What's Carthago? Delenda asked, Hello and welcome to Everything's Political. I'm your
host, tay A Shoemake. You can find us online at Everything's Political dot
substack dot com. You can email the show at podcast at Everything's Political dot
org. Shout out to magic Man Joe Strecker, the Francis Scott Key of
podcast producers. That's right, Joe, Francis Scott Key, author Lloyd back
when they were a respectable bunch and amateur poet who on this day and into
the wee hours of the next began penning his poem The Defense of Fort McHenry.
And I won't recount every detail here, but let me summarize for our
younger listeners who may have forgotten or maybe weren't taught. So this poem,
which obviously became the star Spangled banner our national anthem, was inspired by events
on this harrowing September night again two years into the War of eighteen twelve,
when Francis Scott Key and two others asked President Madison for permission to negotiate the
release of a prisoner on a British ship, and so they successfully did so.
They went out to the British frigate in the Chesapeake Bay and were able
to negotiate. I believe he was Doctor Bean was his name, his release
And what happened was they inadvertently learned the plans of the British to attack Fort
McHenry, so they hadn't even started yet, and as a result, they
would not allow Francis Scott Key and his friends to leave their ship, their
truth ship. So for hours, Key and his friends had to watch the
British bombs bursting in air as he wrote, and he was certain at some
point the fort was going to be taken. From his view, and even
later wrote quote it seemed as though Mother Earth had opened and was vomiting shot
and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone. Wow. So after hours
of bombardment, the smoke cleared and his Key plainly wrote, the star spangled
banner was still there, which I think Joe meant in many minds that the
war for independence that was fought just a few decades earlier was still one.
I guess we could have a discussion on whether or not the War of eighteen
twelve was going to impact that status of independence, but I think the point
remains true nonetheless because they were still pretty close to it. So there you
have it. Author, lawyer, poet, multifaceted, multi skilled magic man
Joe Strecker. Okay, I'm gonna preface the introduction of our next guests with
this. You all have heard me say often that in that better vanished time,
what we learned in church was reinforced in school and doubled down on at
home. And now church is a Starbucks, school is a perverted babysitter,
and there's no one home. So where are we to go? You know,
you'd be hard pressed these days to recall any conversation, especially over the
last three years, about the state of our nation that didn't involve education reform
as one of the top three solutions to at least trying to stop the federal
ball rog or trying to stop our nation's decline into degeneracy. And with that,
I'd like to introduce our next guest. Reintroduce, I should say,
Lee Burton's welcome back to the program. Thank you so much for that introduction.
I mean they're going to say something wonderful or horrible, Am I the
bailog? No? No, no, not at all, trust me.
No, we appreciate you being here. Educational independence, a declaration of educational
independence. This is what spurred this podcast, this interview. Can you tell
me a little bit about it. You know, before COVID, we homeschoolers
and private educators, we're just kind of looked at as an anomaly. And
then that COVID happened, a lot of parents eyes were opened hit the same
time as me too, and then the transgender movement and the various things that
have just really shown the decline of our culture, and parents are clamoring what
are we supposed to be doing? And of course that's what you say in
your introduction. So before the last couple of years, nobody really cared what
you or I did to you because we were the anomaly. Now they all
want to do what we do. They want to know how can you classically
educate or homeschool or hybrid school, or what can we do for freedom education?
And there's a myriad of ways of doing all these things. And one
thing that I saw happening was most folks were saying things along the lines of
do what classical conversations does. Let's help it grow by giving it more money,
and let's let the government take care of you the same kind of needs
at least taking care of. That's kind of the way my ears hear what's
been going on. So a month or two ago, went to see it
this in Florida said we're going to have our own Hillsdale College in the Florida
State system. And I'm thinking, do you hear what you're saying? You
cannot have classical Christian education that's attached to government dollars. The whole thing that
makes it different is that we have this freedom, we're not shackled by the
shackles. And so they feel like you can take classical education or even just
good educational models and put them into the public school system. And they're not
wrong because the public schools started out that way. Originally they were part time,
hardly anybody went to them. They were only part of the year.
They had a lot of Christian capital around them because even though they themselves,
being government funded, are inherently a Marxist model of education. In general,
there's Christian capital around the world. Well, every generation had some more micro
injuries and things became acceptable that weren't acceptable to the generation before. All headed
towards decadence. So, for instance, whether it was Margaret Sanger and planned
parenthood, or social Darwinists telling us our children are only a little bit better
than an ape. No fault, divorce, birth control, homosexuality, the
drug movement, little micro injuries that all by themselves just sinful people need to
deal with. They happen't they're real. We need to love those people.
But they were not culturally accepted. But every generation another one became culturally accepted,
and we were finally at the place where anything goes. And so after
a hundred years of even think of the words of compulsory universal basic education,
why did it have to be compulsory? If it was such a good things,
why didn't parents just want to send their kids to school, Because no
parent who loves their child would send them to something that was foreign to their
family and was part of the state institution. That's what sick families with sick
children did, was institutionalized their children, not healthy families. So it's even
the words I'm saying now are offensive to a lot of people, but I'm
trying to put you back to the place where there wasn't no such thing as
government schools and the way people would have viewed it and how they no longer
view it that way, and that's where we've got. So now everyone's going,
all right, there is a sickness of foot there and we can't keep
putting band aids on the bloodshed that's occurring in the government school system. So
what do we do. So some friends of mine and I got together who
are freedom minded and who have been promoters of private both home and private education
for decades and said, let's kind of put our stake in the sand and
give a declaration of the basic reasons we believe what we believe, and then
hope it goes through social media and people can start talking about it. So
whether you agree with me or disagree with me, I just want them to
be a conversation about the ideas that we have in the declaration, and lo
and behold. It would be about forty eight hours after the writers took care
of We're finished writing. It took me about forty eight hours to get it
dispersed to them and for them to start asking their friends to sign it.
And we've been going after leaders of leaders and asking them. First that was
about forty eight hours, and then in the last forty eight hours I am
being bombarded with requests for media and to be able to sign and to help
promote this. So we've hit a nerve and I hope that we can send
some time actually going over what the declaration says. That's how it all came
about. That's fantastic. I appreciate you doing that. I wanted to read
part of the text here, and it's the introduction to the declaration, and
I just wanted to make a distinction because my mind has actually shifted on this
lee. The second paragraph here leading up to the declaration is this, do
you reject tax funded socialist schemes like public schools, charter schools, essays and
vouchers fueled by the coercive power of the welfare state? And I think there
are many like minded people who support essays and charter schools. Can you just
make that distinction of what the goal is here versus those things that people might
support that are ambiguous as to why they would be coercive and socialist. Okay,
So socialism is fundamentally the redistribution of wealth, and so we as taxpayers
get our wealth redistributed all the time. And you can argue that we voted
for that tax dollars get redistributed I would argue that, no, a lot
of it is redistribution, but you know, that's a different conversation. So
what I'm referring to is whether I send my dollars to the state bureaucracy and
a percentage of it goes back to my local schools in the realm of their
traditional public schools, or it gets back to them and it goes to a
charter school, or it gets back to them to my community through an ESA
or a voucher. It's still funny to pay somebody else money to give it
back to me. That is so inefficient, and it's the definition of what
Marxism is. And so it doesn't matter which of these systems you're looking at,
I would be against them. Now. Some of them are a little
bit softer and easier to deal with than others. But charter schools are basically
public schools that parents who pay attentions and their children too. It's kind of
like what's happened in high schools that students who are really good at high school
they don't go to high school anymore. They go over to the community college.
And so we're sorting ourselves already naturally between families who care and families who
don't care, and so the general welfare of the public schools is being torn
apart anyway, but it's all still publicly funded. So then they came up
with these ideas of essays, and those can be done two different ways.
One could be totally privately funded, where the government can say, look,
you have this educational savings account. It's like a credit card, like a
health savings account would be, and we're going to put money into it and
you can go given to whatever school you want to and it's an educational savings
account that won't be taxed on. Other ones say we'll give you some money,
but you can put some of your own in it. Another one say
you can put all your own money in it. We're not giving any to
you, but you'll get the tax deduction on that. Right. So the
poem in fifty states is there's a lot of different ways that go about doing
that. And then of course vouchers is what they used to call essays.
There's still some places that call them voucher programs, but vouchers tended to be
more of An accredited school is allowed as accredited private school by the state that's
still getting the states in control. So let's say a proof school by the
state, it gets a voucher to cover your child's tuition. It doesn't go
through the parent, it goes directly to the institute that's been vetted by the
state, which is another thing I don't want to be paying for encouraging,
is the state vetting the better organizations for my children, because the ones that
they want are the ones that will succeed because they have all the power.
And it might be that small Christian school in inner city meeting in a park
half the time and in the church half the time. It's really where I
want my children to go, and they don't stand a chance against all that
manipulation. It's government picking winners and losers and then rigging the game right so
to speak. And I know in many instances with ESAs they limit how much
you can use, so you know, they're still directing the dysfunction, so
to speak, which is frustrating. And so the objective obviously to get people
talking, to start the debate, which you know that can make you a
persona and on grata these days, but I'm with you on that. Let's
have the debate, Let's get out the craziest under the whole umbrella. Let's
talk about the craziest ideas we can and come to a resolution. Were regarding
the goals in your perfect world, if there is one, where would you
see this progress? How would you measure in addition to were after the debate,
how would you measure? Hey, this is catching on and we're in
the right direction. I've been working on these kinds of philosophies for a really
long time. And I had just this week two different incidents that came through
because of the declaration, but we're originated beforehand. The one is in my
great state of North Carolina. They just had some legislation to pass the expansion
of charter schools, and two three of our legislators who normally were for them,
decided to vote against it. They are hearing what the damage that government
money is doing to private education, because if everything is funded by the public,
it's all public education. So right now we have that choice public or
private. If the private gets the same funding as the public, it's all
just public again. So that was one thing that happened, and nothing that
happened was there's you know, there's advocates, there's all kinds of NGO and
homeschooling organizations, state lobby groups for freedom and a lot of them have been
promoting these essays and vouchers, and one in particular who is fairly well known
till she actually signs the decoration. I won't use her name, we're in
talks, but she's like, I just didn't understand. I thought I was
fixing something that could be fixed, and I didn't realize that by putting my
children in a system that designed to be paid for by redistributed wealth and pretending
she could become a capitalist, I was fooling myself. You don't put content
into a form and expected to come out with a different form. And so
the people's eyes are opening up, and I'm stunned at the people who are
signing this. There are a lot of leaders of leaders, mostly in the
Christian conservative movement at this point, but I'm also looking forward to anybody that's
in a libertarian or even a Democrat who's saying, yeah, enough is enough.
Anyone can join this. So that would be my biggest joy was to
see that it actually inspired conversations among all kinds of people. We're in the
middle of a great, big political reshuffle, right now, and I'm curious
to see the fallout from that, and I'm wondering what this declaration may do
to help clarify it for some people. Indeed, well, we will spread
it far and wide. We'll get that at the end here. And often
there are newer homeschoolers that come to me and ask about can we get tax
dollars to support our homeschool of following the child or And I know different states
fund education differently, and I always caution be very very careful about the money
you accept from government, because then they own your homeschool, and that's the
antithesis of why you homeschool, and that's not very popularly. Do you have
any thoughts on that? Yeah, well, you know, it's an easy
example. But maybe it's getting to be too old. Is I used to
say to people what happened to the c in the YMCA. It used to
be a Christian organization and then they started getting government funding, so now they're
just another secular gym. Right, They lost their mission because someone else is
paying the bills. And people just don't understand how much wo the sheffl's come
to shackles because as soon as you have some sort of crisis, and you
need to go back to where the money came from. They're going to at
that point say well, you're not doing that great. You have to do
it my way so you can do better. Otherwise you wouldn't have come after
me for some money. And so it's just ongoing. It never ends in
the government. Yeah, it's all. It's just a blob. But the
other thing that's just so sad is that people forget. Before the nineteen twenties,
there was a public education across the United States and we raised the most
literate culture that had ever been seen ever on the face of the earth.
Before the nineteen twenties, our literacy rates or proficient literacy rates, we're in
the ninety percentile. Now they're down to fourteen percent. And that's through that
national organization that does as independent tests. It compares our country to other countries.
But I was doing some research and I thought it was very interesting.
In the nineteen seventies, the city of Milwaukee actually had the very first voucher
system, So in seventies, a long time ago, almost fifty years.
So when they had the voucher system, they had a one point seven percent
illiteracy rate based on their own numbers, then the voucher system occurred. Now
they have a nine percent illiteracy rate. Wow, I just nobody talk about
these The money did not make a difference. The micro injuries to our culture
is what is killing us, and it's stemming from universal basic education. And
people don't want to talk about that. So if I'm wrong, that's fine.
Let me be wrong, tell me I'm wrong. But can we at
least look at the root causes and not just these symptoms? Right? I
think we can agree that throwing money at stuff, especially government that seems,
you know, they think money, our money grows on trees, has just
been an abysmal failure. And there are so many examples of that. You
spoke about the political shift that is occurring. It's fascinating to me, and
I've been involved for so long that even I'm shocked. It's some of the
things and alliances and organizations that I see nowadays, and it's actually very exciting
on a weird, demented level. So but I did want to ask you.
You know, every presidently wants to be the education president. In my
lifetime, everyone wants to be the education president. And my philosophy is,
if you really want to be the education president, then get rid of the
Department of Education and let the states do what they do. But even then
we have to at a local level. And this is part of our other
adventure here, homeschool ready or not, Parents and families need to take ownership
of and responsibility for the health, education, and welfare of the family unit.
And if that means preparing better so that you're not enslaved to a dual
income to the state, or whatever the case may be. And I realize
that there are resources that can help that needs to take place, but it's
a paradigm shift. We have been programmed, and I'm going to say brainwashed
to thinking that we have to outsource absolutely every important area of our lives,
whether it's the raising of our children, the education of our children, our
healthcare, et cetera. Do you have any thoughts on that. There's a
lot of a press out there now because people are in leadership are saying you're
going to own nothing, and you're gonna like it right, They're going to
be running everything, and they're trying to get us ready for this time of
universal basic income. Well, if you look back in history, the very
first opportunity in the United States for a universal basic any service was school.
Public school was the beginning of the acceptance of universal basic income. And so
between nineteen twenty and since, we now have things like food stamps and housing,
and used to be the church took care of those things. Right now,
about a third of your government dollars from the state, and I don't
know what the percentage, but it's a huge chunk from the FEDS pay for
your hospitals healthcare. So now we have universal basic healthcare. Slowly but surely,
we are being trained just to think, Okay, the nanny state can
cover my bills. And I was just this morning talking with the legislator,
four time legislator in the state that has one of these really extensive school choice
bills, and he said, but the people of the state voted for it,
and so that's what they want to do. Then why should we not
have vouchers? In the essays And I sit there and I just think,
why would you vote to give somebody your money and get some of it back,
or are you really doing what he's subscribed If you're voting to give people
your tax dollars but you're getting more back than you actually paid. The one
is foolish, the other is theft. And I just can't wrap my head
around the logic of establishing bureaucracies to let you do which you're already going to
do. Anyway, you may be looking for logic where it is neither understood,
let alone desired. Having hard time answering him, because like, if
the voters want to vote for idiot things, they can do it. You
know. That was Ben Franklin's first warning after the Constitution was site is we
gave your republic if you can keep it, and we're not keeping it.
We are making bad decisions. And I think a lot of that has to
do with and we talk a lot about that here. You know, we
say life, liberty, property, But in the mind of the founders,
that came with great responsibility and responsibility of educating ourselves, the responsibility of leaving
a legacy of responsibility right in turn so that our children know. And you
know, I'm as anyone of maybe indulging as a parent. You know,
as a parent, you always want to give your kids things you didn't have,
sure, but we also need to remember to give them the things that
we did have. And when I was growing up, those things were tantamount
to say, for a rainy day, don't spend more than you take in.
And if something sounds too good to be true, it is. And
I think that's just gone these days. It's yea, it is. Well,
you know that the Austrian economists will say there's no such thing as a
free lunch. Yet somehow legislators who actually say they believe that then go around
voting for things to give for free to the citizens because they're not really free.
It comes from somewhere. But I think something else to point out is
like, this is a very positive declaration. It just has that beginning negative
introduction because we had people signing it who are like or not something, who
wanted to sign it and they said they could agree with this, and I
knew them first that they personally were taking government school welfare. And I was
like, no, not hearing what we're saying. So we opened it up
with that introduction to be clear. But what's something I'd like to point out
is that there really is a point of education that's not being talked about.
Do you mind if we spend a minute on that? Absolutely, So,
I think the point of education and what I believe both the documents from the
declories of independence which affirmed who we are, as well as the declories of
educational independence. I think they both affirm this one noble idea. I am
a king. Therefore I can rule myself, which that enables me to do
three things that have been proven in all histories, all civilizations, all cultures,
to develop healthy civilizations. And these three things are to hold sacred the
bond between a man and a woman, whether I like it or not,
because I can govern myself, to cultivate the discipline of life long learning,
I can make myself do hard things, and then to delay gratification as I
use the talents I've developed in the family that I held sacred to help me
serve other people around me. So these three things are hallmarks of civilizations.
And that's what I think education should be doing. And I'm saying from a
secular perspective, right it's a Christian I could add to this, but in
general, that we're holding the family is sacred. Were cultivating lifelong learners,
and we're teaching people to serve one another. And you can't serve people they
don't have some skill and talent, which of course integrates education. What do
you think of those three ideas, have I hit on something absolutely? I
mean and I love I wanted to wrap up. I love that you include
fulfilling our own to your points, obligations and responsibilities because with liberty comes responsibility,
right. I thought was a Dostoevsky that said, hey, if there
is no God, everything's on the table. So you know, we can
also go that route too. And I feel like we're all around the church
home in school, right because as you talk about the body and serving one
another. When I first heard of the term great reset, I thought,
yeah, that they might be shocked to know that that needs to happen in
the church first and foremost if we are even going to think about turning things
around, because it's a mess as well, unfortunately. And then why is
it such a mess, because, lily, but surely there's micro injuries.
The government said, you don't need to give to the poor. We have
a welfare program, you don't need to have sud kitchens, we'll give them
food stamps, you don't need to and there's things you know, let makes
it ly? What do you care how the poor people get that their resources?
And I would say it matters greatly. I want myself to feel their
pain, and there's to be sympathetic and empathetic and I want to meet them.
And it's made the system has made it so that I don't have to
know any poor people, and they don't get the self confidence right or the
empowerment to know that they can right. I know the Bible says the poor
will always be among us, but there is a truism and an empowerment too.
Yes, I need help, I need a leg up, but I
can do this in return. I taught an eighth grade class a few years
ago that was really transformed. I gave them a project were we measured each
week where they were in the project. They had not encountered anything like it
before. They had a little bit of an inferiority complex as a grade and
that I just wasn't having any of it. Right, Hey, you're capable,
You're able, and I'm here to help. And at the end of
that year, the transformation was absolutely astounding. Now I had gone into that
school not for that eighth grade class, but to install a Latin program in
both their grade school and their high school. But when this fell kind of
well, it fell into my lap. But in hindsight, I tell everybody
I thought I was there to do Latin and put me there for this eighth
grade class. It was that stark, but it is the empowerment of I
thought I was worthless and useless, and I'm not. I can do these
things. I may not do them as well as someone else, or I
may not be as good as someone else, but I can. There are
still things within my control and resources to do and that's huge. Yeah.
And so basically, I feel like our conservative legislators who are voting for these
schemes are saying you can't do it. We know you can't, so let
us help you, instead of saying we know you can do it. There's
so many resources out there, Go support them and they'll support you. Ephesians
for a twenty eight, I want to read that anyone who has been stealing
must no longer steal, but must work doing something useful with their own hands
so they may have something to share with those in need. That's what I'm
say. Still be teaching, and that's what you taught those eighth graders,
not the other way around. Pretty powerful. Thank you for that last question
here, Lee, if you were advising the presidential candidates on their philosophy or
delivery of their philosophy, or on education in general. What would you be
saying to them to look around before they made any decisions or had opinions.
The private education movement is so underground because it's only about ten percent of the
population right now, find out more about that, find out those successes,
because then when you hear things about government student loan forgiveness as college like,
isn't this funny? Everybody's against all these things now that are conservatives in student
loans and money with colleges. They're not against them for K twelve right,
that's just a side note. But find out the opportunities that are out there,
the scholarship organizations that are rising, the moms and pops where you know
they're educating children for two three thousand dollars a year and bringing twenty of them
together up from their cult to sack or from their church. That is affordable
to anybody, I don't care how poor you are. A couple of thousand
dollars a year per a child in this country and guess what it is not
affordable. Ask your church how about this? Attend a church or a synagogue,
but be part of a mutual aid society who will help you when you
actually can't afford something. Welfare just makes it so that we don't know who
to say thankful too, and it teaches us to be to have no gratitude,
ungrateful yes, and dependent upon the leviathan that often doesn't have our best
interests at heart. Clearly I agree, and I'm glad that you mentioned the
different micro schools. Cul de Sac schools, homeschools. Look, they are
the future. I often say that homeschooling, in my opinion, is the
last bastion of innovation in education. But I should probably add on to that
the innovative nature of these schools will, by extension produce innovation, right.
I mean, you look around and you're starting to see the gray communists looking
like buildings where they're all the same. Soon all the cars will be the
same. The competency rate lee, I mean, goodness, gracious. The
competency, I should say incompetency that I experience on a daily basis is just
and I'm not saying that necessarily pejoratively, but it's just so stark that no
one has pride or the dignity of their workmanship and it's just it's frustrating,
and I can't help but think that being innovative in our educational approach will in
turn yield innovation. I mean, we should always have the attitude that no
human being should ever be excluded from the endeavors of others. They should be
able to be equipped to do whatever they need. I think Lewis was one
that said that we want to raise plumbers to read Milton. That has been
lost. It's been drummed out of us by factory education. One model fits
all, and we're about to see a really hopeful, wonderful explosion of innovation.
But government intervention, like it doesn't everything else, slow that down.
We still will innovate. You're just making it harder for us. I do
have one more question. You will often hear, I know I've heard this
throughout my tenure in politics regarding education policy. Well what about this demographic or
that demographic? And usually it's tantamount to maybe a very few, it's not
a large percentage of whatever demographic we're talking about at the time. But you
know what, when I speak about homeschooling, Well, what about the single
mom? Well what about this? Okay, Well, we can have a
conversation about that. That's different. But we can certainly have that conversation about
what we can do for her. But in the meantime, let's fix this
over here. So I feel like a lot of our politicians use that minority,
or that very small percentage of people, to, in my opinion,
be lazy and not have to consider the other options and not have to consider
liberties position in education. Yeah, you know, it's always bad to make
policy on exceptions, and that's what they're clamoring to do. The other thing
is they don't say in the same conversation. They might say it differently and
not connect it. But what could we do to help make sure that the
bond between men and woman is so strong and so supported that there's fewer single
moms like there used to be. We've lived through decades, even centuries of
whole, healthy families. They're like, but that's not what they are now.
Well, let's not make it harder for them to become whole and healthy.
Let's back up to what the root problems are and stop putting the band
aids on. Meanwhile, they have extended family, like said church neighbors to
help them get through until the really hard things have a chance to heal.
We're not going to fix those hard things if we keep going after the symptoms
and not the cause of the disease. That's a great point that reminds me
of a conversation I had with an author who was talking about when he reread
his work there were a lot of passive verbs in there, and so we
were talking active passive verbs, and he said, but you know, everyone
tells you to write to a fifth or sixth grade level audience. And I
said, what would be wrong with at least every now and then putting a
big word in there and making them look it up. How about, you
know, we use that forum. You're a well known author and you write
extremely well and great stories. How about we lift the level up a little
bit and try to fix it in addition to you know, having a forum
out there. Yeah, it's just really hard to see. You know,
we're not very good at being an analogous or looking at first principles anymore.
We're really really good at immediate gratification and doing what I want to do.
Do you see that how bad manners makes it so that then civilization falls apart.
So you're old enough I'm sure to remember when we crossed over from everyone
RSVP to no longer rsvping because they're waiting to see if something better comes along.
Yes, and now we wonder why thirty nine of twenty year olds are
waiting to choose their sex because they're wondering if something better comes along. Right,
it's all related. And norms and nobility, manners and virtues are what
education was supposed to inculcate. And now they inculcate really good careers. Yes,
if you can forecast them that, you know. That always amazed me.
In Ohio, our supermajority just allowed passage of a bill that creates and
educations are I know? And boy, that was frustrating. And it's a
new title, so it's education and workforce so they finally got that in there.
And that is just so offensive to me as a mother that the Republican
supermajority in Ohio thought that this was a good idea. Number one. Number
two think that they know better than me as a parent, and that they
know what a career is going to look like or the skills required in the
next thirty years. They don't. They don't. Yeah, they're discussing,
well, with all the changes, it's going to change even more rapidly than
they realize. So I was doing some research this past week, and I'm
wondering why anybody would ever want to be governor because about a third of their
funding goes to hospitals. Of the state's funding, about a third of it
goes to public schools, about a third of it comes from the federal government
for specified grants, and then about six percent of it goes to what a
governor is supposed to do. So basically, when someone's running for governor,
they're running a ceo of schools and hospitals. We don't think of it that
way right in my Opinionly, the governor is there to protect my life,
my liberty, and my property and that's it. Anything else, especially no
taxpay or funded, but you know, anything else as a perk, Like
you might have a good personality and you don't annoy me today, but other
than that, that's it. Those three things. That's your job. And
the state legislatures, instead of being Gannedolf on the bridge saying to the federal
ball rog you're not going to pass, they've now joined the federal ball rog
because they can't do without the money or they don't want to do without the
money. So that's all part of the mix as well. But to your
point, and to the point I think of this declaration, it has to
be us that we have to move the culture we have to move. And
I tell folks often regarding secession. People ask me often about secession, and
I say, personally, secede from everything that you possibly can, whether that's
the public education, whether that's healthcare in whatever way, whether that's not putting
you know. And I realize certain circumstances are hard, but we can do
hard things and we can go through adversity. Just like empowering young people,
we can be empowered regardless of our age. That's what keeps us young.
That continuous curiosity and learning. Hey, I went through this with my mom
or dad or whatever in my youth or in their senior moments or their their
seasoned age, and there's something very empowering about taking that on and not just
farming out that responsibility and huge difference between getting help and looking at somebody saying
will you help me? Yes, that is a great distinction. Yes,
So that's what you're talking about, is because we've all had problems. Yes,
but it's expectation that someone should do some thing about this. Well,
maybe look in the mirror and then look at the family God gave you,
and then look at the street you live on and see if you can start
there, and maybe you'll succeed by serving one of them, and you'll find
out you didn't even have the problem though you did. Amen. Amen.
I think some of the greatest encroachments have been under the guise of anybody do
anything about this, especially legislatively. Okay, Lee, I want to thank
you so much for being here. It's always a pleasure come back any time
about any topic. And we could just ruffle feathers all day. Yeah,
let's let's do that. Yeah, because we know when we get off that
we are the ones who are actually are going to go take care of our
families and then find someone at church or nearby that we can serve and help,
because servant's heart is what we should all be in cult kating. So
I appreciate yours to you absolutely. You two take care and God bless Okay
Lee Borton's everyone, and good Lord. Can I just say this, Joe,
if there were more women out there like her, there would be a
lot less misogyny in the world, including from myself. But I digress.
Okay. You can find the Declaration of Educational Independence online at Educational Independence dot
net. That's Educational Independence dot net. Please please consider going to the website,
reading the declaration and signing in support of this very, very crucial mission
that they've got going on over there, And please pass this on to as
many of your friends and family members as possible so that they understand how they
may or may not be inadvertently contributing to the issues that we face. Okay,
that's all we have for today. I want to thank you so much
for listening. If you like this program, please share with your family and
friends. And until next time, everyone who will stand at either hand and
keep the bridge with me, have a great day.