Eyewitness to Deconstruction

You and I are eyewitnesses to the systematic dismantling of our great nation. Piece by piece, the principles and precepts laid in place by our nation's founders are being removed. Consider these:

Power:
The nation’s Declaration of Independence clearly identifies our Creator as the One from whom all human rights extend. This same charter document also explains that among the powers granted to every human being are a “… separate and equal station to which the Laws of … Nature's God entitle them ...” In other words, no governmental entity exists on earth that possesses the power to take my rights away without the due process of law. It is God, not the state, who gives and guarantees our freedom.

As many work to remove God and His Word as the centerpiece of our culture, we propel ourselves towards disaster. When God is gone from our American community, from our marketplaces, and from our halls of government and education, tyranny can only be just around the corner. Without the knowledge that God is looking over their shoulder, men will never wield power justly.

Self-Government:
Government reveals itself everywhere. From planets making their routine orbits around the sun, to water hardening into ice at precisely thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit every time, our universe is governed by the laws of science. The material universe does not have freedom of choice. The planets cannot decide to change their orbits. Water cannot choose to freeze at a different temperature. We humans, on the other hand, must internally govern ourselves.

Established as a nation of self-governing individuals, America’s success depends upon every citizen effectively managing their own life. More and more, the fundamental responsibility of personal, self-government is being removed from the individual and turned over to the state. Our freedom is systematically being chipped away. For example, I no longer have the option of wearing my seat belt while driving (unless of course I am willing to suffer the consequences of receiving a ticket). Though safer with my seat belt on, that decision has been made for me by those who write the law. With each such governmental mandate, a little bit more of my personal freedom is supplanted.

Liberty of Conscience:
The First Amendment protects our freedom of worship, our freedom to speak our mind without fear of reprisal, our freedom to publish news, information, and even ideas, and the freedom to assemble and discuss politics or any other subject. This precious right can historically be traced, in large part, to the Protestant Reformation, and was created, not to keep God out of the public arena, but to keep the government from dictating to our citizenry what to believe, and what church to attend.

Today, these precious freedoms find themselves at great risk of being restricted and constrained. In academia especially, certain types of expressed ideas and thoughts, if out of sync with the lock step thinking of academicians, can result in harsh reprimands, lower test scores, and shunning. And “hate crime” legislation adds additional penalties to convicted offenders because of “politically incorrect” motives. We are increasingly seeing our culture being stripped of one of our most precious liberties—the "liberty of conscience."

Individuality:
God's creation sings with the theme of individuality. No two snowflakes are identical. No two trees, no two forests, no two creatures, no two nations, no two geographies, no two people share identical lives. Even identical twins lead different existences. In our nation, historically, civil government has existed to serve the individual, and not the other way around. In our land, the One takes precedent over the Many. Our republican form of government (small “r” see below) represents the high value placed on the individual by our nation’s founders.

Have you ever noticed that in countries where oppression is a way of life, the “people” are sometimes referred to as a collective entity (eg: The People’s Republic of China)? In such countries, those in power see “the masses” as something to be controlled, not served. If the rights of just one individual is trampled in the furtherance of the state’s goals, then freedom for all ceases to exist.

Moral Law:
For nearly two centuries, our nation’s citizenry understood and embraced the idea of family in the traditional sense—father, mother, and when so blessed, children. Along with such understanding, we likewise held up the ideal of fidelity—remaining true to our commitments—as essential to maintaining a strong and healthy nation. Family is God’s idea. When His design standards are honored, we find a much greater opportunity to live peaceable and productive lives.

Today, many have decided that the traditional idea of family is no longer important. Co-habitation and other forms of fornication are rampant. Homosexuality is promoted as an alternate and equivalent lifestyle to heterosexuality. The results of such moral turpitude have led not only to the destruction of families and individuals, but are carrying our entire nation towards the brink of ruin.

Cultural Covenantalism:
“ … One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all.” So concludes our nation’s Pledge of Allegiance, a public and generally collective confession of loyalty to our nation and its ideals. Before departing the Mayflower, Pilgrims drafted an agreement for themselves, a covenant representing their individual commitments to self-government under the laws of God. Called the Mayflower Compact, their document launched the rich history of cultural covenantalism in America. Our Constitution is a compact, an agreement defining and detailing how we have collectively bound ourselves to live together in pursuit of a common cultural purpose. Some presidents, including Lyndon Baines Johnson, considered our Constitution to be a covenant.

Today, with the rise of multiculturalism, we find ourselves on the threshold of Balkanization, a quarrelsome, divided, factionalized composite of many diverse and contentious groupings. Americans no longer worship the same God as our ancestors once did. That Christian faith, now forsaken by so many, bound us fast together. Now we are little more than separate, disparate, warring subcultures, each striving for dominance in an increasingly fragmented nation, held together, not by common vision or purpose, but only by the rule of a sometimes lifeless and burdensome law.

Separation of Powers:
God alone possesses all power. Because humanity is inherently corrupt, God parcels out His power to us in limited quantities. Wise men, our founding fathers understood the pitfalls and hazards of concentrating power in one man or one small group of individuals. They determined that power had to be spread around. In forming our government, they purposely set power at odds with itself, creating a tension between governing spheres (ie: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government).

Today, our national leaders treat our founders’ beautifully crafted Constitution with gross disrespect. They say our Constitution is “living” and must bend with the times. Judges now make law. Congress treads on executive power. And our Chief Executives allow career bureaucrats to make weighty decisions that impact every one of us. Powers are ceasing to be separated. Congressmen listen more to the lobbyists that line their pockets, than they do to the constituents who voted them into office. More and more it seems, our nation is being controlled by a handful of super-wealthy elites.

Republicanism:
" … and to the Republic for which it stands …" Our nation is not a democracy, but a republic. In a republic, as in a democracy, the people hold the power. But the majority DOES NOT rule in a republic. Rather, we are a nation of set laws, laws with which all must comply. And, rather than everyone voting on everything, we elect representatives to make decisions on our behalf. A republican form of government protects us all from “the tyranny of the majority,” a genuine danger of pure democracy where political tides can quickly shift at a moment’s notice, and set an entire nation on a perilous and irrevocable course toward destruction.

Our Constitution is not easy to change. Nevertheless, activist judges have taken it upon themselves to reshape our Constitution by judicial fiat, or the making of new law by court rulings. Our Constitution gives the power to declare war to the Congress. Yet, over the last several decades, presidents have sent Americans to several wars without a formal declaration from Congress. A multitude of other examples could be provided which highlight the gradual breakdown of our Constitutional Republic.

Federalism:
Federalism is a complex idea, difficult to explain in one short paragraph. At its core, federalism is the principle of representation—the principle of many being bound by the decision(s) of one. In America, we elect people to represent us in the halls of power. When a decision is made, all are bound to the decision and its consequences. But federalism also includes the division of power between national and state governments. And according to our Constitution's primary author, James Madison, "The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite." (Federalist No. 45) Madison and the other founders viewed the tension between the state and federal governments as a protection for the people.

Today, the federal government holds the purse strings. State governments, who depend so heavily upon federal dollars, must comply with federal demands, or risk having their money-spigot shut off. The balance of power between state and federal governments has grown extremely lopsided. Today, states have become little more than branches of the federal government.

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Because our public education system has failed so miserably, most citizens in our nation today, especially the younger ones, live life almost completely oblivious to the gradual but intentional deconstruction of our great nation. With the passage of each decade, our Constitution and the principles and precepts behind it, is being minimalized. Our republic is being slowly dismantled, and our nation remade into something that we no longer recognize.

One very effective and essential antidote to this grotesque national calamity is an education in the nation's history and the mind of our nation's founders.

Retreat and Advance

In the Gospels, we read of Jesus retreating into the mountains to pray and seek God—to listen for His voice. This past weekend, the men of my church retreated from our hectic Northern Virginia world, and spent two days in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park to do that very same thing. Each of us spent time alone seeking God and listening for His voice. And many men heard God speaking a personalized message into his heart.

Sometimes God will speak when we are not expecting to hear His voice. But when we quiet ourselves and prayerfully focus in on Him, wanting specifically to hear from Him, we quickly learn that such things are not automatic.

One session of the retreat focused on the power of the name. Leaders talked about Abram becoming Abraham, and that the name Jacob means supplanter (one who takes the identity of another through craftiness or deceit). Other examples were given. Following the session, retreat leaders instructed us to go up into the woods and listen for God to speak what name He had chosen for us, personally.

In the Scriptures, God Himself goes by any number of names: Righteous Judge, Holy One, Counselor, Prince of Peace, the Consolation of Israel, the Door, Lamb of God, Author and Finisher of our Faith, Rose of Sharon, the Good Shepherd …

My given name is Mark, which I learned long ago means “Warrior.” The name is fitting, as I am one prone to sometimes cut against the grain, and am often engaged in a crusade of one sort or another.

As I sat awkwardly that Saturday afternoon on a craggy rock protruding from the hillside, constantly adjusting my legs for comfort, I heard the words, “Bridge Builder.” My spirit energized, knowing that I had indeed heard God’s present name for me.

By Sunday afternoon, my heart had been so filled with God’s presence, that I knew I had entered a new phase of my walk with Him.

Seeds of this new phase had been planted many years ago. Beginning in 1980, and for the next three years, I had the privilege of sitting under the teaching of a very gifted man who began to open up to me the concept of a comprehensive Biblical worldview. We examined the Protestant Reformation and the idea of liberty of conscience. We explored the lives and convictions of our nation's Puritan founders. I began to grasp just how deeply our nation is rooted in Biblical precepts. In the fall of 1986 and the spring of 1987, I attended two six-week classes on America's Christian history. The roots grew deeper and my passion increased.

Then, in the summer of 1988, a man of God named Travis, hailing from Richmond Virginia, singled me out of a crowd one Sunday morning, and delivered a personalized, prophetic message to me. Among other things, Travis claimed that God had called me to be “a prophet to the nations,” and “a prophetic voice in the land.”

His word confirmed what I already knew in my heart.

I have long carried a burden for this nation, a burden to see her return to her Christian roots. I have learned that true freedom can only come from God, and that no governmental entity can ever take His place as the grantor of that precious gift.

Our weekend retreat produced wonderful results for every man. Personally, I found myself exiting a birth canal. On Sunday, God birthed me into His purpose, into the "one thing" He created me for. Yes, prior to that Sunday afternoon on a hillside in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I had spent twenty-seven years in the womb. But today I can say with a good measure of confidence that I have been born into a fuller understanding of my call and purpose from God, and a release from Him to move forward.

In the past I have been a “Warrior.” And that name still fits. But to that old name has been added a new one—“Bridge Builder.”

God has instructed me, as He did with His prophet Jeremiah, to “root out, pull down, destroy, and throw down. To build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:10)

Our nation sits at the brink of ruin. Those who laugh at God, or at best, have attempted to re-make Him into their own image, have slowly, methodically deconstructed our great Republic. And sadly, few of us possess the tools to defend and rebuild her.

For twenty-seven years in the womb of preparation, God has been instructing me. He has given me some understanding of how He views nations, and why a righteous, God fearing nation is so essential in a fallen world. He has shown me many of the Biblical precepts underlying our nation's Constitutional system, including the ideas of federalism and republic. He has taught me about Biblical covenant and its essential role in a self-governing society.

He has helped me to understand how slavery and the mistreatment of Native Americans created a breach in God's wall of protection, and how through that breach came the godless philosophies of Darwinism, Freudianism, Marxism, and many other vacant ideologies whose seeds have now grown into deadly fruit—the stinking, putrid fruit of self-worship.

And I have seen how gnosticism, dualism, and some forms of eschatology have rendered the Church nearly impotent.

God has instructed me so that I can instruct others. One of the steps I hope to take in the near future is to put together a series of classes which I plan to teach in my home. My calling is to equip and prepare others who wish to enjoin this battle, who want to fight but may not yet have all the weapons they need to engage the enemy.

We are in an ideological struggle for the future of our nation, and in some ways, for the future of the world. Our foes wield lofty-sounding, but ultimately empty ideas. Their ideas wreak with the odor of godlessness. When confronted with God's sound, logical, holy, and beautiful thinking, their ideas only shrink and wither.

As a "Bridge Builder" I intend to invest this next season of my life, for whatever amount of time God allows, to lay in, piece by piece, those ideological components that will construct a bridge. For all who wish to cross over from the despair and frustration of watching our once-Christian nation disinegrate into the dust, God is offering a new vision. And this new vision is really just the old vision, reconstituted once again for those with hearts that long for righteousness and justice, freedom and truth.

There remain some matters in my own personal life that need attending. Just as a newborn cannot immediately walk and talk, so am I in a place where I am not yet ready to launch into a steady gait. Please pray for me that God will continue to expunge from my soul those things that offend Him, and continue to give me wisdom on how and when to proceed. And thank you for indulging me in this very personalized posting.

In summary, after this weekend and after twenty-seven years of foundation, formation, and incubation, I am ready to publicly state that God has called me to a prophetic mission. He has apprehended me to summon God's people to a rediscovery of His work in our nation's founding, and to stand up and fight to save our nation from destruction, believing that hope for restoration, though seemingly improbable, is not unfounded.

I plan to spend several months prayerfully planning my next steps. I will periodically communicate as the design comes into focus.

With continuing preparations still in mind, I have learned from this pivotal RETREAT, that it is now time to ADVANCE forward.

The Jack Bull and the Imperative of Justice

I just watched The Jack Bull starring John Cusack. It's rated "R" but there are very few bad words, no sex, minimal violence and no gratuitous gore.

The HBO movie (inspired by true events) is built around a Wyoming rancher named Myrl Redding who has been treated unjustly by one of his very wealthy neighbors, Henry Ballard. The story takes place in the days leading up to Wyoming statehood (1890), a time and a place where law enforcement was sparse and sometimes men had to take matters into their own hands.

Myrl lives near a town called Rawlins, and Rawlins' judge is in cahoots with Ballard. When Myrl brings his petition for redress of grievance to Wilkins, his petition is ignored.

Myrl is a man who believes in justice. When those in charge of upholding the law fail him, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He forms a posse and goes after Ballard. His bold move creates havoc in Myrl's region of the soon-to-be-state, so much havoc that the U.S. Army is sent out after him. In his quest for justice, people die and property gets destroyed. The story ends with a courtroom trial, and a law-loving, ethical judge named Tolliver, played deftly by John Goodman.

A great line delivered by Tolliver highlights the importance of law and order:

"What's relevant here is the law, I judge cases on law. Law's the king with me, because if it wasn't, this territory, even if it becomes a state, wouldn't be fit for a prairie dog."

While the story on the surface is about one man's quest for justice, on a deeper level it is an exploration of the need for law and order in community. The only reason that Myrl became a vigilante is because the law failed to show up when it should have.

The film also explores the consequences of corruption in government. Most people have an inward sense of fairness. And most are patient and tolerant to a point. But when everyday people are consistently mistreated by those charged with enforcing the law, when their concerns are pushed aside and ignored, and their voice, their rights, no longer matter, eventually bad things begin to happen.

Myrl speaks his mind:

"I took the law into my own hands; I did it because there was none in Rawlins. I wrote my own law, but I didn't create it. In my mind, that law was there before we were born."

As I look out across my community, both witnessing and participating in a grass roots movement to persuade our local government leaders to enforce the law regarding illegal aliens, I see a very clear parallel to the The Jack Bull story unfolding right before us in plain view. Americans feel much like Myrl Redding. Our leaders have ignored and neglected us, the everyday Joe. Many of them have lined their pockets with filthy lucre from big business. Many of them can think only of their own political power,their desire to hold on to it, and the next election.

I think of the "Minutemen," everyday Americans who have taken up posts along the southern border of our nation, trying to do what our government has failed to do. And then our president calls them "vigilantes!" In his mind, perhaps, but in reality they are actually doing his job.

Although right now on the surface, things are relatively calm, it is what is boiling just beneath the surface that can lead to real trouble. Our situation with hundreds of thousands illegally crossing our border every year and our federal government doing little or nothing about it has the potential of exploding at any moment because justice has failed us.

Here in Prince William and Manassas, we are no longer rolling over and playing dead. We have begun to organize, to speak, and to fight back. Our local leaders, with a few exceptions, have responded well. It is my hope that our state and national leaders will also begin to get the message.

If they don't, and I am by no means advocating this or even predicting it, vigilante justice could potentially break out before true justice finally triumphs.

Myrl also said:

"The law will take care of Ballard. And if the law doesn't take care of him, I'm gonna take care of him. One way or the other, there's gonna be justice. I WILL have it."

Myrl Redding was wronged. We too have been wronged. Like Myrl, our cries for justice have been ignored. Let us pray that justice truly begins to get done by the people we have elected on a national level, before we are tempted to even think about moving toward a Myrl Redding type of solution.

Enough Already!

I cropped and clipped just a teeny part of my photo of the sign that went up this weekend. I think the message is clear. "They" want us to believe that we are racists.

But I don't think we are buying it anymore.

Sixty years ago, Americans celebrated. With the Great Depression behind us, Hitler and Hirohito defeated, and the American economy cranking up for a long, healthy run, times were indeed good. The post-war baby boom was but a year old. And the GI-Bill made it possible for millions of young families to afford their own home in the suburbs.

Yet beneath the surface, smoldering like a smoky, Pall Mall cigarette, an eruption of civil disobedience held itself at bay, waiting for just the right moment to break across our nation's front pages and into our national conscience. Racial prejudice, institutional discrimination, and "Jim Crow" thinking still held many white Americans in its ugly grasp, and it would take another fifteen years to bring that putrid, national sin out of its dark, subterranean cavern, and fully into the light of day.

Then television burst onto the American scene. Before TV, newsreels of current events could only be seen on big screens in movie theaters. But suddenly, news began to enter our living rooms instantaneously via the small screen. Within a ten year period, television had taken center stage in American culture.

America was changing, and changing rapidly. Television quickly shrunk our nation, bringing together east and west, north and south. And our attention soon focused on the real and serious scourge of racial inequity in our land.

We recoiled at the story of the hideous, bloody, racially motivated bludgeoning of fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmitt Till in 1955, murdered in cold blood in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman. Our ears perked up at the story of the brave Rosa Parks and her history-changing, 1957 bus ride. We grimaced as firehoses sprayed students and marchers protesting educational discrimination in Little Rock Arkansas in 1959. We applauded the CORE sponsored "Freedom Riders" program, transporting blacks on buses into the deep south in direct and defiant violation of the "Jim Crow" laws. We marvelled at the brave young black men and women, sitting boldly at lunch counters under signs reading "Whites Only." We wept with the families who lost their daughters in the First Baptist Church fire bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. And we cheered along with the throngs gathered in Washington, D.C. as the oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. held us all spellbound.

Yes, America indeed had a problem—a race problem. One hundred years after slavery had passed into history, black Americans still lived as second class citizens.

Soon, rapid-fire changes catapulted our nation into a new era. Cutting-edge laws altered the way we did business and education. Doors, shut for centuries to those with dark skin, began to open and open widely. The American cultural landscape took on unknown contours, fresh forms, and unfamiliar lines.

Those born during or before the 1950's bore witness to a radical shift in American life. For those born since, the acute change in direction is not nearly as striking. We white folks who lived through those pivotal years can say with a fair degree of both humility and confidence, that we changed—we truly changed. The new laws, the mandated affirmative action programs, and the opening of mainstream America to our black neighbors, spawned much personal soul searching. Many of us, indeed most of us, were changed on the inside. Our nation did a one-eighty. It is what theologians call a true repentance.

Television, once the theater of the white, middle class, has long since found itself populated with people of many colors and ethnicities. From early efforts such as The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Sandford and Sons, to the classy Huxtable family of The Cosby Show, we have come to better understand that skin color need not separate us.

Whether in entertainment, sports or music, America, though not yet fully color blind, has opened its arms wide to people of all hues and ethnic backgrounds. And even in the realm of business, African-Americans have made great strides. Oprah Winfrey, for one, is reportedly the world's most wealthy woman.

We Americans faced our shame in the '50's and '60's, hung our collective head in disgrace, and set out to correct the error of our ways. Our federally-mandated efforts to level the proverbial playing field have yielded mixed results, yet few will argue that America has taken huge steps to right wrongs, and to set things straight.

But not all Americans have sprinted to embrace an America that welcomes anyone regardless of race, creed, or color. In late August of this year, worshipers attending a service at the Kehilat Shalom synagogue in Montgomery County, Maryland, discovered that one of their banners had been defaced with obscene writing. Last year in Jena, Louisiana, three black high school students decided to sit under an oak tree where white students normally congregated. The next day, three nooses hung from a tree limb. The provocative action sparked increased racial tensions, and soon, a white student was attacked by six black students in an apparent retaliation. And earlier this month, following the boycott led by Mexicans Without Borders, Ku Klux Klan flyers showed up in a number of driveways right here in our own community.

Yes, racism still beats in the hearts of some.

And so, the work is not yet done. But on the whole, America has made tremendous progress since the "Jim Crow" days.

The vast majority of European Americans who have had a true change on the inside are no longer threatened by the word "racist." To us, that detestable label has grown old and tired. It has lost its sting. It bounces off of us and tumbles lifelessly to the ground. It no longer intimidates.

Furthermore, in the words of a very wise man, "illegal is not a race."

Revisionist History

Early this afternoon, my daughter called me to report that she had spotted an eyesore of a handmade billboard just a few blocks from my home. I grabbed my camera, hopped in my car, and made my way up to the intersection of Prince William, Liberty, and West Streets. Sitting catty-corner from the train station in Old Town Manassas, the brazen message from our community of illegals shouted its ugly message to all who passed by. (Click on the image for a readable sized picture)

Not long ago, at this site, an old house had burned down. All that remained was a single, block wall upon which a crude, hand-made sign had now been stretched. I parked, got out of my car, made my way across the street, and took several photos.

Aside from the fact that the sign is no doubt illegal in itself, likely violating the city's zoning ordinance, there are several elements to the message that are blatantly incorrect.

1. Racism: The Prince William County resolution which spawned this sign, passed in July of this year, mentions nothing whatsoever about a particular race or ethnic group being singled out. The resolution is targeted only toward those people who have entered this country illegally, and who remain here under false pretenses. Forged and/or stolen identities further criminalize the illegals who, in order to survive, have turned to the criminal underworld of false document creators in an attempt to legitimize their presence. As a Letter to the Editor writer so deftly explained, "Illegal is not a race."


2. Pay Taxes: The sign falsely claims that illegals pay taxes. Granted, those who find work under a false Social Security number do have taxes withheld from their paychecks. But in most cases, the employees claim as many dependents as they can, thus minimizing the deductions from their pay. Furthermore, to "pay taxes" involves more than having money withheld, it also means filing an annual IRS 1040 form, and in Virginia a 760 form. It is doubtful that anyone hired under a false name and ID would risk filing such paperwork.


3. Jobs We Won't Do: As to doing jobs that we won't do ourselves, such an idea is sophomoric and silly. Of course Americans will do these jobs. We have been doing them for over two hundred years. How, I wonder, did the Empire State building ever get built without these illegals from south of the border? Who built our roads and bridges, our cities and towns before they came? Well we did, of course, and when they have moved on, we will step in and take these jobs again. We just won't do them for the pittance of pay that these illegal interlopers are willing to accept. In order to support a family in this part of the country, a much larger income is required. And while it may be normal in other parts of the world for several families or large groups of people to occupy a single dwelling, it is not normal in this part of the world. Nor, for argument sake, is it even psychologically healthy or safe.


4. No Slaves: The claim is made that "they" did not bring slaves. Well, "we" did not bring slaves either. Yes, some of our ancestors did, but the practice of "bringing" slaves into the U.S. ended in 1808, nearly 200 years ago. And slavery itself was abolished in 1863 with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The first slaves on the North American continent arrived in 1526. But they were not brought here by Englishmen or for Englishmen. It was the Spaniards who first brought African slaves to what is now South Carolina in 1526. Furthermore, that same year, the Spanish imported African slaves into Guatemala and Honduras. El Salvador and Costa Rica entered the slave market in the late 16th century. Slavery continues today in that part of the world with the traffic of young women, sold into prostitution. In the Southwest American desert, where thousands of people, seeking better lives, cross our border, it is not uncommon to see women's underwear hanging from a tree. Such a tree is called a "Rape Tree," on it hanging the "trophies" of a "coyote" guide or his helpers, whose livelihood is derived in trafficking people across the border. In most cases, the underwear belonged to a young girl, usually a teenager, who had begun this trip in the earnest hope of a better life. I have learned that in Mexico, the age of consensual sex is twelve. The charge of rape in that country is often very difficult to prove. Thus, in the minds of many men from this part of the world, teen girls are fair game. A handful of these young women are likely locked in a basement somewhere in our own community this very day. And instead of working at a McDonald's or the Wal-Mart up the street, they are somebody's sex slave.


5. No Killing of Indians: In the early 1500's, the Spanish Conquistadors, under the leadership of Don Hernando Cortez, entered the ancient Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, and slaughtered thousands of natives. Tenochtitlan lay in what is today, central Mexico. To say "we did not kill Indians" is simply revisionist history, perhaps similar to the historical revisionists in our own American colleges and universities who seek to re-write the past to their own liking. Cortez's bloodbath was of course merely one of hundreds of native slaughterings at the hands of the Spanish and the Portuguese. Who are these people who have illegally entered our community today? They call themselves Hispanics and Latinos. They speak Spanish. Their culture, although distinct from their European Spanish forebears, is yet flavored with some of that Old World seasoning. Still, one cannot deny that their lineage can also be traced back to the ancient native peoples of this continent as well. Like many of us, they are a mixed breed of people, springing both from the conquered, and the conqueror.

The time has come for every one of us get off of our self-righteous "high horse." Let us deal accurately with history, and fairly with those who are a part of it. Ancestral guilt, though often felt, is not even real. It is the guilt of others, previous generations now departed from this world. Their guilt is not ours to own. It is they who will answer to their Creator for their own sins, their own crimes. We each have plenty of our own personal sins to answer for. Let us not burden ourselves with the guilt of other generations.

Racism is not unique to white Americans. Shreds of racism, or xenophobia, seek a foothold in EVERY human heart. The above sign demonstrates no less racism than the targets of its misguided accusations.

In order to live in an orderly, functional society, one that provides opportunity for all, we must have rules. And as members of such a society, we must be willing to voluntarily follow those rules. We are a nation of laws. We do our best to make certain that every law applies to everyone the same way. The Fourteenth Amendment to our Constitution, as troublesome as it is in some ways, makes our collective intent clear. It reads in part:

"No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Read "citizens."

In a society where so many religions and races and cultural histories collide, the law is our best chance of insuring that all have equal opportunity for success in their individual pursuit of happiness. The law is not perfect. But it does what we ourselves cannot do. In theory, if not always in practice, the law transcends our personal prejudices, residing above those xenophobic feelings that sometimes try to wedge their way into our sinful human hearts. The law is separate from us, and strives to guarantee that the right thing will be done regardless of personal feelings.

It is the best we have. And for over two-hundred years, with some adjustments along the way, the law has done a fairly decent job. Let us not abandon it now, just because some who cannot rationally defend their indefensible positions have chosen the path of least resistance, and labeled us as racists.

The Courtroom of Public Opinion

This past July, the Prince William Virginia Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) took a major step to stem the tide of public abuse by illegal aliens. A wave of regional counties followed in their wake. Loudoun County passed a similar resolution. Stafford County announced that it would begin taking steps to implement the 287g program. The Stafford BOCS also voted 4-1 to make English the official language of their county. The Spotsylvania BOCS recently set in motion a study to determine the impact of illegal aliens in their community. Other Virginia counties moving in the same direction include Chesterfield, Shenandoah, and Culpeper. The City of Manassas is also taking steps to deal with these issues. And the Town of Herndon, in Fairfax County, is where the battle truly began last year.

Each of these jurisdictions is using the law, the legal process, to take measured steps to combat abuse by illegals on as many fronts as the law allows. The city of Hazelton, Pennsylvania recently lost a court battle in this arena after being sued by the ACLU. But Hazelton Mayor, Lou Barletta, vows to continue the fight.

There is another courtroom where this battle is being fought as well. It is the courtroom of public opinion.

In late June of this year, Americans from all over the country rose up with a single voice and scared fifty-three U.S. Senators into rejecting their "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill," a piece of legislation that would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal alien lawbreakers. This time, the public prevailed.

The courtroom of public opinion must not be discounted in this war. In fact, the war cannot be won without it.

History provides several strong examples of the power of the public voice. In the late 1950's and early 1960's, voices in the Civil Rights Movement grew so loud that Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a sweeping piece of legislation with the tools to dismantle decades of Jim Crow abuse. Black Americans, under the law, would no longer be second class citizens.

Earlier in the century, women suffragettes in America spoke loudly and persistently. On August 26th, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment became law, and women in America finally obtained the right to vote. Loud voices, beating the drums of truth, had finally prevailed.

Exactly two hundred years ago, in 1807, one man's crusade ended in victory when Great Britain's parlaiment voted to end the slave trade. Despite overwhelming odds, William Wilberforce never surrendered in his quest to bring death to that dastardly national vice. Over time, his tireless efforts swayed public opinion and won the battle.

Our arenas of battle in the fight against the scourge of illegal alien lawbreakers are no different. We engage the enemy in three courtrooms: the judges' benches across our land, the voting booth, and the courtroom of public opinion.

In the courtroom of public opinion, our most powerful weapon is truth. Our opponents do not have truth on their side, they have only slander, innuendo, the guilt trip, and the race card. Those who fight with these anemic swords cast truth to the ground and trample upon it.

We must hold up their vain arguments to the light of day, and demolish their feeble ideas with our superior principles. In so doing, we instruct, we lead, and we defend our sovereign nation.