"Be Strong"

As a homeschooling Mom, it is sometimes difficult to keep the kids focused on their coursework. And sometimes I forgive their distractions...



(written and produced by Paul and Edward Westin)

"Who Will Define America"

STAR PARKER

I retrieve and open a large envelope from today's pile of mail.

Inside is a press release announcing "Chick-fil-A Founder to Receive 2008 William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership."

I discover that Chick-fil-A founder is 87-year-old Atlanta businessman S. Truett Cathy. Reading about Cathy, amidst today's headlines, I am wondering if his story is what America is about, or was about.

Cathy built, and today is owner/operator, of the privately held Chick-fil-A fast food chain, with more than 1400 locations and sales of over $2.6 billion dollars. He's from humble roots in rural Georgia and opened the first Chick-fil-A store in Atlanta in 1967.

In contrast to stereotypes equating business, particularly big business, to greed, Cathy's life and work has been defined by service and Christian charity. The corporate mission statement of Chick-fil-A is "To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A."

Chick-fil-A stores are closed on Sunday to allow employees to devote the day to faith and family.

Cathy established a scholarship fund in 1973 for Chick-fil-A employees and to date around 23,000 have received more than $24 million in scholarship funds. In 1984 he established the WinShape Foundation which last year alone spent $18 million supporting a network of foster homes, camps, scholarships, and marriage counseling programs.

The Simon Prize, which Cathy has just received, is awarded by the William E. Simon Foundation, established by Simon, who was the 63rd Treasury Secretary of the United States.

Like Cathy, Simon believed in America, in freedom and free enterprise, and was a man of faith. The giving themes of his foundation, as noted on the foundation's website, are in the areas of "education, faith, and family."

Unlike Cathy, Simon built his wealth in the area which is now quintessentially associated with greed -- finance. Before becoming Treasury Secretary in 1974, he was a Wall Street bond trader at Salomon Brothers. After, he set up firms dealing in mergers and acquisitions, financial services, and banking.

As Wall Street executives are dragged to hearings, to be mocked, blamed, and threatened by Democratic Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, it's worth quoting Simon, who passed away in 2000, as his creed appears on his foundation's website:

"The free enterprise system has blessed the United States of America with the greatest prosperity, the highest standards of living, and, most important, the greatest individual freedom known to man. If we can preserve this system, and our freedom, we can look forward to turning over to our children, and our children's children, an America that is more productive, prosperous, and stronger economically, financially, morally, and spiritually, than the one we inherited."

How, from this, did we become a nation of blame, bailouts, and entitlement?

Wal-Mart has just released its quarterly report showing sales and earnings up 7.5 percent and 9.8 percent respectively. Wal-Mart, founded and built by one of America's great entrepreneurs, has been under endless attack from the political left. Now, in tough times, Americans are happy to have a source of low priced, high quality merchandise.

Average nationwide retail gasoline prices this week are $1.95 less a gallon compared to July -- a drop of almost 50 percent. In a Gallup poll done last year, most Americans attributed high gasoline prices to oil company greed. Are they going down now because oil companies are becoming generous?

No doubt, these are hard times.

Here's my prediction. The more Americans believe that our future depends on politicians, political fixes, and bailouts, the bleaker our future will be.

If we see America as a country defined by men like S. Truett Cathy, Bill Simon, and Sam Walton, we'll re-establish firm footing on American principles and re-build our country, our prosperity, and our leadership.

National Black Pro-Life Union

Day Gardner:

Obama says he is a "Christian" yet, he supports abortion--all abortion! He says women have a right to kill their own children if they choose to do so. But GOD says that is a lie!

GOD says children are a gift. Psalm 127:3, says: Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward. In Jeremiah 1:5, GOD says "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou came forth out of the womb I sanctified thee..."

Psalm 139:13-16 - For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made... my substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret... Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written...

Regarding abortionists and those who kill unborn children, Exodus 21:22-25 states: If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished... and goes on to say: And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Here's what God also says if anyone kills a fatherless child. Exodus 22:22-24 – If thou afflict them in any wise and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry; and my wrath shall wax hot...

So what God does Obama worship?...

Letter from a Faithful Man

Chris Coatney, Life Advocate - Detroit :

"Black folks have told me I don't know what it's like to be a black person growing up in white America. True enough, but they don't know what it's like to be a white man trying to stop black folks from killing their babies. Tell me, Janice, do you know any black folks who are cussed out, hollered at, spit upon, assaulted by white folks, and have the police called on them for trying to save white babies? You'd think they would appreciate a white man who cared about their children. I'm sure there are white folks who would kill these babies for free if given the opportunity."

Not Christian

Video by Jorge Swaby, exposing Cayman's policy to support Castro. I'm assuming the rationale has to do with trade opportunities, but maybe that's naive. Interesting that Cayman still has this 'on the books' at the same time as it is seemingly SO concerned with 'human rights'. Or maybe the 'human rights' discussion is just a trade off for 'unrevealed' benefits as well...self interest puts things in perspective.

(thanks for the tip, Laurie)