Obituary - Democracy

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

The Obituary follows:

Born 1776, Died 2012
It doesn't hurt to read this several times.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2
McCain: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was
mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.

Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income
tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the
"complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy,
with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached
the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal
invaders called illegal's - and they vote - then we can say goodbye to the
USA in fewer than five years.

If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom..

This is truly scary! Of course we are not a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic . Someone should point this out to Obama. Of course we know he and too many others pay little attention to The Constitution.
There couldn't be more at stake than on Nov 2012.

2011 Continental Congress - Saturday

As the 120th Continental Congress comes to a close, my feet are tired, my brain is fried and I'm ready to return home. Among many bright spots this week has been the incredible Washington D.C. weather. Usually this time of year will bring high temperatures and high humidity. We have been spared the latter while enjoying the former - almost feels like home (California).

No more stats! By this time DAR members have learned the value of belonging to a service organization. We are proud of our heritage and we seek to identify and recognize significant contributions in patriotism, conservation, the bright youth of America, veterans, volunteers and the list goes on.

This post will round out the week in Washington and the Continental Congress with just a few quotes:

Crossnore School is "a place for miracles...a Christian sanctuary helping kids rise above their circumstances".

Tamassee School recognizes DAR as "the head cheerleaders".

DAR is a "small tight knit group of people on a mission".

"it is generally believed that we build on those who go before us".

I have learned a great deal this week, spent way too much money and am now energized to begin the work of the chapter (Anne Loucks) for the coming year. Time to get ready for the trip home.

2011 Continental Congress - Friday

The NSDAR Master Questionnaire is filled in by every chapter; it is the mechanism that provides reporting information for all the National Chairman at Continental Congress.

My DAR chapter, Anne Loucks submitted the master questionnaire and won several recognitions at the state (of California) level. The statistics reported here are from reports of the National Chairman - stats that I thought would be of interest to readers of the Bits n' Bytes.

(cont'd from Thursday)
15. There were 1,306 American Indian minutes read at chapter meetings.
16. Bacone College received 23,268 soup labels.
17. Chemawa Indian School received $32,091 from NSDAR for Christmas gifts.
18. Twenty DAR Medals of Honor were awarded (list will be in the proceedings from Continental Congress).
19. Ninety eight percent of chapters prepared Chapter Achievement Reports. Fifty eight percent were Level 1, thirty three percent were Level 2 and four percent were Level 3. Thirty seven chapters reported over 1,000 points.
20. Three hundred forty four Community Service certificates were presented.
21. A relamping project at DAR headquarters cost $63,000 with a 16 month payback. The project was recommended by the Conservation Committee.
22. An announcement at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway of Constitution Day on September 17, 2010 was heard by over 1,000,000 people.
23. The 225th anniversary of signing the Constitution is September 17, 2012.
24. The American Spirit magazine (an award winning publication) has a circulation of 43, 271.
25. Scholarships awarded by chapters & states totaled $716,000.
26. DAR daughters traveled 955,703 miles in service to Veterans. $1,444,389 (cash and in kind) donations from DAR daughters to Veterans.
27. Over 29,000 flag certificates were presented for proper display of the American flag.
28. NSDAR has a net gain of 1,068 members - we're growing!
29. Wikipedia entry for NSDAR will be revised to reflect "Today's DAR" instead of our past history.
30. Out of 169,800 members 97,000 have email addresses.
31. More than 620 DAR members chose to volunteer at Continental Congress.
32. DAR Project Patriot Committee celebrated their 10th anniversary.
33. DAR members on the Speakers Staff traveled 160,000 miles to present DAR programs.
34. New "years of service (10, 20, 30)" pins will be available for sale; one can be worn on the ribbon.
35. There is an "internet monitoring" committee always on the lookout for DAR insignia (pins).

Whew!! DAR members are busy contributing and serving in many, many ways. The list will continue in Saturday's post.