. It wasn’t a political statement. It was a recognition. The Christian community built this city — its neighborhoods, its institutions, its character. That contribution spans four hundred years and it is enormous. If there was ever a moment to honor it publicly, the 400th anniversary was that moment.

This shouldn’t have been a difficult request. The Massachusetts Constitution — the oldest functioning written constitution in the world, drafted by John Adams in 1780 — opens by acknowledging “the goodness of the great Legislator of the universe.” It states that it is “the right as well as the duty of all men in society, publicly, and at stated seasons, to worship the Supreme Being.” Christian language. Biblical language. Written into the founding document of this commonwealth before the United States Constitution existed.

And the city of Gloucester could not find one hour on Good Friday.

The city said no.

I reduced the request. One day — Good Friday, the most solemn day in the Christian calendar. The answer was still no. I reduced it again. One hour, on Good Friday, at City Hall. No again. Three denials for one hour on the most sacred day of the Christian year.

In a city that marks pride month publicly and without hesitation, they could not find one hour on Good Friday.

So I took legal action.

The legal ground was solid. In Shurtleff v. City of Boston, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously — 9–0 — that Boston had violated free speech rights by denying a request to raise a Christian flag over City Hall.

Boston had approved over 280 flag ceremonies and never rejected a single request — until a Christian flag came along. The Court was clear: a city cannot open its flagpole to some viewpoints and close it to others. That is a First Amendment violation. Free speech doesn’t stop working when the subject is faith.

Gloucester knew this. And still they said no.

A city cannot open its flagpole to some viewpoints and close it to others. That is a First Amendment issue. Free speech does not stop at matters of faith.

What happened next was telling. After my second request, the city created a formal flag policy where none had existed before, and then used that new policy to deny the request a third time. A policy appeared only when it was needed.

When the story became public, the response came quickly. Texts, emails, calls, messages — from people I’ve known my whole life and people I had never met. The reaction was consistent. They agreed. They thought the request was reasonable. They were surprised it had been denied.

A couple of city councilors reached out to me. To thank me for making the request. They agreed with me — they thought the denial was wrong and the request was right. So did city employees — people who work for the city of Gloucester itself.

And then not one of them said a word publicly.

They were afraid. Afraid of backlash. Afraid of being on the wrong side of something. Elected officials, city employees — people who knew what was right — went silent.

It wasn’t just elected officials. I reached out to members of the local clergy — churches that have been here for generations, churches that call themselves Christian. I assumed they would want to stand together if the flag were raised on Good Friday. I heard nothing back. That told me something.

That is when it stopped being about a flag. It became a question about where we are and where we are going. Not just as a city, but as a community.

The people who built Gloucester did not operate that way. They believed in something beyond themselves. They built this city, and they built its churches — stone by stone, across generations, with their own hands. Those buildings are still here. You can see them across the city, in every direction.

What defined this place was not that everyone agreed. It was that people were willing to stand behind what they believed. They did not keep it private. They did not wait to see how it would be received. They stood where they stood.

The faith is still here. You hear it when you talk to people. It’s in the neighborhoods, in the families, in everything that was handed down. But somewhere along the way — including among people with the standing to actually say something — it became safer to keep it private.

That is not how this place was built. And it is not who we are.

Remember —

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” — (Matthew 5:14)

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By Alexander J Destino · Launched 4 months ago

Essays on faith, family, culture, and American life.

‘The father is seen scrambling’: ICE agent assigned to help airport security saves little boy’s life

Published March 26, 2026 | By campconstitution

Responds to frantic father, performs Heimlich and toddler starts breathing again

By Bob Unruh

March 26, 2026

A frantic father whose 1-year-old had not been breathing, takes him in his arms again after a federal ICE agent performed the Heimlich. The ICE agent is behind the pillar in this grainy security video (X)

An agent from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at Kennedy International Airport in New York on President Donald Trump’s orders because Democrats have refused to fund Transportation Security Administration officers’ payroll, has saved the life of a 1-year-old.

DHS reported, after the incident on Wednesday, explained, “An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent helping to support Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York jumped into action to help save the life of a one-year-old child experiencing a medical emergency.”

The report continued, “The heroic actions of this officer began when a one-year-old child became unresponsive in the arms of his father, unable to breathe for almost two minutes. CCTV review shows a passenger in a TSA Precheck line holding his one-year-old in his arms when the child’s arms go lifeless; panic ensues, and the father is seen scrambling around the area, and calling for help.

“The agent working at his post, heard the screams from the father and other passengers and sprinted to the scene. The father handed the child to the officer, who then assessed the unresponsive child and began performing the Heimlich maneuver. After a few seconds, the child started breathing again. EMS personnel arrived on scene with medical equipment to further monitor and re-assess the child. The child was re-assessed and determined to be healthy enough to fly.”

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Reposted with permission.

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh’s articles here.

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Gloucester, 400 Years In

A simple request — and what people would only say in private

Support The Destino Doctrine

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