One step away from “the draft”: Our nation’s young men are still at risk

It’s the start of summer and, all over the country, families are sending their newly graduated youngsters into the world. It’s a time of great celebration. If only parents knew.

I have two teenage kids. A month ago one of their friends lost his only parent, leaving him with no close relatives to help him. His mother had been sick with cancer for a while and I quickly discovered that she had not been able to teach him the independent living skills that most kids his age possess. For example, he doesn’t know how to balance a checkbook or fill out an application. Yesterday I sat down with him to help him fill out his FAFSA (that application you have to turn in to get financial aid for college). About half an hour after he started his FAFSA, he called me over to the computer. “Mrs. V., what is Selective Service?” I told him I didn’t know but to give me a minute and I’d find out. I couldn’t believe the results of my Google search. First, a little history lesson….

President Richard Nixon is most commonly remembered for his role in the Watergate scandal, as well as for his resignation to avoid impeachment. Despite the negativity surrounding his presidency, he did do one thing that the American people should be grateful for – he eliminated the draft and made military service strictly voluntary. By 1975 all elements of the draft had been done away with, including the requirement for young men to register when they turned 18. America’s young men could breathe a sigh of relief and relax……but not for long.

In 1980, fueled by concerns over the Soviet’s invasion of Afghanistan, then President Jimmy Carter re-instituted registration of young men under the Military Selective Service Act. Registration goes on today and my question is – does the general public know that their young men are one step away from being drafted, even though the government supposedly eliminated the draft?

According to the Selective Service website (https://www.sss.gov), every male between the ages of 18 and 26 years of age must register unless they are incarcerated or institutionalized for medical or psychiatric reasons. Even “undocumented immigrants” and men who have undergone sex-change surgery to become a woman have to register. No exceptions. Even men who are legally disabled are required to register if they are within the age group and not in a residential facility. Even if it violates your religious beliefs, you have to register (they call these “conscientious objectors”).

I thought, okay, simple enough……I’ll tell him to skip this part, not to register, and keep filling out the FAFSA.  IT WOULDN’T LET HIM! In order to file a FAFSA for financial aid, you have to register. Furthermore, many states have enacted legislation so that you can’t get a driver’s license without registering. There is no way around it unless you have enough money to pay for your own college and have a chauffeur.  Oh, yeah, and rich enough to pay the fine and post bail. According to the SSA website:

“Registration is the law. A man who fails to register may, if prosecuted and convicted, face a fine of up to $250,000 and/or a prison term of up to five years.”

Really? What. the. hell?!?!?!

Now, here’s where a lot of people say that it’s no big deal….there’s no draft anymore and this doesn’t mean anything. Okay….if it didn’t mean anything, then why is it punishable by prison sentence for non-compliance? No, this is the government telling the public “don’t worry, we won’t reinstate the draft” while continuing the drafting process. All the president has to do is get Congress’ permission to reinstate and the lotteries begin. Considering Obama’s track record of working with Congress, I wouldn’t be surprised if he bypassed Congress altogether and simply used his “pen and phone” to start the process.  The only way to truly safeguard our young men is to do away with the Selective Service, thereby guaranteeing that an irresponsible government will have a more difficult time shipping America’s men into another Vietnam.

I mean, seriously, if a war begins that is righteous the government will not need to institute a draft. Enough people will step up to defend our national interests – especially if there is an immediate threat to home turf.  If the war is not just enough for the people to get behind it, then we probably shouldn’t be getting into it in the first place. Right?

The Selective Service Act is nothing more than the draft on hold, and I believe it’s critical that we get this act repealed as soon as possible. Please contact your representatives and tell them to repeal the SSA. For the sake of all of our young men.

 

 

 

 

 

Putting the Nation in therapy….first session.

After an evening and morning of simmering over the recent political debacle, I have decided to approach the issues facing our nation in a different light. I’m taking advantage of all the money I’ve spent on a Masters in Social Work degree and applying known-effective counseling techniques to our current dilemmas.  If it works for the individual, maybe…just maybe…..it can work for the country as a single unit. Regardless, things can’t get any worse, right?

Using Solution-Focused Therapy, or SFT, the client looks at where they want to be and then plots out the changes needed to get there. You find a solution, and then you do what you have to do to reach it.  SFT is my favorite therapy to use because – to me – it has a lot of benefits as you use it, not just once you’ve finished it. The outcome is clearly defined and obtainable, which makes deciding which changes to make easier. Once those changes are decided upon it’s easy to measure progress as you go, which provides a sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, like I mentioned before, in most cases there are immediate benefits to those changes even before the final solution has been accomplished.  So, treating the country as an individual, where do we want to be when we finish therapy?

Hmmm……. gainfully employed with a stable financial future and a happy family. Sounds good.

So, again, pretending the country is an individual, what are the problems preventing us from reaching our solution?

• Employment issues.  Work is complicated.  We have a boss and the boss is directed by two different boards of directors, each board works with a different set of ethics and values, which sometimes leads to a complete and total shutdown of productivity.  It’s difficult for us to tell who is in charge sometimes because both the boss and the two different boards make deals with other agencies that include promises and cash flow that usually benefits the other agencies rather than our employees. This basically creates an upper-level system of marketing and commerce solely benefiting the upper level but being funded by the employees, resulting in gross amounts of income for those upper-level members while most of our employees are filing for welfare. Speaking of our employees…..most of them are twiddling their thumbs with nothing to do and no money to earn because their work is either tied up in unions (included in the aforementioned “other agencies”), outsourced overseas, or eliminated through automation/technology.
• Dependents. Deadbeat kids who are demanding specialized treatment because they’re adopted. Deadbeat kids who are our own but are demanding that we “take care of them” for no other reason than that we can. We love our kids so they shouldn’t have to work, right?
• Greedy neighbors. We have trade agreements worked out with our neighbors because they have something we need and we have something they need. However, trade is no longer fair because now our neighbors want 15x for their item as we want for ours. Furthermore, this neighbor only charges a fraction of this cost to their own family members. That doesn’t sound fair.
• High debt load. It’s happened to everybody….went on a spending spree and racked up too much credit card debt. Trouble is, we’re so fiscally irresponsible that we borrow money to pay for our borrowed money. If we don’t get into a debt management system soon we’re going to be forced to file for bankruptcy.
• Family mayhem. Our house has a standing set of rules which each family member has interpreted to their own benefit, resulting in a great rift between family members over whose interpretation is the right one. This situation is complicated by peer pressure from overbearing and influential friends who want to see a particular interpretation come to fruition for their own selfish benefit.

Okay, so we have 5 major areas we need to work on. For a first session, we’ve made wonderful progress in identifying our problem(s). Now we can begin to develop solutions….in our next session.

The country would be a better place if only……

Every day I read what is happening around our country and it makes me so…angry. I’m angry that too often too many people can’t look past the ends of their own noses to see how their thoughts and actions are impacting those around them, their communities, and the country as a whole.

So here it is, my list of things (in no particular order) that could help make the country a better place if people would only do them…or stop doing them as some of the cases may be.

1. Disagreeing with Obama or the results of the George Zimmerman trial DOES NOT make you a racist. I can not tell you how many times I have sided with the factual evidence and been called a racist because the facts went against something the African American community was supporting.

2. Stop putting the blame on somebody/something else and accept that sometimes people just screw up. Liberals want to blame the Republicans, the Republicans are blaming the Democrats, and everybody blames the guns. What the hell?!?!?! Guns don’t kill people….stupid people kill people and if they didn’t have a gun they would just find some other weapon with which to accomplish their mayhem. Responsible, legal gun owners SAVE lives. There are statistics to back this up (refer to http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ABo7Dg4gQTg).

3. In line with #2 above, start taking responsibility for who you are, what you have, and what you do. “The government owes me money cause I’m a minority.”  “I deserve this because so-and-so has one.”   “The state owes me ’cause I’ve got 4 babies and another one on the way”.  Okay, from someone who grew up in poverty with parents who couldn’t give me anything except love, let me tell you something – nobody owes you shit! I grew up wearing ratty, tattered clothes, living in a trailer that probably should have been condemned, and spent many, many nights doing my homework by flashlight because our power had been shut off.  My dad had polio as a child and it left him disabled, but the government denied his claims for disability. My mom worked herself sick, sometimes up to 20 hours a day, just to be able to feed me and my two half brothers (Dad’s from a previous marriage). We were thankful for what we had and NEVER thought that somebody owed us anything just because we had things tough. Instead, my parents used our dismal circumstances as reasoning as to why getting an education is so important – so that I didn’t have to live that way. Now, I’m 2 semesters away from my Masters in Social Work and I tell people everyday that each of us has the ability inside of us to change our paths and become who we want to be. And if you’ve got more kids than YOU can take care of, stop having them. Birth control is free – there is no excuse for mass reproduction than ignorance and a continued desire to leech off those who are trying to survive on their own.

4. For the love of God, EDUCATE YOURSELVES about what’s going on around you. Too often people are complacent to just sit back and allow their lives to be controlled by others that they ASSUME will make the best decisions for them. Don’t bet on it. People are motivated by money, even those who have supposedly taken oaths to protect us. Our elected officials do not answer to us, they answer to the pharmaceutical companies, the lobbyists, and the unions. Don’t expect them to have YOUR best interests in mind simply because you voted for them.  Follow the money and you’ll find out who your officials really answer to.

5. Tying in with #4 above, don’t believe everything the media tells you. As someone who’s married to a 25-year veteran news editor for a local television station, I can tell you that a human being determines WHAT goes on the air and what ANGLE it is approached from. If you have a liberal news producer, your conservative story is going to get ZERO publicity and vice-versa. There is no such thing as “unbiased” in the media, so if you want the full story go to multiple sources and research it from multiple viewpoints.

6. Get off the fence. The primary reason this country is in the state that it’s in is too many people choose NOT to do something about it. People, things don’t just miraculously work themselves out. It takes effort, work, and most of the time a good bit of compromise from both sides, but sitting on the fence gets us nowhere. My dad always told me, “You have no right to gripe about something unless you first try to fix it.” Smart man. Quit complaining that crime is too high and start demanding stricter sentences for repeat offenders. Stop complaining that we spend too much tax money on prisons and start demanding an alternative.  I personally think they should bring back the gladiator games for death penalty inmates and provide the prisoners with a choice – immediate carrying out of their sentence by means of lethal injection or a chance at a 5-year reprieve if they win the gladiator games.  Charge for viewing rights for the games and use the money to fund the prisons, using whatever funds are leftover to fund education. It’s a win-win for everybody – prisoners get a choice, communities become safer, and the economy gets a boost.

7. Agree to respectfully disagree. Everybody has their own personal beliefs and values, and no one person’s is better or more important than the next’s. Provided one person’s beliefs do not endanger or harm others, I say let them be. I am a Christian. I believe in Christ as my Savior and I believe in God the Father. That does not mean that you have to believe the same way. I respect you as a human being regardless of whether you believe the same as I do or not. Jewish? One of my best friends is Jewish. Atheist? Yep, friends with those too. The only people I have issues with are those who condone/demand human suppression and violence to support their beliefs (such as members of Westboro Baptist Church and Sharia Muslims).

8. Practice random acts of kindness. Oh how much better the world would be if each of us did one act of random kindness every day.

9. This is America, we speak ENGLISH….not Spanish, not Portuguese, not ebonics, and definitely not the “lazy English” being spoken by many young people today where they’re slaughtering the English language by being too lazy to properly enunciate all of the syllables.  Do not speak like that and then get upset when people can’t understand you! And if you are someone who has a speech impairment/impediment, this in NO WAY applies to you and I will do everything within my ability to accommodate and help you.

10. Perspective and respect. People need to spend a little more time thinking about how they would react if someone did to them what they’re about to do.  How would I feel if someone pulled up next to me with rap music blaring profanity so loudly that my two young kids in the backseat can still hear it even with the windows rolled up and our own music playing as loud as is safe for our ears? How would I feel if someone else refused to control their children and let them run loose all over the store, getting into everything and breaking things, and even tripping people by darting out right in front of them? Common sense is a dwindling commodity in this country. Let’s say we bring it back.

I’m sure others have great ideas about ways we can improve the country. These are just my suggestions that I think would get us back on the right track. They may offend some people, but I’m just trying to do what my daddy taught me….

“You have no right to gripe about something unless you first try to fix it.”

 

 

 

Ego-nazis and the downfall of society

The grades came out this week for schools in my state and I was not surprised to see that the number of successful schools had plummeted and the number of failing schools in my area had doubled.  Schools today are too bound by political correctness, and lawsuit-happy parents have created the rise of the “Ego-Nazi“.

The human mind and body are built to use challenge as growth. If you want to grow your muscles you challenge them, and through those challenges your muscles grow stronger and perform better. The human mind is no different. And that is where the problem with our education system comes in, because the “ego-nazis” in charge would rather pass a student than damage their sense of self-worth, or face the angry parent who would rather see their kid achieve without learning than turn a failure into an educational opportunity. Shame and regret can be powerful motivators when coupled with positive reinforcement, but kids today don’t know this because they’re sheltered from such negative emotions.

Bottom line, in order for a child to grow and become respectful, better human being they must be allowed to learn from their mistakes, to challenge the mental muscle and GROW. Without the negative emotions and the positive reinforcement that tells them they’re loved despite the fact that they screwed up, kids will grow into spoiled adults that have no ability to accept their own mistakes or any one else’s – which is why divorce rates are up, crime rates are up, unemployment is up, and overall happiness is down.

Kids need to learn…..and they need to learn both the good and the bad otherwise they’re incapable of dealing with the negative side of life. Ego-nazis who shelter kids from negative emotions are really just setting them up for a life of failure and frustration.

An ego-nazi is defined as: someone who places a person’s sense of self-worth and positive self-image as the highest priority, even if it is to the detriment of the person’s education and overall growth as an individual; known indicators of someone who has been exposed to an ego-nazi are the development of an “entitlement” attitude and an abhorrent disregard for authority.

Here’s to the Heroes

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the inspiration for this in time to have it ready for the 4th, but that’s okay because I believe that freedom and sacrifice should be appreciated every day. To all the service men, women, and yes even canines….THANK YOU!

I am Common Core

I was talking about Common Core with my kids the other day and I realized that the description of it sounded familiar….very familiar. When I finally realized what it sounded like I couldn’t resist throwing a video of it together. While the details provided are just as factual, I did not include this video in the Project Constitution folder because it just doesn’t feel like it should be. This one is more my  own personal take on Common Core. If you’re a Star Trek TNG fan, though, you’ll appreciate the analogy.

Common Core Explained

For those of you who wanted a simplified explanation of Common Core, here it is:

 

* Photo not my own, received on Facebook.*

Project Constitution – Common Core

I have 3 kids, 2 of which spent their elementary school years in public schools. When my oldest child was in 4th grade she brought home math homework and I was STUNNED to see that she was working out of the SAME book that my 3rd grader was. I called the principal of the school to ask why my 4th grade student was doing 3rd grade work. The response I got?

“Some of the 4th graders were having trouble understanding the information so we scaled back the curriculum to make it easier for them.”

WHAT?!

The following year my oldest child was in gifted classes. I picked her up from school one day and she was BAWLING. I asked her what was wrong and after much begging, pleading, and cajoling on my part to try to understand what was wrong I discovered that her teacher had called her a “freak” in front of the ENTIRE class because she was gifted. The teacher then refused to give her the homework assignment, saying “If you’re so smart you should be able to figure it out!”.

At this point I pulled my kids out of public school and they have been home-schooled (with the help of FLVS) ever since. Now my youngest is getting close to school age and my husband and I were trying to decide whether to trust the public school system with him. After doing research on Common Core we have decided that – should Florida adopt it – we will home-school the youngest as well and none of our children will ever again be in the public school system.

If you have children in a public school, I urge you ~ please ~ do your research about what your child is being taught. Are they contradicting at school the values you’re trying desperately to teach at home? Are they more concerned with how you vote than what your child learns? Pay attention. Ask questions.

And don’t forget that these are YOUR kids. You might be surprised to find that many in charge of education do not share your belief in this fact.

 

Why are the guns being picked on?

I saw a picture floating around Facebook the other day that said “Bombs kill people in the Boston Marathon and everyone blames the bomber. Children get shot in Sandy Hook and everybody blames guns.”  The picture succinctly nailed home the very point I’ve been railing on ever since Sandy Hook. It also inspired this video. Please take 2 minutes of your time and watch. It has good educational value backed by legitimate sources.

Giving up rights….

Has anyone read the news story about the 4th grader in Jacksonville, FL who was told to write that he was willing to give up Constitutional rights in order to be safer?

I live in Jacksonville. I’m a parent. And I’m madder than hell over this. So mad, that I finally got off my ass and took action. If this irritates you half as much as it did me, take 2 minutes to watch this video and then please click the link below the video to sign the petition. Thanks.