Judi,
Your article also brought tears to my eyes, it captured the patriotism and the importance of the march. It took a Canadian Newspaper Reporter named Judi McLeod to recognize what it truly meant. It is discouraging to know that American Reporters are pulling for socialism against their fellow Americans. I was a volunteer for The Tea party Patriots and Freedom Watch it was a magnificent turn out of over two million Americans who love their country and like our forefather's whom founded America we were protesting a government that is failing to represent "We the People". We will continue to listen for the fife and drums and like our forefathers we will prevail. Benjamin Franklin said we are giving you a Republic if you can keep it. Keep it we will at all cost. Viva a peaceful 2nd Revolution. Sempe Fi…….BE
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Defending Freedom, Hypocrisy of two community organizers
In America, the call of the drums and fifes is forever
By Judi McLeod
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
In those dark hours of the soul when it seems that a shock a day is being launched at We the People from the White House, I return to the drummers and fifers who led the 9/12 march to Washington.
Listening to—or even imagining hearing—the drums and fifes on that day drowns out the hypocrisy of two community organizers now benefiting from the titles of President and First lady of the mighty United States of America .Listening to the drums and fifes wipes out the image of Obama passing out white coats for yesterday’s Rose Garden photo-op during which 150 doctors purportedly helped him to orchestrate the latest chapter in his hard sell Health Care Reform. Remembering the sound of the drums and fifes on Sept. 12, 2009 makes fade away, at least for awhile, the image of a Michelle, self-professed Sainted Sacrificer, and all the czars steadily chipping away at American sovereignty. The first time I saw the video produced by Revolutionary-era enactors William Temple and Gene Hoyas, my own tears forced me to watch it a second time. The tears were not because Canada Free Press was there and knew the mainstream media would downplay the numbers who marched to the Capitol. Nor were they even because people like proud Americans Joe and Kathie came all the way from Panama to be there on that day. My tears flowed because even in the massive loss of jobs and homes and even having to suffer the indignity of hearing their Commander in Chief apologize for their country, the remarkable passion of the American patriot lives on. All drummers and fifers following the lead of Temple and Hoyas in the march were like the throngs who came to defend freedom; they were ragtag. They had answered the call of Temple’s and Hoyas’ emails, “Come and bring your instrument with you.” They would go on to lead the march for Americans of all colors, all ages, all walks of life. We the People on 9/12 were Republicans, Democrats and Independents—but patriots one and all. Many of those on site did not know that the march was led by the drummers and fifers. That’s because park authorities forced the march to begin an hour and 15 minutes earlier then planned. Swallowing their disappointment, the drummers and fifers formed a line and just began their march. Making the best of it, the crowd, many of whose members had been there since daybreak, set them off with a rousing cheer. Dressed in the same clothes as the revolutionaries of more than two centuries ago, the drummers and fifers marched down Washington streets with the same love of America.Instead of being thrown off by their unscheduled early start, they marched resolutely ahead, not knowing what awaited them at the Capitol: the cheers of more than a million other patriots.The words of Gene Hoyas on the video are written on human memory forever: “I had never before in my life witnessed anything like this—much less participated in it. At that moment I realized I was about to become a part of history.”Even though One Worlders have found the perfect delivery boy in Barack Hussein Obama; even though anger and bitter resentment rather than goodwill seems to now dominate the White House, the flame of American patriotism will never be doused.Drums and fifes are part of American history, and just like America, are forever.http:canadafreepress.com
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State must fight feds on health care reform
Tom Patterson, Commentary
October 2, 2009 - 6:24PM
Remember the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act that was on the ballot last year and barely failed with 49.8 percent of the vote? The Legislature has already ensured it will be back on the ballot next year, where it's likely to pass. If it does, it could be joined by other states around the country to trigger a much-needed reset of the relationship between the states and federal government.
The 2008 ballot proposition was plain vanilla. It would simply have prohibited laws that restrict a person's choice of private health providers or the right to pay for medical services. The opposition, well-funded by insurance plans and business groups, argued simultaneously that it would do nothing and that it would limit future legislative options. Whipping out the fear-of-the-unknown card, they claimed, falsely, that Medicare and Medicaid patients could lose coverage. It was all typical technique for a "no" campaign, but in the end they confused enough voters to eke out the victory.
Today, Americans are much more focused on health care policy and they have more reason than ever to build firewalls for themselves against an over-reaching federal government. Most of us are opposed to the mandates and astronomical costs of President Barack Obama's proposals for health care reform. We've held massive, peaceful demonstrations, we've presented our reasonable concerns and developed alternatives. Yet nothing seems to work. The powers in Washington keep marching forward, determined to eventually bring our health care options under their control.
Besides, they purr, don't worry. Illegal immigrants won't be included, abortion-on-demand won't be provided, you'll be able to keep your health plan if you like and this reform won't add "one dime" to the deficit. Sure. Most Americans are laugh-in-your-face skeptical about such claims, especially given the credibility of the promisers.
The history of past federal programs also suggests a strong need for caution. Courts and bureaucrats have a habit of morphing federal programs into forms vastly more comprehensive than originally intended. In 1964, Hubert Humphrey hotly denied there was any language in the Civil Rights Act "which provides that an employer will have to hire on the basis of percentage or quota related to color, race, religion or national origin." Seven years later, the Supreme Court discerned that very language in the bill, thus ushering in the "affirmative action" schemes that plague race relations to this day.
Social Security was created as a modest supplement for poverty-ridden seniors. Today's retirees receive a fraction of the income they could have received if they could have saved and invested their own payroll contribution dollars. Yet Social Security owes to future beneficiaries trillions of dollars that we don't have, casting a pall over the economic future of the country. Federal bureaucracies never, ever shrink or go away.
So Arizonans are only being practical to seek protection at the state level from relentless federal intrusions. Yet, even if the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act passes on the state level, it will be challenged on the grounds that federal legislation pre-empts state law.
Ironically, health care legislation itself is prohibited by a clear reading of the U.S. Constitution. Ours is a government of enumerated powers, and provision of health care isn't one of them. Disingenuously, advocates claim that the clause authorizing taxes for the "general welfare" permits Congress to stick its nose into our health care.
But James Madison, as the father of the Constitution, thought otherwise. He wrote the reference to the "general welfare" was intended as a restriction on Congress, precluding any subsidies of the "specific welfare" of states or persons. He also pointed out that the list of enumerated powers in the Constitution was nonsensical, if, in addition, Congress had boundless authority otherwise.
The complicated legal arguments about pre-emption will have to be duked out in court. But the threat to freedom-loving people today is the centralization of power in a federal government that ceaselessly expands and intrudes. Surely, our system of federalism doesn't permit the feds to extend more control over the decisions of our daily lives while the states helplessly look on. Let's hope the Freedom of Choice in Health Care Act will be the driver for fundamental change.
East Valley resident Tom Patterson is a retired emergency room physician and former state senator. East ValleyTribune , Mesa,Arizona
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