Publisher's note: Our long time contributor, Diane Rufino, has written a number of thought provoking resolutions to be submitted to the Pitt County Republican Convention, and I thought, similarly, they might be 'food for thought' for our readership as well.
This installment is the second in a series of resolutions painstakingly considered, and well articulated by Diane.
Resolutions To Respect & Protect the Life of the Unborn and to Oppose Common Core
As the Resolutions Chair for the Pitt County GOP, I wrote a series of resolutions that I plan to present at the upcoming 2014 Pitt County GOP Convention, on March 8. These resolutions include the following:
1. A Resolution to Oppose the Affordable Care Act as an Abuse of Federal Power
2. A Resolution to Oppose the Affordable Care Act as a Violation of the 13th Amendment
3. A Resolution to Oppose Common Core
4. A Resolution to Protect the Second Amendment
5. A Resolution Denouncing the NSA as Violating the Fourth Amendment
6. A Resolution to Respect & Protect the Life of the Unborn
7. A Resolution Demanding Accountability Regarding the Deaths of Americans in Benghazi
In previous postings, I shared the resolutions I drafted to address the many constitutional violations presented by the Affordable Care Act, to protect gun rights under the Second Amendment, and to denounce the National Security Agency (NSA) for its massive and audacious domestic surveillance program. In this posting, I'd like to share the resolution I wrote to address the life and dignity of the unborn, in constitutional terms. And I'd also like to share the ones I wrote to challenge Common Core and to demand accountability by the Obama administration regarding the deaths of Americans in Benghazi.
A Resolution to Respect And Preserve the Life of the Unborn
Whereas, the Declaration of Independence guarantees the Right to Life, without any pre-conditions; and
Whereas, the Bill of Rights evidences a position of greater rights as opposed to less rights; and
Whereas, the Supreme Court has found ways of enlarging rights for various groups, while extinguishing them for the unborn in Roe v. Wade; and
Whereas, the Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, articulated the right of a woman to control her fertility and have an abortion on demand in order to make social change from the bench (in order to give woman unfettered ability to compete equally in the workforce); and
Whereas, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court put a greater value on the right of a woman to control her fertility (including the ability to terminate a pregnancy that has produced a new life) than on the developing life she has created by virtue of the laws of nature; and
Whereas, the Court overlooked the obvious reality that a woman already has the right and the power to control her fertility; it's called "consent to sexual intercourse" (She holds the power to have children, not to have them, or to decide when she will have them); and
Whereas, if a woman decides to engage in sexual activity with protection and that protection fails, she has the option of immediately addressing the situation. After all, a fertilized egg doesn't immediately begin its program to create life. Even after 12 hours after conception, the fertilized egg cell still remains a single cell. Only after approximately 30 hours does it finally begin to divide from one cell into 2 cells. And then another 15 or so hours after that, it divides again, to yield four cells. At the end of three days, the conception event is still merely a ball of 16 cells; and
Whereas, the current legal climate shows very little concern for the struggling life inside a woman and the current moral compass of our society continues to subject the most innocent of human beings to the sad and horrific consequences of unwanted pregnancies; and
Whereas, in our current social climate where individuals can do what they want without having to suffer the consequences of their actions, the government seems to have an interest in the population control that abortion offers.
Thereby, while recognizing of the competing interests and allowing a woman choosing to terminate a pregnancy, the Pitt County GOP wonders how a society, and indeed our highest courts, can legislate compassion for hardened criminals yet allow the torture and murder of an unborn human being simply because it hasn't had the opportunity to take its first breath.
Be It Resolved therefore, that the Pitt County GOP takes a position of greater respect and protection for the unborn, whether it be legislative, judicial, or through social policy.
Resolution Opposing Common Core Education Standards
WHEREAS, Common Core (CC) is a set of (math and English language arts) academic standards, created by two private membership organizations, the National Governor's Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and promoted as a "State Standards initiative" and as a method for conforming American students to uniform "internationally-benchmarked" achievement goals to make them more competitive in a global marketplace (www.commoncore.org), and
WHEREAS, Common Core is being promoted as a "state initiative," that description is merely offered to give the public the illusion that the agenda is "state-led." Common Core standards were actually initiated by private interests in Washington DC and not by state lawmakers. Both the NGA and the CCSSO are both DC-based trade associations (organizations founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry) which used ACHIEVE, Inc. to do the creative work. ACHIEVE, Inc. is a progressive non-profit group based out of DC which has received much of its funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and
WHEREAS, Common Core uses copyrights and licenses to control its top-down, one-size-fits-all approach to education. A "one-size-fits-all" approach frustrates the very thing that makes a teacher a real "teacher" - her ability to recognize and address the fact that every child learns differently, progresses at a different pace, and responds differently to teaching strategies. The CC standards were founded on a severely flawed idea - that every child can learn the same way and at the same pace. It assumes that every child across America will "be on the same page at the same time"; and
Whereas, Common Core is designed to bridge gaps in education performance, just as "No Child Left Behind" was designed to do. A one-size-fits-all approach to education that aims to bridge gaps is a formula for failure. A system of education can't concentrate on bringing certain groups of students up without bringing many others down at the same time; and
WHEREAS, Common Core changes the fundamental role of education - from teaching HOW to think and process information to WHAT to think. Common Core teaches for job placement. The emphasis that Common Core puts on "job placement" puts the focus of our education system primarily on the economy and not on the well-being of our children; and
WHEREAS, the promoters of the Common Core standards claim they are based in research, the truth is that the creators were not researchers or educators or otherwise qualified to write the standards; and
WHEREAS, Common Core is an "untested" curriculum, which has not been field-tested anywhere, and which comes with a potential human price tag (requiring experimenting on our precious children), and
WHEREAS, Common Core comes with an enormous price tag (independent estimates put the cost at $14-16 billion over 7 years) yet that cost is not built in anywhere; and
WHEREAS, Common Core will require "Data Mining," which is an unconstitutional invasion of an individual's right to privacy under the 4th amendment. For those states who have adopted Common Core to continue being eligible for Obama's "Race to the Top" federal funding (which includes North Carolina), they will be obliged to implement a State Longitudinal Database System (SLDS) in order to track students. They will track students by obtaining personally identifiable information, including such intimate details as the SS# of parents, mother's maiden name, political affiliation or beliefs of the student and parents, mental and psychological problems of the child and family, sex behavior or attitudes, a history of personal behavior (including illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, and demeaning behavior), special relationships (with lawyers, physicians, ministers, etc), religious beliefs and affiliations, and income. Furthermore, changes have been made to the federal FERPA law (Family Education Rights & Privacy Act), which took effect on January 3, 2012 expanding the definition of two key terms - (1) "personally identifiable information" and (2) "authorized representatives." In short, the revised law permits a lot of the information collected by data mining to be shared with the Attorney General of the United States without student or parent permission.
[http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/proprule/1999-2/060199e.html and
http://www.utahnsagainstcommoncore.com/dangerous-federal-ferpa-changes/ ]; and
Whereas, education is not an enumerated power delegated to the federal government by the States in Article I, Section 8 of the US Constitution. Common Core, and the government's participation in it runs afoul of the Tenth Amendment, as education is a right reserved to the States. The government knows it doesn't have the power to invade the states and create a one-size-fits-all take-over of education, yet it uses its power of conditional spending to achieve the same purpose (an end-run around the Constitution). If the federal government has enough money to bribe the states to adopt its policies with taxpayer money, then the government is clearly overtaxing the American people. It should tax less and allow the states to tax more so at least the states can use its people's money to serve their interests; and
Whereas, the responsibility over education was designated to the state government by the people of North Carolina in their state constitution. It has no business being delegated to an un-elected, un-accountable group of persons who are administrative in function; and
Whereas, Common Core was adopted, like Obamacare was by the US House, by a group of public servants who did not read it or due any form of due diligence, which is rightfully inferred and expected in their position; and
Whereas, Common Core was adopted solely for the purposes of applying for and acquiring federal "Race to the Top" funding. It had nothing to do with ownership and responsibility of education to the citizens of the State. By placing funding before the legitimate responsibility of our State through an exercise of state sovereignty and before the legitimate interests of parents who want accountability and a voice in their children's education, the state Board of Education has taken the carrot of coercion that puts our state under the power of an organization that thinks it knows better than the people and officials of North Carolina; and
WHEREAS, Common Core will force consistency and uniformity across the nation. As long as the States are bribed and coerced into adopting a national one-size-fits-all education scheme, then education in general (and in North Carolina specifically) will suffer severely because the states, as 50 independent laboratories of experimentation, will be precluded from trying to innovate and improve education and find solutions to the problems that plague our current education system (in other words, this imposed uniformity will stifle the innovation that federalism fosters); and
Therefore, let it be -
RESOLVED, that the Pitt County GOP demands that the state Board of Education and our state legislators acknowledge and meaningfully address these criticisms of the Common Core Standards; and
RESOLVED, that the Pitt County GOP rejects the collection of personal student data for any non-educational purpose without the prior written consent of an adult student or a child student's parent and that it rejects the sharing of such personal data, without the prior written consent of an adult student or a child student's parent, with any person or entity other than schools or education agencies within the state; and
RESOLVED, that the Pitt County GOP emphatically urges our Legislators to get further involved in the current debate over Common Core, to halt implementation of the standards while a state initiative is pursued to do the due diligence that the state Board of Education failed to do and perhaps take an independent state-based approach to the improvement of our education system, and to eventually introduce legislation to remove this system permanently from our schools in North Carolina.
Resolution Demanding Answers and Accountability in the Deaths of 4 Americans in Benghazi
Whereas, on September 11, 2012, four Americans - Ambassador Chris Stevens, Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and former Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods - were brutally murdered in a terrorist attack on the United States diplomatic facility and on American personnel in Benghazi, Libya; and
Whereas, over 15 months year later, the American people have still not received any information as to why military assistance was not rendered and why forces that were willing and ready to fly into Benghazi were told to stand down; and
Whereas, over 15 months year later, there has still been no action of reprisal and no justice rendered upon the assailants, even though President Obama declared in his first address to the Nation after news of the attack was received: "Make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people"; and
Whereas, since the very night of the attack, the White House has maneuvered to prevent the truth from emerging on the nature of the attack and why four Americans were left to be slaughtered; and
Whereas, whistleblowers, including former Deputy Chief of Mission Gregory Hicks, have reported unwarranted repercussions and fear of retaliation by the Obama administration; and
Whereas, the Department of State's lack of adequate cooperation has prevented congressional committees from properly investigating and receiving direct testimony from the Benghazi survivors; and
Whereas, the People of the United States have a right to know what the President and the State Department knew, when they knew it, why they intentionally declined to send aid to fellow Americans, and why they have intentionally sought to frustrate an investigation into the events of that fateful night.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Pitt County GOP takes the position that the intentional lack of cooperation, honesty, and good faith by the Obama administration with respect to the death of fellow Americans indicates the highest level of dishonesty on the part of the President. We have seen the same degree of dishonesty in two presidents before him - Richard Nixon (who resigned rather than face pending impeachment charges and likely removal from office) and Bill Clinton (who was impeached by the House for perjury and obstruction of justice). Impeachment is the proper action when the President of the United States conducts himself, in the performance of his duties, with such a level of dishonesty that it both disgraces the office, impugns the reputation of the United States, and damages the trust that the American People are entitled to have in their government.
Be it further Resolved that the government's failure to hold accountable the perpetrators of the vicious terrorist attack of September 12, 2012 will leave terrorists around the world with the impression that they can kill Americans and escape the consequence. It will thereby will embolden terrorist organizations and increase the likelihood of future attacks against our country, against our military and other public servants, and against our citizens.
Be it further Resolved that the Pitt County GOP supports a resolution by the US House of Representatives to demand that the president answer where he was on the night of the attack, and what part he played in telling forces to stand down. It would also call upon the government of the state of North Carolina to support said resolution.
Publisher's note: Diane Rufino has her own blog, For Love of God and Country.
Come and visit her. She'd love your company.
