In addition to the job I do as an engineer for my company, I am also tasked to evaluate the contracts we make with telecom carriers. Normally contracts are the purview of the lawyers, and ours ensure that the agreements we make with vendors comply with the myriad of rules the government creates to control our lives, protect us from ourselves, and make life generally more aggravating. But I digress. Lawyers fulfill a necessary purpose, in that they ensure that their clients are protected from any potential legal mis-step. However, while they do know the law, they are not telecom engineers, and have absolutely no understanding how some contract language, while legal, could have potential negative effects on both our network or department budgets.

That is where I come in. While the lawyers have the priority of protecting their client, the company itself, I have the priority of protecting my “client”, the company’s telecom department (and by extension, the whole company as well). When I look over contracts, my focus is not necessarily on whether the terms are legal (although I do review them for tariff compliance); it is whether or not the contract terms are beneficial to my client, the telecom department. How will this vendor’s pricing affect our budget? Are the service terms weighed far too favorably towards the vendor? What protections are in place if they fail to provide service, and how will we be made whole? Were the design promises made to our engineers included? And finally, based on past experience and current terms, is this a vendor we want to do, or continue to do, business with? As a company we are not obligated to continue a contract with anyone, and certainly not if it isn’t in our best interest. Just because a contract is legal doesn’t mean that it is right.

Because Iowa is a right to work state, the same freedom applies to ordinary workers here. We are considered “at will employees”, and unless an existing contract with our employer says differently, we can be let go at any time. However, did you know that this is not true for some of those employed by school districts? Iowa Code 279.24 actually provides special exemptions for school administrative staff from the rules that apply to private businesses. Under this statute, before an administrator can be let go, they must be first notified in writing by a certain date of the school board’s decision to not renew their contract, the decision to not renew must be for just cause and fully documented, they must be given a chance to a hearing with the school board, a chance to appeal their decision to an administrative law judge, and then if necessary, appeal to a full court. (School district policy also reflects this)

What bothers me about all this is why do these folks get special treatment under the law? Why don’t they have to live under the same right to work law that the rest of us do with our private employers? Or conversely, why can’t the rest of us have these same protections? Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with union contracts. These are actual legal exemptions given to a small group of people that can be used to override any decision made by our duly elected school board members. So basically those employed by the public, have more rights than do their employers, the actual public. Does that seem fair to you?

Were it not for this special protection, our school district administrator’s contract would not have been renewed. No motion was made for its approval; the only motion that was made was for it was for non-approval. Under normal circumstances, the contract renewal would have failed due to a lack of a motion to approve.  And under the Open Meetings law, if further action was to be taken on it later (as one board member requested a vote), it would require another open meeting to be called. Yet none of that occurred. Does anyone else find it disturbing that our district can be bound to a contract that our school board, our duly elected representatives, never approved?

Our newspaper really did not get it wrong. It reported it correctly. The school board, by taking no action to approve, actually declined to renew the administrator’s contract. It was the Iowa Code that later forced its renewal. So, let’s give credit where credit is due, shall we?

And then perhaps we can start asking our legislators why they are passing laws that allow some of our fellow citizens to live under a different set of rules than the rest of us do.

“We have enjoyed so much freedom for so long that we are perhaps in danger of forgetting how much blood it cost to establish the Bill of Rights”. ~ Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965), Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

This morning I attended our annual Memorial Day service put on by our local American Legion Hall and Boy Scout Troop. Usually we have it at the local cemetery where we can have a visual reminder of the cost of freedom, but due to the thunderstorm and lightening, it was moved to one of our local churches. As part of the service, we were told the story of Range Setter Robert D. Hagan, of the USS Bismarck Sea, which was sunk during the Battle of Iwo Jima on 21 February, 1945. It was the last US Navy Aircraft Carrier lost during World War II, and along with it 318 men.

As our American Legion chaplain, and also nephew to Range Setter Hagan, related the story of the battle, and how the ship was destroyed and sunk, I could not help but think of those men lost, and what they must have gone through. I also thought of those survivors who watched their fellow shipmates die. I did not know these men. I was not even yet born, but I still felt myself choke up at the sacrifice they made for my freedom. There is a cost to liberty, and it is never cheap. It is paid with the blood of those who stand before enemy fire, bombs, shrapnel and face death for our sake. This is the true cost of freedom, and only the select few are chosen to be worthy of its payment.

As I write this, it is still a dark, dreary, wet and rainy day. Unlike Memorial Days that have gone before, it is not the ideal day for a BBQ with friends. And perhaps that is a good thing. We need to be reminded of the sadness that surrounds this day too. The flag that stands at half-staff in my yard is only so because of those that have died defending it. As a nation, I think that we have grown too complacent, too secure in our freedom that we civilians have been lax to protect it. While our soldiers fight overseas, we neglect the very thing they are fighting for here at home. You see, the preservation of liberty is not just for the soldier; while they fight overseas fulfilling their duty, we must do our duty by keeping that flame alive here. Otherwise our soldiers will return and merely find that the whiffs of tyranny had followed them home.

If you paid a great price for something, would you not do everything possible to protect it? We insure our houses, cars, even ourselves from loss, yet too many of us do nothing to protect the freedom that was bought at such a high cost to so many. Was it because we did not personally pay for it? Or is it because we think it is someone else’s responsibility? The problem is, that liberty, once lost, is even far more costly to regain than it is to retain. There is only one way to ensure its protection: action. We are all responsible in varying degrees to pay the cost it takes to preserve it for the next generation. Some become soldiers, some run for office, others attend school board meetings and public forms, others write letters, articles, and call on those in charge to hold them accountable; our voice is meant for far greater things than just voting (which often by then it is too late to change anything). And yet, for far too many of our citizens, even the act of voting is far too high a price to pay to protect freedom’s flame.

This must change. The members of America’s greatest generation are slowly leaving us, and they bore witness to how great a cost the preservation of liberty really is. Sure, wars were fought after WWII, and will continue to be fought, but none with such a clear view of what evil was, and what it would do if not faced and defeated. We need such clarity now, and that can only come from America’s people. It no longer emanates from Washington DC. Liberty for liberty’s sake is now considered a threat to power, and is only temporarily embraced in word or deed if it furthers a political agenda of some kind. True, there are still those rare few there who face and stand against the tarnishing of freedom, but they are now seriously outnumbered.

The question now for my fellow Americans is this: there are more of us who love liberty than there are of those that do not, so are we willing to be inconvenienced in its defense? Or do we find our own lives and lifestyles far more important than the liberty of the next generation? What will you do? Are you willing to pick up some of the cost? I hope for the sake of Range Setter Robert D. Hagan, whose hand I had the honor of shaking this morning, you do. The blood price that has already been paid must not be for naught.

It must not. Not now. Not ever.

“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks.  Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools.  And their grandchildren are once more slaves”. ~ D.H. Lawrence, Classical American Literature, 1922

“When the fox preaches, look to the geese”. ~ Romanian Proverb

Well it has been a busy week for the Obama Administration. As the facts about Benghazi are now beginning to come out, we are also learning that issues with the State Department seem to be only the tip of the iceberg with this corrupt administration. Americans are discovering that the arrogance of power has infused itself into the entire executive branch. No longer do they stand guard as the protectors of this nation; they have become no better than destructive foxes, and foxes in charge of the henhouse no less. Our Presidency is very quickly turning into a dangerous cliché of corruption.

The American public is now receiving confirmation of what they have long suspected: that the IRS has been used as a political bullying arm in order to silence political dissent. Their “enemies list” seems to be growing even more noxious every day: Tea Party organizations, conservative groups, religious organizations (like Samaritan’s Purse), pro-constitution education organizations, and organizations for voting integrity (like True the Vote). The IRS asked questions about their donors’ private information, personal director information, copies of emails, Facebook posts, website login credentials, even the contents of their prayers. Not only that, the private tax information of these targeted groups was actually leaked by the IRS to other groups that opposed them, and individual donors to these conservative groups were also targeted for additional personal tax scrutiny. It should be noted that no such scrutiny was given to liberal/progressive organizations or their donors. And when pressed as to why, the IRS continued to be caught in lie after lie.

And then another blow hit: the secret subpoena by the US Department of Justice to the phone companies for all of the call records for the Associated Press for the last two months. The reason given was one of national security: someone had leaked information to the AP and the DOJ wanted to discover who it was. Not only was this a clear violation of the First Amendment by attempting to silence the press, but no notice of the subpoena was given as required by law, and the records that were requested were for AP employees who were not even involved in the investigation. The DOJ now knows whom all these reporters talked to, be they bureaucrats, elected officials, confidential informants, or whistleblowers. Their actions shocked both sides of the political aisle, as the very thing that is supposed to hold the government accountable, the press, was now the criminal target of the government’s fury.

What we are seeing is the unfolding of big government tyranny. No longer is it are the dangers of big government just a theory; we are now in the reality of the dangers of big government. Barry Goldwater once said, “a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also strong enough to take it away.” Right now our government is so large and so powerful it can use the force of any its various branches to make the lives of individual citizens both financially and personally very difficult if any dare take a stand against its corruption. This truth is playing out right now, and it should scare us as we stand on the precipice of tyranny.

The fact is that these are only the more recent executive branches that have been exposed as abusers of liberty. The EPA, the FBI, the ATF, and the DHS all have been shown to muscle their political agenda ahead of the lives, liberties and prosperities of the American people. There seems to be a poisonous attitude of aristocratic arrogance within the Executive branch. Rather than protecting the liberty of its citizens, for which our Constitutional government was created, it has morphed into a liberty-destroying leviathan. What individual citizen could possibly have the resources to fight an entity that has unlimited access to public servants as well as the public purse?

But let me tell you something that this current administration just does not understand; liberty never ends up standing alone. Right now individual citizens of all stripes are rising en masse to expose the continual tyrannical overreach of this administration that is endangering the future of all Americans. As a Georgian proverb says, “If you forgive the fox for stealing your chickens, he will take your sheep.” No more second chances, folks. It is too dangerous to continue to believe that they have our best interests at heart. They don’t. And once that trust is gone, any chance for good government is lost.

The foxes need to be thrown out of the henhouse before we lose any more hens. Time to call out the hounds.

“Where there are no hounds the fox is king.” ~ Italian Proverb

I believe that I am witnessing the Watergate of my generation. As I watched the testimony of the whistleblowers of what happened in Benghazi, one of whom is a registered Democrat and Obama supporter, I cannot help but wonder how it has taken so long for the truth of this tragedy to finally come out. Ever since this happened last September 11^th, social media has been a constant drumbeat for justice, wanting to know how the most powerful nation on earth could leave a consulate undefended, leading to the tragic death of four Americans, one of whom was our own Ambassador. They stood alone in their quest for righteousness, with an occasional story by Fox News, while our own government, and the main stream media, desperately tried to sweep it under the rug. Not anymore.

What happened? How could our own government put their agenda and their political talking points ahead of the lives of American citizens? Does truth and the preservation of life have no value to those whom we elected to represent us? Such things should rise above party squabbles and transcend political correctness. I believe that we are witnessing the unfolding of a depraved abuse of power, where lies seem to flow more easily than truth, and American lives mean nothing.   What we have learned thus far:

• Both Ambassador Stevens and his predecessor made repeated requests for additional security during the spring and summer of 2012. In fact, Ambassador Stevens sent a cable to the State Department on August 15, 2012, expressly requesting additional security because the Benghazi consulate could not withstand a coordinated attack. All requests were denied.
• The State Department made no requests for additional security in the weeks leading up to the September 11, 2012 attack, despite knowing that both the Red Cross and UK staff had left Benghazi due to the danger, as well as the significance of 9/11 anniversary
• The attack began at 3:42 pm EST but Obama was not told until his regularly scheduled briefing at 5 pm. He neither received nor requested further updates during the nearly 8 hour attack.
• Our military was ready for a rescue operation but was ordered to stand down, not once, but twice. Such an order can only come from the President.
• When Ambassador Stephens deputy was informed by the Libyan prime minister that Stephens was dead, he immediately called Clinton to inform her, but she was not available. She did not call him back that evening. Nor the next day.
• After the attack the consulate remained unsecured for 23 days, tainting evidence and allowing security documents to fall into the hands of the enemy. Yet reporters were able to access.
• On September 14 & 15, 2012, the State Department altered the administration’s talking on Benghazi twelve times in order to eliminate references to “Islamic extremists”, “Al Qaeda”, and “terrorism”, instead substituting language about it being a “spontaneously inspired…violent protest”, countering even the Libyan government’s assertion as to what truly happened
• In September 2012, when the coffins of the dead Americans arrived, Secretary Clinton blamed the events on an “awful video”. After that, Obama went before the UN and did the same, a story which we now know, & that they knew, was a complete fabrication
• Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s lawyer at the State Department, told witnesses not to speak to House investigators, with Clinton herself barely interviewed about the event

People do make mistakes, and we must remember that our leaders are human. Yet the strength of our republic does not hinge on them being perfect, but on being honest and righteous. In 1974 we witnessed the downfall of a President because he made the choice to both willfully lie to the American people and use the power of his office to silence anything against his agenda. It seems that both our current President and former Secretary of State have done the same thing regarding Benghazi.

Except this time the method of silence they used was death.

“No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

“Where the roots of private virtue are diseased, the fruit of public probity cannot but be corrupt.” ~ Felix Adler (1851-1933) Jewish professor political and social ethics, and founder of the Ethical Culture movement

As I looked out my windows in amazement at the snow we are having in May, I cannot help but wonder what the farmers are thinking about the seeds already planted in the now very wet, and very cold, soil. While we here in Iowa are grateful for the moisture to relieve our drought, there is some concern about the possibility that the seeds planted may be damaged and fail to take proper root. Good harvests depend on good roots.

Can any good ever come from bad roots? Is it possible to yield a bountiful and healthy harvest if the seeds planted are rotten? Can good fruit ever come from a bad seed? If you are a farmer, the obvious answer is probably no. However, if you are not, you may believe that it is possible to defy the laws of nature, and be willing to waste a lot of time and money fighting to change reality.

Maybe this is why Planned Parenthood is trying so hard to hide the bad roots of their own organization. Their founder, Margaret Sanger, was an activist in the birth control and population-control movements of the early and mid-20^th Century. She is currently hailed and a women’s rights hero who freed the fairer sex from the economic and social burdens of pregnancy. However, if you read her writings, you will see that the organization that she helped found has far darker, rotten roots. Their original purpose was not really to free women at all, but to promote the furtherance of a preferred race. Sanger supported the practice of eugenics, and worked on packaging it in such a way as to be more accepted by society.

In 1939 she initiated what was called the “The Negro Project”, whose objective was to infiltrate the black community by presenting birth control and abortion as a way to increase their standing both economically and socially. However the truth was far from that. Fearing the black community would see this for what it really was, i.e. a way to reduce the black population, she said the following in a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble: ““We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. And the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.”

But it wasn’t just the black population that Margaret Sanger wanted to eliminate; there were others whom she also deemed unfit which needed to be eliminated as a burden on society. Here is she in her own words:

On blacks, immigrants and indigents: “…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ‘spawning… human beings who never should have been born.” quoted from her book, Pivot of Civilization

On the rights of the handicapped and mentally ill, and racial minorities: “More children from the fit, less from the unfit — that is the chief aim of birth control.” from her paper Birth Control Review, May 1919

On the right of married couples to bear children: “Couples should be required to submit applications to have a child…” from her paper Birth Control Review, April 1932

On children as a whole: “The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.” from her book Women and the New Race (Eugenics Publ. Co., 1920, 1923)

Read that last quote again. The roots of Planned Parenthood go deep into the eugenics belief system, where life is only valuable if the stronger, more elite, define it as such. Right now we have an abortion doctor on trial for both infanticide and the murder of a female patient yet not only Planned Parenthood, but the media, the left and even our own President are silent about it. This silence reveals the real truth about the abortion industry. It has never really been about lifting up women at all – it has always been, from its very onset, about the devaluing of human life.

So, what kind of harvest do you reap from rotten roots? A harvest of death. But, any Iowa farmer could have told you that.