An invite from Cross Country- Dont miss this important meeting about the Gun Right issues that effect our Country. No CCP meeting in January Next meeting February 17, 2015 Tuesday, December 16, 2014 General Meeting Cross County Patriots Tea Party meets on the third Tuesday of each month. Optional dinner (order off the menu) will be at 5:30 pm. Meeting begins at 6:30 pm at Calhouns Restaurant, 4550 City Park Drive Lenoir City, TN 37774. Speaker: Patty Kinkead Author and advocate against Common Core Patty Kinkead an expert on Common Core will be our guest speaker for the December 16th meeting. We have asked her to share her first childrens book, Whats Right. She wrote the book out of frustration with the number of liberal, progressive books that are being pushed at our children. Patty decided to answer with a Conservative theme. Whats Right illustrates how it is important to work for what you need instead of accepting handouts and to take responsibility for yourself. She now works to educate parents and concerned citizens about the dangers of Common Core. Patty works closely with Tennessee Against Common Core and serves on their legislative committee. Come and learn more about Common Core and why it is rotten to the core! (Patty will also have her book available for purchase for $10.) Constitutional Corner – Teaching America How do you teach America – anything? Seriously, if “America” suffers from a lack of knowledge of its Constitution -- and that premise is reinforced by each new poll or “man-on-the-street interview -- how do you “fix” that? How do you convince people to give up a small portion of their time to study a musty old document? How do you convince them doing so is in their best interest? How do you convince them that the opinions of “old dead white guys” are still relevant today? That’s the challenge we’ll be talking about tomorrow morning on WFYL radio: how do you get people to come to a class on the Constitution? Of course, learning the Constitution, though admirable in its own right, is part of a bigger effort: turning around America’s slide towards socialism and, eventually, tyranny? The “cute” answer to the question is similar to that for “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time! Last week I had the privilege of teaching a “slightly” abridged version of my U.S. Constitution course to a group of Tea Party Patriots at Lenoir City, Tennessee. About 35 persons attended the meeting at a local restaurant, and received the essence of my normal 20-hour course. It was the first time I had attempted such an “abridgement,” and I missed my target length by just a bit. I had hoped to condense things to about 2.5 hours and I ended up speaking for just under 3.5 hours, so I still have additional “trimming” to do, but it was a fun experience nevertheless. As the meeting began, we were honored with a visit by “Thomas Jefferson” (actually a local patriot who portrays Jefferson, in period costume. In real life he answers to John Harding Peach and has written a historical novel based on Jefferson’s life entitled: “Thomas Jefferson, Roots of Religious Freedom,” available on Amazon). Two days before Thanksgiving, “Tom” reminded us of the Thanksgiving Proclamation he ordered as Governor of Virginia. He also admonished us to not forget his words about tying down the government with the “chains of the Constitution.” Three and a half hours later I was winded and everyone was tired. One attendee said “I learned a lot, but most of all, I learned that I need to learn more.” Don’t we all? Every time I teach my course it is slightly different due to the new information I glean from continued study. Twenty-hours. Seems like a lot of time, but is it really when you consider how much time we devote to our hobbies or even watching TV each week? And a 20 hour course is certainly not the longest I’ve encountered. The course provided by ELL Constitution Club (ELL stands for Earn it, Learn it or Loose it, ellconstitutionclubs/) is more than 40 weeks long! Perhaps this “abridged” course method is the way to go, provide people with a short, condensed view of the Constitution to whet their appetite and show them how much more they need to learn; and then steer them towards a longer course that will “fill in the blanks.” Other people may be able to devote a full day to studying the Constitution (like all day Saturday), but may not be able to commit 10 Monday nights, for instance. What seems to be emerging is a smorgasbord of courses and options for audiences of different inclinations and timeframes. So that is what the Constitution Leadership Initiative (my organization) will set out to do: provide short, medium and long versions of a U.S. Constitution course. Another problem I consistently encounter is where to conduct a course. Public libraries seem a logical choice, but few are accommodating enough with their meeting room schedules. Private building owners have utility bills to pay; a living room can only hold so many people. How to study the Constitution? Author Garry Wills has said: “To understand any document remote from us in time, we must first assemble a world around that document.” Consider this: The Constitution was an answer to a problem. The Articles of Confederation, the “perpetual league of friendship,” were in the process of unraveling. In the Federalist Papers, both Alexander Hamilton and John Jay mention this. So doesn’t it make sense to understand what problems the Framers were trying to solve before studying their solutions? Thus my class studies the Articles before looking at the Constitution. Why were the Articles so weak? For that answer you must study the issues in the 2nd Continental Congress in 1776. John Dickinson produced a draft of the Articles which envisioned a strong confederation government, something the delegates of 1776 were not willing to accept; and thus Dickinson’s draft suffered “death by a thousand cuts” over the next year as it was weakened and weakened until the result was something all delegates could accept. Still, it took nearly 4 years for the states to ratify even this greatly weakened document. All this is prelude to the Constitution itself, part of the “world” we must first assemble to better understand it. Learning the Constitution can be fun and exciting! These were real men wrestling with real problems, political, economic, and social. They were solving problems they knew were both contemporary and yet eternal. They gave us a document intended to “secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” but those same blessings are under relentless attack today by people with a different view of life, a different view of liberty and a different view of the role of government. We must find a way of getting more Americans to spend “quality time” with their “supreme law of the land.” If you have some ideas how this can be accomplished, join us tomorrow morning on WFYL radio 1180wfyl/ , click on “Listen Live”). Gary Porter is Executive Director of the Constitution Leadership Initiative, Inc., a project to inform Americans about the Founder’s view of their Constitution. Comments on this essay and ideas for future essays should be sent to constitutionlead@gmail. This essay appeared first on Fairfax Free Citizen. DOOR PRIZE Open Mic Share recent successes Discuss member action issues Meeting Agenda: 6:30 Pledge of Allegiance Prayer 6:35 - 6:45 Upcoming Events Business/Reports 6:45 - 7:30 Program 7:30 - 8:00 Open Mic-Members Speak Out Members Action Item CCP Meetings We meet the 3rd Tuesday of every month from 6:30 – 8:00 pm at Calhouns Restaurant 4540 City Park Drive, Lenoir City, TN 27774 Although the meeting starts at 6:30 pm , you are invited to join us for an optional social hour to eat & greet from 5:30 pm until the start of the meeting. Copyright © 2014 Cross County Patriots, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you have registered on the Cross County Patriots website or signed up for information at one of our meetings. Our mailing address is: Cross County Patriots 5373 Lakeside Drive Lenoir City, TN 37772
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 03:36:33 +0000
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