No. 2

To the People of the United States of America:

We now embark on this journey of exploring the shortcomings of our current society and governmental infringements on Liberty, not for our own enjoyment, but for the good of a nation. For we must first call attention to these shortcomings, clearly identifying the error and fault, before moving to any sort of solution to the matters at hand. Make no mistake, there are certain forces at work in this Great Nation of ours that would very much benefit from, and who now pursue the matter of, keeping silent the voices who even now cry out in opposition against tyranny. Let us not mistake the intentions of the dispicable piece of legislation known as McCain-Feingold. Former President of the United States Ronald Regan once stated, "True, lasting peace cannot be secured through the strength of arms alone. Among free peoples, the open exchange of ideas ultimately is our greatest security." It is with this in mind, that I move as promised into the realm of Education. For it is the very baseline for exchanging ideas.

In 1925, We the People should have seen it. It should have been spotted at last, right at that very moment, in that courtroom in Tennessee, during that hot summer of 1925. Red flags should have instantly, and finally, been raised and the country should have awoken to the dangers of allowing a government to have near-complete control over the education of the populace. For those who do not know to what it is I refer that occurred in the summer of 1925, I direct your attention to The State of Tennessee vs. John Scopes - the now infamous Scopes Monkey Trial.

I am not here today to defend or destroy the outcome of that trial, but rather to expose to you the tragedy of the very occurance of such a case, and any others like it. The case was brought, at the instigation of the ACLU, against Mr. Scopes for teaching the principles of the Theory of Evolution in a public school. The charge was brought for violating the State of Tennessee's anti-evolution legislature, that had been passed in 15 states by the time the case was heard in the summer of 1925.

What business, I ask, does a government of any kind have in what our children are taught regarding the emergence of mankind? "Well," you say, "it was the parents who did not want these things taught to their children." And I say to you, it is their Creator-given Right to avoid whatever teaching they see fit for their children!

That being the case, what recourse did these parents have, given the fact the government controls the near-entire educational system and then legislates that it be mandatory for children attend? Thanks to the principles of supply and demand, private schooling is so hard to come by in America that the cost of sending a child to private school eliminates this option for most of our American families. This, I tell you, is the root of the problem.

In 1925, if privatized schooling was the norm rather than the exception, this entire travesty known as the Scopes Monkey Trial could have been avoided altogether. The parents who disapproved of the teaching being administered could have simply sought out a school closer to their own desires. Parties on both sides of the issue were damaged in reputation and in dignity, and for what cause? In either possible outcome of this trial, the People of America lose. The only viable solution would have been to wrest control of the right to school our children from the death grip of the United States Government.

Now 80 years later, how far have we come from this experience that tore us apart as a nation, and is still being heatedly argued over today? Sadly we stand convinced that the schooling of children is a social problem to be solved by Congressmen and Presidents. Somehow we have lost further touch with the fact that the Right to school our children, much less the Responsibility, simply does not belong in Government hands. How much money in taxes collected must be spent, and how many hours in lawsuits fought must go to waste, before the People of the United States stand and say, "Enough is Enough!"

Take back what is yours. The power to exchange ideas with the Next Generation is too precious to simply surrender to those who have shown little ability to properly handle the responsibilities that are theirs.

Publius II