Excellence in Teaching award 2013 and Excellence in Teaching Award nominee 2003
Executive Director, Congo Freedom Alliance http://congofreedom.org/
Twitter https://twitter.com/congoalliance & Facebook https://www.facebook.com/congoalliance
“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Horace Mann
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Winston Churchill quote from a speech made to the House of Commons on 11 November 1947. Democracy is a work in progress and we are improving. Aristotle – the Greek philosopher of 2400 years ago, stated: “All who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have been convinced that the fate of empires depends on the education of youth.”
The new POTUS will nominate one or more Supreme Court justices and many lower-level federal judges who are confirmed by the Senate for LIFE. Important because they enforce the meaning of the Constitution, which is the wellspring or foundation of all in America, as well as other law. If NFL officials were partisans slanting decisions for the team they liked rather than enforcing “rules of the game,” lots of fans would be very upset and would view the officials as corrupt and would not have faith in their decisions and the game. Instead, they are respected arbiters of the “rule of game law,” and when they make mistakes, the appeals process is the coach’s challenge and official instant replay. Politics is a much more serious game and can be either fair or unfair. Our federal court judges should be more like NFL officials to increase faith in government by ensuring when cases are brought to federal courtrooms, decisions will not be slanted or predetermined by partisan judge appointees on the radical extreme right or left. Listen to this podcast interview of Supreme Court Justice Breyer on rule of law. http://think.kera.org/2017/
To begin to understand America and its government and what we stand for, all Americans must read and study the following documents rated as the greatest essays on American democracy. This is the knowledge that will not be gained in one day, one month, or one year, but will take a lifetime of careful study from time to time to refresh your memory. They will help you to be more thoughtful and to be more informed about America and its government. Without studying these greatest documents on democracy from a position of the academic search for truth – using constitution authors’ original intent (understanding they were not gods but pragmatic compromisers) and using Supreme Court decisions and Congress statutes that refine meaning – your views of American democracy will be like a rudderless sailboat.
- Study Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/toc_indx.html
- Study the USA Federalist Papers selling why new USA constitution needed after the American Revolution and what it would do https://www.congress.gov/resources/display/content/The+Federalist+Papers
- Study the USA President Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
- Study the USA Constitution https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript
- Study the Bill of Rights https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript
- Study USA President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address 11/19/1863 http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/gettysburgaddress.htm
- Study USA President Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Address 3/4/1865 https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/secondinaugural.htm
- Study USA President Grant’s Memoirs – the hero who saved the USA in the civil war http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4367
Atomic Clock Time Set (most accurate on earth – need current JAVA)
US Naval Observatory Master Clock time set
National Park Vacation Lands in America