Let's Talk, Sir

An Open Letter to Congressman Murtha

Printed Saturday, June 24, 2006
By Kurt G. - Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, Retired
Reprinted from Right Equals Might.com

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Dear Mr. Murtha,

I've had it. I've had enough sanctimonious hyperbole from you. This has been boiling inside of me for weeks and weeks now. As a retired Marine, I have to speak-up... or my conscience will not let me rest. I've been hoping against hope that you would wake-up and stop the dangerous nonsense... but I know now how foolish that was.

You are badly damaging our military's effectiveness with your irresponsible and completely false rantings. You have become one of the key "useful idiots" that our enemy relies upon for assistance. You are now standing on the same moral and intellectual ground as Cindy Sheehan and that mountainous pile of anti-Americanism, Michael Moore.

People see you now as " Osama's Congressman," and as someone putting forth " insane strategy".

Does this bother you? Does it worry you that most sane people think you are completely unhinged? That you have sold out your country's security for cheap political points? That you, as someone who used to wear a Marine Corps uniform, have made a complete mockery of "Semper Fidelis?"

I guess the Marine Corps part is the primary reason for me writing this. There are plenty of far-left people out there undermining our national security- and I could have chosen any of them for a letter like this... but the fact that you were once a Marine is the one thing I just cannot get over. I can't believe that you have said the things you have said about Marines. I am stunned that you could not give Marines the benefit of waiting until charges were investigated before you accused them of abhorrent atrocities.

Immediately and without hesitation, you took the side of our enemy and condemned those Marines... and by doing so, you have emboldened and strengthened the terrorists' cause. To me, that is worse than treason... it is betrayal of a very personal kind. How many Marines and soldiers will now be killed because of the new power you gave the terrorists? How many of America's enemies are celebrating with orgiastic glee the Congressman calling American Marines murderers?

Don't get me wrong, Sir- your behavior is not unprecedented. In my career, I saw several examples of what we call "Semper I." Do you remember "Semper I?" It is the exact opposite of "Semper Fi." It is the rare case where a Marine puts himself first- and the hell with his fellow warriors. "Semper I" is the sad reality of human nature... where even the deeper-than-blood-level connection that Marines share cannot overcome a basic flaw in some people. I've seen it before, and I'm seeing it now in you. Your political ambitions- and years of extreme liberal brainwashing- have brought you to moral ruin.

The worst part of it all in your case, though, is that the rest of the deranged far left have grasped onto your betrayal and found new strength in it- as have our enemies. They cite your "war hero" background as proof that your opinions are infallible. Around the world, America's detractors and enemies are seeing our very own media celebrate your "maverick" behavior. Honestly, Sir... how does that make you feel?

I'm sure you remember one of our Corps' most famous moments- when Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly inspired his men into a no-win firefight with the words, "Come on, you SOB's! You want to live forever?" They answered with a resounding "No" through their actions... they went with him and, in spite of suffering horrendous casualties, they defeated the enemy. No one second-guessed his decision... no one criticized the Marines' actions.

That was World War I - the battle of Belleau Wood. We won that war.

Forget for a moment the fact that your far-left friends of today would crucify this legendary leader for such comments and behavior. Forget that many mistakes were made at all levels of the chain-of-command in that war- and every other war.

Let's just remember that Marines stick together... even when charging into the depths of hell. We do not sell out our fellow Marines. Ever.

You, Sir, have done just that. You have sold out not only the Marines involved in this particular incident- but all the rest of us, as well. You have told the world that Marines are deserving of no due-process because they are just blood-thirsty killers. You have made people believe all the false crap that the anti-American crowd has been trying to pin on us since Vietnam.

Your mistake cannot be excused as just the ramblings of an aging liberal politician. There is too much riding on the title you used to hold... that of Marine. The anti-everything crowd uses your past like a shield of invulnerability- as if you speak the total and complete truth since you used to be one us. You make it appear that this is how any Marine would feel. Your betrayal is far, far more dangerous than that of other anti-American liberals.

All you had to do, Sir, was say "Let's wait until a full investigation is conducted." That's it. All you had to do was hold your tongue until we all know exactly what happened and who, if anyone, is to blame. The political gain, though, was too tempting... and so you stuck a giant knife in the back of our Corps... and then continued twisting it.

You then compound the betrayal of those Marines by saying things like "There is no way we can win (this war) militarily..." What kind of thing is that to say? Seriously... how completely far-gone do you have to be to say that? Have you asked yourself what Dan Daly would think of that statement? How about Presley O'Bannon... and Sergeant Jarred L. Adams... and Chesty Puller? Do you think they would approve of the things you are saying?

Most of us Marines try to hold ourselves up to the icons of our history... we use them as a measuring stick for our own performance. More than anything, Marines fear not living up to our predecessors. One thing that has always separated us from everyone else is that we do not forget our history... the honor and bravery of those Marines who came before us is the fuel that feeds our Corps.

With all due respect, Sir, you have become a dangerous fool. You have shamed the United States Marine Corps, and endangered countless lives- not to mention the damage done to our mission.

Play politics all you want... attack your political opponents as you see fit... but, for God's sake, leave the Marine Corps out of your politics. On behalf of the Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen serving our country now... please stop attacking our military and shut the hell up.

Most sincerely and respectfully,

Kurt G.
Gunnery Sergeant, USMC, Retired

P.S. Okinawa??

The National Education Association

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By Frank DePaul

The United States is becoming a nation of insecure non-thinkers. Insecure because of their increasing reliance on “experts” to determine what is best for them; non-thinking because of their failure to realize where this dependence will lead.

Individual virtues, which made this country great, are rapidly being replaced by a collectivist mindset which is leading to a growing dependency on an elite class to decide what is best for us. While this herd mentality permeates our entire society, nowhere does it portend more danger for our country than in the area of public education. What and howour children are being taught, and not taught, will determine the future of our country.

In all the talk of “excellence in education, “there seems to be little dispute as to why education has arrived at its present state of mediocrity. The majority of Americans appear to believe this decline was due to the rise in societal problems such as crime, drug abuse, disintegration of the family, etc.

The party line of the educational establishment is that they will continue to confront these problems with the help of more finances, more government “programs,” more personnel—in short, more of everything but accountability to those who suffer from their inadequate accomplishments: the American public.

All of the problems we suffer as a nation are a result of poor decision making. Poor decisions are the result of a lack of wisdom.  A major ingredient in this wisdom is knowledge, both in quality and quantity. Since the public schools are the major source of this knowledge and since the rise in these problems coincide with the slide in educational quality, could the public schools possibly be victimized by problems of their own making?

A history of the past two decades indicates that this is so. This period of time has witnessed a tremendous growth in the educational establishment.There has been massive interference by federal government and those of the various states. All this interference was preceded by large infusions of so-called “financial aid.” As with all help given communities by the federal and state governments it is accompanied by many hooks (mandated programs) which soon acquire a life of their own.The existence of these programs ensures that more decisions are made by government bureaucrats many miles removed from the communities whose public education they are alleged to be assisting with their “expertise.”

The prime mover of all this political interference is the huge (two million member) national union of teachers and other educators: the National Education Association (NEA). While many members will take the short view that this organization has greatly improved their economic situation, they cannot honestly state that public education has actually improved during the period of time that this organization has accumulated its vast power and prestige.

There is no doubt that speaking against the NEA willbring about fiery rhetoric and charges of being anti-teacher, anti-union, and, above all, that old standby, ‘anti-education.” The National Education Association is much more than a labor union and this can be shown by the goals stated by Sam Lambert in speech at his inauguration as president of the NEA in 1966. In this speech he very clearly outlined these and among them were: “NEA will become a stronger and more influential advocate of social changes long overdue. . . NEA will become a political power second to no other special interest group. . . NEA will have more and more to say about how a teacher is educated, whether he should be admitted to the profession, and depending on his behavior and ability, whether he should stay in the profession.”

Somehow these statements do not seem indicative of a labor organization solely dedicated to the economic well-being of its membership.  Nor do they sound like the altruistic goals of an association of professionals devoted to the educational betterment of our children.

Dominance of the socio-political organization, with their need for governmental intervention has established a large, self-serving, bureaucratically managed industry which did not exist when this country had a position of superiority in the world.

The path taken by public education in this country is reminiscent of the “five year plans” of the Soviet Union.Periodically, their government declared a crisis in some area of their national life. The “experts” of their central planning initiate “reforms” to correct deficiencies in this area. At the end of five years the only so-called improvement is a change in the size of the bureaucracy, whose deadening influence caused the initial deficiency.

Unlike the Soviet system, which never worked, we in the United States can look back a short way in our history to a time when public education worked much better than it does now.The major difference is not that something is missing; on the contrary, something has been added: a huge bureaucracy which serves no interests but its own.

The Roman satirist, Petronius, described it well almost two thousand years ago when he wrote, “I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the impression of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization.”Our students are confused, the educational establishment is inefficient and the American public is thoroughly demoralized.

NEA Sets Hostile Agenda

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By Tom DeWeese

There is a new dark ages descending over America, and its perpetrators have clearly mapped out their agenda in a series of resolutions passed at the recent convention of the National Education Association (NEA).

The NEA has long been the main source of the education crisis now growing to catastrophic proportions. It was the NEA that demanded and got the Federal Department of Education. And it was the NEA that is the driving force behind Goals 2000 and Outcome-based Education (OBE).

Twenty years ago the NEA embarked on a mission to become the most powerful political force in America; one that could pressure Congress to adopt its radical agenda.

As a result, the NEA has been successful in imposing federal control over local school boards, dictating curriculum to include OBE attitude control methods and controlling the teacher certification process to assure only NEA credentialed teachers rule the classrooms.

Resolutions passed at the NEA's recent national convention now calls for an all out assault on the family, targets pre-kindergarten children to start the indoctrination process, calls for the inclusion of United Nations' education curriculum and, of course, calls for more federal tax dollars to support their indoctrination program.

A host of resolutions attacked parental ability to send their children to private schools or to teach their own children at home. Home schooling would be acceptable to the NEA only if the parents are licensed by the state and use the NEA approved curriculum (which of course is the cause of the education crisis in the first place).

Nowhere in the NEA positions can a word of concern be found about children learning to read, write or multiply. It's simply not the NEA's agenda to care a whit about teaching children.

The goal is to create regulations and certify teachers that will carry out their radical agenda. All resolutions point in that direction.

In addition to opposing the parents right to send the child to a private school (at the parent's own expense) the NEA passed strong resolutions against performance and merit pay contracts that would hold teachers accountable for the quality of the education children receive.

The teachers union opposed all semblance of tax credits, vouchers and evaluations of public schools by private groups. It even opposes the sale of abandoned public school buildings to private schools.

The convention went on to pass fifteen separate resolutions endorsing every aspect of the homosexual life style, demanding that it be incorporated in sex education, including eliminating "sexual orientation stereotyping," called for a "Lesbian and Gay History Month," demanded that gay-lesbian teaching be incorporated in Family Life education, sex education and AIDS education. The resolutions demanded that teachers who have tested positive for AIDS be retained in the classroom.

Another resolution called for children, at birth, to begin what the NEA calls "bias-free screening." In other words, the education system would take on full responsibility for raising the child, screening out any values the parents might accidentally instill.

Several more resolutions called for the school to be transformed into a center for receiving full government services, including "direct and confidential" access to health, social and psychological programs. That means that such services would be issued directly in the class room and kept confidential from parents. Psychological programs would be run by non-licensed school psychologists who would be allowed to make certain conclusions about the child's mental health, place it in the child's permanent record, and never tell the parents.

The "global village" was very much on the NEA's agenda as it passed multiple resolutions concerning "cultural diversity" and global environmentalism. Environmentalism is the ploy most widely used by radical elements in the U.S. and the United Nations to shut down industry, turn back technology and take property from private citizens.

"Cultural diversity" attacks nationalism and patriotism and is most widely found in the new history standards introduced last year as part of Goals 2000. Those are the ones that no longer mention America's founding fathers or the Declaration of Independence. Cultural Diversity and environmentalism reject Western culture, including private property and free enterprise and scientific fact.

Two resolutions called for a holiday to honor farm worker terrorist and thug Cesar Chavez (more on him in upcoming articles) and the changing of Thanksgiving from thanking God to a celebration of "diversity".

These resolutions prove where the assault on America's foundations emanate. The entire curriculum proposed by the NEA is an assault on the individual, the family, free speech, free thought and unlimited government intrusion and scientific fact.

NEA resolutions have a way of being transformed into education standards and OBE outcomes, but it happens slowly, one small step at a time. Like the frog sitting in slowly heating water, unaware it's about to boil, parents accept the rhetoric about quality in education without checking on the content of the curriculum.

The NEA resolutions are blatantly explicit about what future content will be. Once instituted, the nation will find that the sun is truly setting on knowledge and that the dark ages of mind control, superstition and ignorance are the new standards of public education.

Tom DeWeese is the Editor in Chief of the DeWeese Report, a monthly publication.  For more information about the DeWeese Report call (703) 968-9768 or write The DeWeese Report 14140-L Park Long Court, Chantilly, VA 22021