Editor's note, by Weldon Clark The National Education
Association is attacking gun ownership. We present two
ways to fight NEA. Exercising your rights as a union member
if you are a teacher and vouchers. The NEA hates and fears
the "voucher" concept. Some conservatives have criticized
the "voucher" approach to defeating the NEA. They point out
that federal money means federal control. From THE
REVIEW OF THE NEWS: "It is a familiar story. In the early
days of federal farm programs, for instance, farmers were
assured that federal subsidies would not necessitate
submission to federal controls. Yet such controls were quickly
instituted. And, when they were tested in court, unhappy
farmers learned that "it is hardly lack of due process for the
government to regulate that which it subsidizes." (Supreme
Court, Wickard vs. Filburn, 1942)." I would like to point out
that all governments, state and local, also operate the same
way. So do businesses. It is known as the golden rule. He
who has the gold makes the rules.
The critics fail to point out that the private schools or home
schools can turn down the money and the control. The
voucher system means that the bad schools will not get the
money. That kicks NEA in the teeth. Also it is more difficult
to enforce controls against religious, private and home
schools. THE AUTHORS OF THESE VOUCHER
INITIATIVES ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO
LIBERTY, WHO ARE WELL AWARE OF THESE
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS, AND SO HAVE DESIGNED THE
INITIATIVES TO PROTECT AGAINST GOVERNMENT
MEDDLING.
The current California voucher initiative, for example, amends
the California Constitution to forbid government meddling in
private schools WHETHER OR NOT THEY ACCEPT
VOUCHERS. It actually gives private schools far more
protection than they have now.
Another key thing besides the money is the right to send your
children to a private, religious or home school. There is a lot
more than money at stake. Here in South Carolina (the bible
belt, the most conservative area of the nation) the public
schools have young children, very young boys and girls
together, placing condoms on cucumbers in sex education
classes. Children should not have this kind of pressure
placed on them.
Editor's Note The enemy is active. The so called Million
Moms March is calling people asking for a donation of 100
dollars apiece.
************************************************************
TAKE THE OFFENSIVE, By Russ Howard
How to weaken & destroy the main source of anti-freedom
and anti-self- defense funding, improve public education, and
put an end to government indoctrination centers.
The following is a paraphrased NRA Alert:
"The National Education Association, America's largest
teachers' union, has long been a shrill proponent of
restrictions on our Right to Keep & Bear Arms.
On July 3rd, the NEA launched a drive to petition Congress
for gun owner licensing, registration, "ballistic fingerprinting",
mandatory storage, and waiting periods. No mention of
targeting violent criminals or enforcing existing gun controls.
The attack on law-abiding gun owners, mirroring Gore's
platform, was not met with complete approval at NEA's
convention. One teacher said, 'Rather than gun control, we
need parental control & responsibility.' Another said, 'metal
detectors are more useful than gun control to protect
schools...(and) it would be better to control TV shows,
video games & movies that promote violence.' NRA will
watch any attempts to use public schools for a political
agenda. To oppose NEA's petition, call 202-833-4000, write
to 1201 16th St., NW, Washington, DC, 20036, or send e-
mail NEA's President at BobChase@nea.org. "
No wonder we're losing.
Bad enough that NRA management's grand Orwellian pre-
emptive surrender strategy Fight Gun Control with Gun
Control bleeds through the alert:
* Full enforcement of all gun controls.
* Metal detectors to enforce the NRA-supported "gun-free"
school zones mandatory school defenselessness law. That'll
stop mass shootings by psychos! Right!
* What's next? If gun control works so well in schools, why
not "gun-free" homes? NRA management says, "let's start by
caving on mandatory trigger locks & holding parents
criminally liable for child access to firearms."
* And, who knows, maybe even restrict the First Amendment
as well.
But the real indictment of the alert, the really pathetic thing, is
how it urges NRA members to write the NEA to complain.
Would President Reagan have insulted your intelligence by
asking you to get on your knees, write Comrade Breshnev a
letter, and whine about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?
The overpaid beltway types who "manage" NRA as a quasi-
government institution might as well ask us to light candles,
hold hands, & sing "Kumbayah". Is this why we give Wayne
LaPierre and his "Winning" Team 20,000 dollar-a-month
salaries, 15,000 dollar-a-month tax-free "expense accounts",
and who-knows-what other benefits? For the political
equivalent of a reverse "pacification" program, where we
pacify our own troops?
It's another example of NRA's sterile bee queen
management. Waste our time, energy & money pleading with
the sworn enemies of freedom and decency. Keep us on our
knees when we could be making a difference.
Any number of things would be more effective than getting on
your knees and begging the enemy for mercy or wasting your
time trying to "talk sense" to a committed leftist. Like penning
a letter to the editor or writing your legislator. But much of
that by nature is defensive. Defense is necessary, but the
problem with always being on the defensive is that by and
large the best you can do is not lose. Taking turf, new or old,
is generally out of the question. Unless you're on the
offensive as well, sooner or later, you'll lose more turf and
never get it back.
To utilize our true potential as a movement, we must be
flexible. Always question the "rules" of the game. Engage in
"unconventional" political warfare, jump outside the paradigm
of our struggle and redesign it to our advantage, search for
weak points, for opportunities to make the enemies of
freedom pay for attacking our rights. Teach them, through
pain, that it's not worth it. Often the most effective thing, while
not neglecting the defense of your own primary issue, is to
find & exploit other issues that serve as the enemy's Achilles
Heel, to weaken him financially and destroy him politically, at
the very least keep him so busy defending himself that he
can no longer attack your rights.
There are fundamental struggles we should be part of, that
will have profound, long-lasting benefits for the cause of
liberty, that are not directly gun rights issues.
FIRST: IDENTIFY & FACE THE PROBLEM
The government school unions have long been one of
America's foremost enemies -- not only of constitutional
liberty and decent values; but of decent-quality public
education itself. Why?
* Government school unions spend vast sums of money to
protect their monopoly, and to protect mediocre &
incompetent teachers from being fired, from having to
compete, or from being subject to performance-based pay. In
the mammoth L.A. school district, something like 100
teachers were fired over a 10-year period for such behavior
as rape, indecent exposure, etc, while not a single teacher
was fired for incompetence.
* Much of the union money goes, both directly and indirectly,
to elect anti-self-defense politicians and to promote gun
control.
* The government school unions are the lifeblood of the
Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party is completely in
their pocket. In fact, they're so powerful few Republicans are
willing to cross them. The L.A. Daily News recently referred
to their influence as a "reign of terror". Destroy the
government school unions and the cause of freedom
advances by light years.
* Because government unions are run by committed leftist
ideologues, because parents have little effective control, and
because of the nature of government institutions and the type
of personnel they attract, many government schools
increasingly serve as ideological, spiritual, and even sexual
indoctrination centers, whose daily mission is to brainwash
kids with anti-American, collectivist, socialist, and even racist
propaganda; give condoms to kids as young as 11, urge
them to be "open minded" and "explore their sexuality"; get
kids to snitch on parents who own guns and on "abusive"
parents who dare spank as a form of discipline, pressure
parents to put "hyperactive" kids on dangerous mind-altering
drugs, punish kids who support the 2nd Amendment, protect
violent students from expulsion, and generally undo the
influence of such subversive institutions as families,
churches, synagogues, & Scout Troops.
* Money is not the problem. Ten years ago, per-student
spending was three times what it was in 1960, pupil-staff
ratios had dropped in half, and government school teachers
made 50% more than the average worker, yet performance
steadily worsened -- to the point that in Los Angeles,
government school teachers themselves were twice as likely
to send their own kids to private schools as the typical parent.
* Since then even more money has been thrown at the
problem. Next year California will spend well over 8,000
dollars per student, more than most private schools. The
more money we throw at government schools, the worse they
get.
* Of course, there are many good teachers who support
constitutional liberty, but they do not control the government
school unions, and they never will.
VOUCHERS & EDUCATIONAL CHOICE
Various educational choice plans have been proposed in the
past 40 years to improve public education. The debate has
primarily been around vouchers, which would take some of
the per-student money now spent at government schools and
let parents spend it at the school of their choice. Private &
home schooling would expand, kids would get a better
education, and the worst government schools would have to
compete, shrink, or disappear. The better government
schools need not fret. Parents happy with their schools can
leave their kids where they are. California's current voucher
initiative would give private schools strong new constitutional
protections against government meddling, and, of course, no
private school would be required to accept vouchers.
Other plans have been proposed, such as David Barulich's
innovative concept where parents would actually be paid
bonuses based on standardized tests of their kids'
performance. From here on I use the term "vouchers" loosely
to describe any educational choice plan that lets parents
direct taxpayer education dollars to the school of their choice
government, private, or religious or that rewards parents
based on the educational progress of their children.
To see how vouchers harness the power of competition and
free enterprise to improve education, consider this analogy to
the current government system:
Suppose the government taxed everyone heavily to support a
government-run car manufacturing system, and gave
everyone a new car every few years. None of the workers
could be fired, their pay depended solely on seniority, and so
performance-based pay was strictly forbidden. If you didn't
like the quality or style of your "free", one-size-fits-all
government car, you couldn't just take your money to another
car company like you can now, because they'd already have
your money. Few but the wealthy would be willing to cough
up another 20 to 50,000 dollars for a "private car". So you
lobby the government to improve quality and offer the style
you like. Good luck! The answer would always be some
version of "we need more money" (fewer cars built per
autoworker, higher pay, nicer factories and buildings, etc.).
Every decrease in quality would be hailed as evidence that
not enough money was going into car making. Imagine what
cars would be like.
Naturally, the government school unions are adamantly
opposed to vouchers, accurately perceiving them as a threat
to their reign of terror. The unions spent something like 16+
million dollars to kill California's 1993 voucher initiative,
outspending proponents by an order of magnitude. They
killed it by a landslide at a time when few citizens understood
the concept. But times have changed. Polls show
dramatically increased understanding and support for
vouchers, and new voucher initiatives will cost far more to kill.
THE OFFENSIVE
It's time for the self-defense civil rights movement to support
tuition vouchers:
1. Vouchers will improve public education by enabling
parents to send their kids to better schools, by forcing
government schools to compete, and by giving parents an
alternative to government indoctrination centers. To the
minimal extent that any harmful government meddling and
indoctrination is allowed, parents will tend to send their kids
to the schools that tolerate it the least, since those will
obviously tend to be the better schools.
2. Even if voucher initiatives lose, government school unions
will be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars fighting
them, money that would otherwise be spent directly or
indirectly fighting for gun control and against freedom. Ideally,
voucher initiatives should be run in EVERY primary, soaking
up government school union money that would otherwise be
spent in general elections.
3. Once vouchers begin winning, the government school
unions will be destroyed, taking with them the anti-freedom
groups' biggest financial base, and the largest built-in source
of institutional demand for government meddling in schools.
4. Vouchers will not hurt good teachers. The current system
demoralizes teachers by not rewarding excellence.
Educational Choice helps good teachers by restoring safety
(violent students can be expelled), cutting red tape,
encouraging innovation, shifting money from bureaucracy to
teaching, creating jobs, and promoting systems that reward
excellence. On the other hand, bad teachers will have to
improve or get other jobs.
Do yourself, the children of America, and your rights a favor:
Support educational choice every chance you get. Get
informed and write letters to the editor. Volunteer & donate to
campaigns. For more information on vouchers, go to www.schoolchoice2000.net .
ANOTHER ACHILLEES HEEL: MISUSE OF UNION DUES
Employees of unionized industries have several options to
prevent all or part of their mandatory union dues from being
used to destroy constitutional liberty.
1. Don't join. Employees who refuse to belong to the union
can get as much as 30% of their dues refunded. However,
many employees still want to belong to the union so they can
have a voice. If that is the case:
2. Better yet: Join but object on religious grounds. You have
the right to have 100% of your dues redirected to a charity.
Often this can be the charity of your choice. For example,
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Gun
Owners of America Foundation, Pacific Justice Institute, or a
church or religious charity.
3. Thus, you can not only keep nearly 1000 dollars a year
from being used to destroy America, you can redirect it to
help save America, at no cost to you.
See www.pacificjustice.org/union.html for all the information
you need to take advantage of these options. The Pacific
Justice Institute (www.pacificjustice.org) will represent
employees without charge in matters regarding religious
freedom, academic freedom, and freedom of association.
Proposals to bleed anti-freedom war chests by educating
NRA members on such issues were presented to NRA
management years ago by Arnold Gaunt and myself (Russ
Howard former NRA Director), and rejected out of hand as
"non-gun-related" (as opposed to, say, such "gun-related"
NRA programs as 3-Strikes for Victimless Gun Crimes; hiring
more police, ATF agents, & gun prosecutors; helping gun
grabbers enforce all existing gun controls; helping the gun
grabbers build state & federal gulags for gun owners; and
putting teachers in prison for 10 years for carrying to defend
themselves and
their students).
Unfortunately, the enemies of freedom don't tie their hands
behind their backs and play by such witless rules. Otherwise,
the government school unions wouldn't be pushing gun
control, would they?
Don't waste your time begging a sworn enemy for mercy.
Instead, bleed him financially until you destroy him. Your
weapons are your pen, your money, and your time. Use them
wisely, relentlessly, and with focus.
And unless you're a life member, think twice about joining,
donating to, or staying with the management of organizations
like NRA who pay themselves 20,000 dollar-a-MONTH
salaries, 15,000 dollar-a-month expense accounts, and who-
knows-what else, for perpetually selling you out, for living by
the creed of pre-emptive surrender, for "fighting" gun control
with gun control.
Think twice about supporting the managers of groups like
NRA who play you for the sap in a national game of "good
cop/bad cop" with HCI, who "fight" de jure registration as a
smokescreen to hide the fact that we already have de facto
registration which they've supported all along.
* by supporting "shall-issue" carry while threatening
legislators who promote Vermont Carry (which does not
involve registration), [Editor's Note: in Vermont you can carry
without a permit. Your "permit" is the 2nd Amendment.]
* by engineering the InstaCheck system while burying viable
alternative systems where the government would not know
who is buying, [Editor's Note: I was at the legislative policy
committee meeting when NRA staff tried to get InstaCheck
approved. It did not succeed at that meeting. The motion did
not even get a second. Neal Knox and I were on the
committee and the board at that time. To my knowledge
InstaCheck has still not been approved by the NRA Board of
Directors since then.]
* by supporting the Gun Control Act of 1968's nationwide
system of registration lists. Lists kept by gun stores whose
locations are known by the federal government, lists which
must be turned over to the government when the store goes
out of business.
NRA management will want you to send in your check to help
"kill" registration, and they'll be back bragging and asking
again for more money as a "reward" after they've "killed" it.
Your money & time are better spent with organizations like
KeepAndBearArms <http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com>,
Citizens of America (www.citizensofamerica.org), JPFO
(www.jpfo.org), Gun Owners of America
(www.gunowners.org), www.theLSAS.org, and dozens of
other anti-appeasement groups (listed on www.KeepAndBearArms.com/exile ).
For those who want to bone up on educational choice, KABA
has posted a short Q&A/FAQ on Educational Choice that I
wrote up for the California's 1993 voucher initiative. The
figures are dated, but the concepts remain valid. Go to: www.keepandbeararms.com/howard and look for the
Voucher FAQ.
Russ Howard
************************************************************
For those of you in South Carolina who wish to receive
specific alerts. Please e-mail request to lcoble@netside.com
and/or visit www.scfirearms.org.
************************************************************
What To Do If The Police Come To Confiscate Your Militia
Weapons see www.2ndamendment.net
For legislative updates contact www.nealknox.com and go to
"Scripts from the Firearms Coalition Legislative Update Line"
***************************************************
From The 2ndAmendmentNews Team
------------------
"those who sacrifice
liberty for security deserve neither"
Association is attacking gun ownership. We present two
ways to fight NEA. Exercising your rights as a union member
if you are a teacher and vouchers. The NEA hates and fears
the "voucher" concept. Some conservatives have criticized
the "voucher" approach to defeating the NEA. They point out
that federal money means federal control. From THE
REVIEW OF THE NEWS: "It is a familiar story. In the early
days of federal farm programs, for instance, farmers were
assured that federal subsidies would not necessitate
submission to federal controls. Yet such controls were quickly
instituted. And, when they were tested in court, unhappy
farmers learned that "it is hardly lack of due process for the
government to regulate that which it subsidizes." (Supreme
Court, Wickard vs. Filburn, 1942)." I would like to point out
that all governments, state and local, also operate the same
way. So do businesses. It is known as the golden rule. He
who has the gold makes the rules.
The critics fail to point out that the private schools or home
schools can turn down the money and the control. The
voucher system means that the bad schools will not get the
money. That kicks NEA in the teeth. Also it is more difficult
to enforce controls against religious, private and home
schools. THE AUTHORS OF THESE VOUCHER
INITIATIVES ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE COMMITTED TO
LIBERTY, WHO ARE WELL AWARE OF THESE
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS, AND SO HAVE DESIGNED THE
INITIATIVES TO PROTECT AGAINST GOVERNMENT
MEDDLING.
The current California voucher initiative, for example, amends
the California Constitution to forbid government meddling in
private schools WHETHER OR NOT THEY ACCEPT
VOUCHERS. It actually gives private schools far more
protection than they have now.
Another key thing besides the money is the right to send your
children to a private, religious or home school. There is a lot
more than money at stake. Here in South Carolina (the bible
belt, the most conservative area of the nation) the public
schools have young children, very young boys and girls
together, placing condoms on cucumbers in sex education
classes. Children should not have this kind of pressure
placed on them.
Editor's Note The enemy is active. The so called Million
Moms March is calling people asking for a donation of 100
dollars apiece.
************************************************************
TAKE THE OFFENSIVE, By Russ Howard
How to weaken & destroy the main source of anti-freedom
and anti-self- defense funding, improve public education, and
put an end to government indoctrination centers.
The following is a paraphrased NRA Alert:
"The National Education Association, America's largest
teachers' union, has long been a shrill proponent of
restrictions on our Right to Keep & Bear Arms.
On July 3rd, the NEA launched a drive to petition Congress
for gun owner licensing, registration, "ballistic fingerprinting",
mandatory storage, and waiting periods. No mention of
targeting violent criminals or enforcing existing gun controls.
The attack on law-abiding gun owners, mirroring Gore's
platform, was not met with complete approval at NEA's
convention. One teacher said, 'Rather than gun control, we
need parental control & responsibility.' Another said, 'metal
detectors are more useful than gun control to protect
schools...(and) it would be better to control TV shows,
video games & movies that promote violence.' NRA will
watch any attempts to use public schools for a political
agenda. To oppose NEA's petition, call 202-833-4000, write
to 1201 16th St., NW, Washington, DC, 20036, or send e-
mail NEA's President at BobChase@nea.org. "
No wonder we're losing.
Bad enough that NRA management's grand Orwellian pre-
emptive surrender strategy Fight Gun Control with Gun
Control bleeds through the alert:
* Full enforcement of all gun controls.
* Metal detectors to enforce the NRA-supported "gun-free"
school zones mandatory school defenselessness law. That'll
stop mass shootings by psychos! Right!
* What's next? If gun control works so well in schools, why
not "gun-free" homes? NRA management says, "let's start by
caving on mandatory trigger locks & holding parents
criminally liable for child access to firearms."
* And, who knows, maybe even restrict the First Amendment
as well.
But the real indictment of the alert, the really pathetic thing, is
how it urges NRA members to write the NEA to complain.
Would President Reagan have insulted your intelligence by
asking you to get on your knees, write Comrade Breshnev a
letter, and whine about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan?
The overpaid beltway types who "manage" NRA as a quasi-
government institution might as well ask us to light candles,
hold hands, & sing "Kumbayah". Is this why we give Wayne
LaPierre and his "Winning" Team 20,000 dollar-a-month
salaries, 15,000 dollar-a-month tax-free "expense accounts",
and who-knows-what other benefits? For the political
equivalent of a reverse "pacification" program, where we
pacify our own troops?
It's another example of NRA's sterile bee queen
management. Waste our time, energy & money pleading with
the sworn enemies of freedom and decency. Keep us on our
knees when we could be making a difference.
Any number of things would be more effective than getting on
your knees and begging the enemy for mercy or wasting your
time trying to "talk sense" to a committed leftist. Like penning
a letter to the editor or writing your legislator. But much of
that by nature is defensive. Defense is necessary, but the
problem with always being on the defensive is that by and
large the best you can do is not lose. Taking turf, new or old,
is generally out of the question. Unless you're on the
offensive as well, sooner or later, you'll lose more turf and
never get it back.
To utilize our true potential as a movement, we must be
flexible. Always question the "rules" of the game. Engage in
"unconventional" political warfare, jump outside the paradigm
of our struggle and redesign it to our advantage, search for
weak points, for opportunities to make the enemies of
freedom pay for attacking our rights. Teach them, through
pain, that it's not worth it. Often the most effective thing, while
not neglecting the defense of your own primary issue, is to
find & exploit other issues that serve as the enemy's Achilles
Heel, to weaken him financially and destroy him politically, at
the very least keep him so busy defending himself that he
can no longer attack your rights.
There are fundamental struggles we should be part of, that
will have profound, long-lasting benefits for the cause of
liberty, that are not directly gun rights issues.
FIRST: IDENTIFY & FACE THE PROBLEM
The government school unions have long been one of
America's foremost enemies -- not only of constitutional
liberty and decent values; but of decent-quality public
education itself. Why?
* Government school unions spend vast sums of money to
protect their monopoly, and to protect mediocre &
incompetent teachers from being fired, from having to
compete, or from being subject to performance-based pay. In
the mammoth L.A. school district, something like 100
teachers were fired over a 10-year period for such behavior
as rape, indecent exposure, etc, while not a single teacher
was fired for incompetence.
* Much of the union money goes, both directly and indirectly,
to elect anti-self-defense politicians and to promote gun
control.
* The government school unions are the lifeblood of the
Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party is completely in
their pocket. In fact, they're so powerful few Republicans are
willing to cross them. The L.A. Daily News recently referred
to their influence as a "reign of terror". Destroy the
government school unions and the cause of freedom
advances by light years.
* Because government unions are run by committed leftist
ideologues, because parents have little effective control, and
because of the nature of government institutions and the type
of personnel they attract, many government schools
increasingly serve as ideological, spiritual, and even sexual
indoctrination centers, whose daily mission is to brainwash
kids with anti-American, collectivist, socialist, and even racist
propaganda; give condoms to kids as young as 11, urge
them to be "open minded" and "explore their sexuality"; get
kids to snitch on parents who own guns and on "abusive"
parents who dare spank as a form of discipline, pressure
parents to put "hyperactive" kids on dangerous mind-altering
drugs, punish kids who support the 2nd Amendment, protect
violent students from expulsion, and generally undo the
influence of such subversive institutions as families,
churches, synagogues, & Scout Troops.
* Money is not the problem. Ten years ago, per-student
spending was three times what it was in 1960, pupil-staff
ratios had dropped in half, and government school teachers
made 50% more than the average worker, yet performance
steadily worsened -- to the point that in Los Angeles,
government school teachers themselves were twice as likely
to send their own kids to private schools as the typical parent.
* Since then even more money has been thrown at the
problem. Next year California will spend well over 8,000
dollars per student, more than most private schools. The
more money we throw at government schools, the worse they
get.
* Of course, there are many good teachers who support
constitutional liberty, but they do not control the government
school unions, and they never will.
VOUCHERS & EDUCATIONAL CHOICE
Various educational choice plans have been proposed in the
past 40 years to improve public education. The debate has
primarily been around vouchers, which would take some of
the per-student money now spent at government schools and
let parents spend it at the school of their choice. Private &
home schooling would expand, kids would get a better
education, and the worst government schools would have to
compete, shrink, or disappear. The better government
schools need not fret. Parents happy with their schools can
leave their kids where they are. California's current voucher
initiative would give private schools strong new constitutional
protections against government meddling, and, of course, no
private school would be required to accept vouchers.
Other plans have been proposed, such as David Barulich's
innovative concept where parents would actually be paid
bonuses based on standardized tests of their kids'
performance. From here on I use the term "vouchers" loosely
to describe any educational choice plan that lets parents
direct taxpayer education dollars to the school of their choice
government, private, or religious or that rewards parents
based on the educational progress of their children.
To see how vouchers harness the power of competition and
free enterprise to improve education, consider this analogy to
the current government system:
Suppose the government taxed everyone heavily to support a
government-run car manufacturing system, and gave
everyone a new car every few years. None of the workers
could be fired, their pay depended solely on seniority, and so
performance-based pay was strictly forbidden. If you didn't
like the quality or style of your "free", one-size-fits-all
government car, you couldn't just take your money to another
car company like you can now, because they'd already have
your money. Few but the wealthy would be willing to cough
up another 20 to 50,000 dollars for a "private car". So you
lobby the government to improve quality and offer the style
you like. Good luck! The answer would always be some
version of "we need more money" (fewer cars built per
autoworker, higher pay, nicer factories and buildings, etc.).
Every decrease in quality would be hailed as evidence that
not enough money was going into car making. Imagine what
cars would be like.
Naturally, the government school unions are adamantly
opposed to vouchers, accurately perceiving them as a threat
to their reign of terror. The unions spent something like 16+
million dollars to kill California's 1993 voucher initiative,
outspending proponents by an order of magnitude. They
killed it by a landslide at a time when few citizens understood
the concept. But times have changed. Polls show
dramatically increased understanding and support for
vouchers, and new voucher initiatives will cost far more to kill.
THE OFFENSIVE
It's time for the self-defense civil rights movement to support
tuition vouchers:
1. Vouchers will improve public education by enabling
parents to send their kids to better schools, by forcing
government schools to compete, and by giving parents an
alternative to government indoctrination centers. To the
minimal extent that any harmful government meddling and
indoctrination is allowed, parents will tend to send their kids
to the schools that tolerate it the least, since those will
obviously tend to be the better schools.
2. Even if voucher initiatives lose, government school unions
will be forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars fighting
them, money that would otherwise be spent directly or
indirectly fighting for gun control and against freedom. Ideally,
voucher initiatives should be run in EVERY primary, soaking
up government school union money that would otherwise be
spent in general elections.
3. Once vouchers begin winning, the government school
unions will be destroyed, taking with them the anti-freedom
groups' biggest financial base, and the largest built-in source
of institutional demand for government meddling in schools.
4. Vouchers will not hurt good teachers. The current system
demoralizes teachers by not rewarding excellence.
Educational Choice helps good teachers by restoring safety
(violent students can be expelled), cutting red tape,
encouraging innovation, shifting money from bureaucracy to
teaching, creating jobs, and promoting systems that reward
excellence. On the other hand, bad teachers will have to
improve or get other jobs.
Do yourself, the children of America, and your rights a favor:
Support educational choice every chance you get. Get
informed and write letters to the editor. Volunteer & donate to
campaigns. For more information on vouchers, go to www.schoolchoice2000.net .
ANOTHER ACHILLEES HEEL: MISUSE OF UNION DUES
Employees of unionized industries have several options to
prevent all or part of their mandatory union dues from being
used to destroy constitutional liberty.
1. Don't join. Employees who refuse to belong to the union
can get as much as 30% of their dues refunded. However,
many employees still want to belong to the union so they can
have a voice. If that is the case:
2. Better yet: Join but object on religious grounds. You have
the right to have 100% of your dues redirected to a charity.
Often this can be the charity of your choice. For example,
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Gun
Owners of America Foundation, Pacific Justice Institute, or a
church or religious charity.
3. Thus, you can not only keep nearly 1000 dollars a year
from being used to destroy America, you can redirect it to
help save America, at no cost to you.
See www.pacificjustice.org/union.html for all the information
you need to take advantage of these options. The Pacific
Justice Institute (www.pacificjustice.org) will represent
employees without charge in matters regarding religious
freedom, academic freedom, and freedom of association.
Proposals to bleed anti-freedom war chests by educating
NRA members on such issues were presented to NRA
management years ago by Arnold Gaunt and myself (Russ
Howard former NRA Director), and rejected out of hand as
"non-gun-related" (as opposed to, say, such "gun-related"
NRA programs as 3-Strikes for Victimless Gun Crimes; hiring
more police, ATF agents, & gun prosecutors; helping gun
grabbers enforce all existing gun controls; helping the gun
grabbers build state & federal gulags for gun owners; and
putting teachers in prison for 10 years for carrying to defend
themselves and
their students).
Unfortunately, the enemies of freedom don't tie their hands
behind their backs and play by such witless rules. Otherwise,
the government school unions wouldn't be pushing gun
control, would they?
Don't waste your time begging a sworn enemy for mercy.
Instead, bleed him financially until you destroy him. Your
weapons are your pen, your money, and your time. Use them
wisely, relentlessly, and with focus.
And unless you're a life member, think twice about joining,
donating to, or staying with the management of organizations
like NRA who pay themselves 20,000 dollar-a-MONTH
salaries, 15,000 dollar-a-month expense accounts, and who-
knows-what else, for perpetually selling you out, for living by
the creed of pre-emptive surrender, for "fighting" gun control
with gun control.
Think twice about supporting the managers of groups like
NRA who play you for the sap in a national game of "good
cop/bad cop" with HCI, who "fight" de jure registration as a
smokescreen to hide the fact that we already have de facto
registration which they've supported all along.
* by supporting "shall-issue" carry while threatening
legislators who promote Vermont Carry (which does not
involve registration), [Editor's Note: in Vermont you can carry
without a permit. Your "permit" is the 2nd Amendment.]
* by engineering the InstaCheck system while burying viable
alternative systems where the government would not know
who is buying, [Editor's Note: I was at the legislative policy
committee meeting when NRA staff tried to get InstaCheck
approved. It did not succeed at that meeting. The motion did
not even get a second. Neal Knox and I were on the
committee and the board at that time. To my knowledge
InstaCheck has still not been approved by the NRA Board of
Directors since then.]
* by supporting the Gun Control Act of 1968's nationwide
system of registration lists. Lists kept by gun stores whose
locations are known by the federal government, lists which
must be turned over to the government when the store goes
out of business.
NRA management will want you to send in your check to help
"kill" registration, and they'll be back bragging and asking
again for more money as a "reward" after they've "killed" it.
Your money & time are better spent with organizations like
KeepAndBearArms <http://www.KeepAndBearArms.com>,
Citizens of America (www.citizensofamerica.org), JPFO
(www.jpfo.org), Gun Owners of America
(www.gunowners.org), www.theLSAS.org, and dozens of
other anti-appeasement groups (listed on www.KeepAndBearArms.com/exile ).
For those who want to bone up on educational choice, KABA
has posted a short Q&A/FAQ on Educational Choice that I
wrote up for the California's 1993 voucher initiative. The
figures are dated, but the concepts remain valid. Go to: www.keepandbeararms.com/howard and look for the
Voucher FAQ.
Russ Howard
************************************************************
For those of you in South Carolina who wish to receive
specific alerts. Please e-mail request to lcoble@netside.com
and/or visit www.scfirearms.org.
************************************************************
What To Do If The Police Come To Confiscate Your Militia
Weapons see www.2ndamendment.net
For legislative updates contact www.nealknox.com and go to
"Scripts from the Firearms Coalition Legislative Update Line"
***************************************************
From The 2ndAmendmentNews Team
------------------
"those who sacrifice
liberty for security deserve neither"
. (Note that I'm not stating my own view one way or the other because it doesn't matter - the local leader did something dumb AND not correct per the MC charter.)