Thank you to TSBOE members who vote to preserve American history

NOTE: In the morning of Eeb. 25, 2010, I called TSBOE member Cynthia Dunbar to discuss the textbook controversy and the role of the board in revisionist history. Ms. Dunbar told me that she is one of seven conservatives on the 15-member board. Their continual challenge, she said, is to garner the support of the eighth board member to comprise a majority to be able to vote down revisionist proposals that come from liberal committees. Ironically, she noted, 10 members of the board are Republicans; but most often, one of the moderate Democrats is the eighth vote. They have had significant successes, she noted, in keeping traditional history in place. They got Christmas back into the textbooks, for example, she said, though the board did compromise to put in Dewali. The next vote will take place in March, with adoption to be made in May. In either of those votes, she said, revisions could come forward again; so it is important for her and the conservatives to remain vigilant (and in the majority). Ms. Dunbar appreciates our support; and she encouraged me to email again to the SBOE support address, though we confirmed in our phone conversation that she had not received a copy of the letter I sent Feb. 18 to Dr. Morrow.

Here, then, is a letter emailed Feb. 26, 2010 to all members of Texas State Board of Education, thanking those who vote to preserve traditional, patriotic American history in school textbooks.

Dear Ms. (Cynthia) Dunbar and members of the Texas State Board of Education, in particular,
Ken Mercer, Terri Leo, David Bradley, Barbara Cargill, Don McLeroy, Gail Lowe and Geraldine Miller:

Thank you for all you accomplish to preserve a traditional, patriotic presentation of American history, especially in the face of revisionist pressures. I applaud your ongoing efforts to maintain for students what former President Ronald Reagan calls "an informed patriotism ...an unambivalent appreciation of America."

Well educated in the public schools and state university systems, I come from a family of educators. I believe that American history grounds us in our homes, our communities, our nation and the world; and it is vital that students from kindergarten through graduation learn key age-appropriate and expanding American history concepts in order to develop a mature understanding of our unique experience and place among the nations of the world.

We Americans share an exceptional heritage that began with a quest for personal freedom and traces now from our families to nearly every other country – an experience of trial, courage, commitment and achievement in which all of our students have the right and privilege to participate.

Students should have the opportunity to gain a full understanding of their troubled but beautiful American identity. They need to know that people like them have acted with values of justice rooted in a tradition of faith and clear thinking, and based in a strong Constitution, to right our country's greatest wrongs and take her repeatedly from crises to new heights of greatness. At the beginning, our country's leaders grounded the Constitution, and acknowledged the source of their greatness, in gratitude to God for His many blessings and good guidance. As our U.S. Senate Chaplain Barry C. Black's web site affirms today, our First Amendment separates church and state, but not God and state.

These are concepts our students need to learn (and we need to uphold) in order to esteem their own families and communities, their nation and themselves. One cannot love what one does not know. Hire teachers who know and love American history. Give them sound textbooks. Teach our students traditional, patriotic American history. Give them the chance to know and love their country.

Thank you for your consideration.

I pray for your guidance.

Sincerely,

Nancy E. Thoerig
Mount Savage, MD

Preserve traditional, patriotic American history in our schools

Letter emailed Feb. 18, 2010 to Dr. Rosemary Morrow, director of Social Studies, Division of Curriculum, Texas Education Agency, Austin, Texas, in response to her email to Ron Maiers regarding his concerns expressed in a telephone conversation about proposed revisionis to American history textbooks. (Dr. Morrow's email to Mr. Maiers and his email response follow, along with an original email sent Feb. 16, 2010 to the full membership of the Texas State Board of Education.)

Dear Dr. Morrow:

I appreciate your Feb. 16 response to Ron Maiers; but concerns remain.

On Mike Huckabee’s Feb. 6 program, Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University School of Law said the TSBOE would consider proposed revisions to U.S. history textbooks in March; and he urged Americans to contact board members to voice concerns. Accordingly, I wish to say: I believe that revisionist history destroys the American identity, robs our students of a sure sense of their American citizenry, and ill prepares students to be American citizens in the global society.

A Liberty Counsel press release reports further that the proposed social studies guidelines will have final reading and adoption in May.

Dean Staver summed up, essentially, regarding Texas' purchasing power as it influences availability of textbooks for other states to purchase: As goes Texas, so goes the nation. Dean Staver noted that board member Cynthia Dunbar of Liberty University School of Law stands opposed to suggested revisions -- sweeping and trivializing changes that apparently could stay in place for a decade, if approved for the next school year. It seems Ms. Dunbar leads an effort to convince a majority of the 15-member board to vote to preserve a traditional, patriotic presentation of American history in school textbooks, rather than take a revisionist approach to diminish our unique and exceptional American story in deference to a global view.

In reviewing the 148-page "Instructional Materials Current Adoption Bulletin" for the year 2009-2010, I see strong instructional support for music, languages, and the arts, health and technical education, and career preparedness; but only four U.S. History textbook titles appear (page 105), and they are advanced placement. Otherwise, five AP World History titles show, with seven for AP European History (page 106). The four U.S. Government and three AP U.S. Government and Politics textbooks likely are narrow in scope and would not instruct in American history, per se. Moreover, the one title (page 107) for AP Comparative Government and Politics and four titles for Economics with Emphasis on the Free Enterprise System likely do not give students a view of the unique American experiment and experience in these arenas.

I am no expert, but I am well educated in the public schools and state university systems; and I come from a family of educators. I believe that American history grounds us in our homes, our communities, our nation and the world; and it is vital that students from kindergarten through graduation learn key age-appropriate and expanding American history concepts in order to develop a mature understanding of our unique experience among the nations of the world.

We Americans share an exceptional heritage that traces from our families to nearly every country in the world – an experience of trial, courage and achievement in which all of our students have the right and privilege to participate. Students should have the opportunity to gain a full understanding of their troubled but beautiful American identity. They need to know that people like them have acted with values rooted in a tradition of faith and clear thinking and based in a strong Constitution to right our country's greatest wrongs and take her repeatedly from crises to new heights of greatness.

These are concepts our students need to learn in order to esteem their own families and communities, their nation and themselves. One cannot love what one does not know. Hire teachers who know and love American history. Give them sound textbooks. Teach our students traditional, patriotic American history. Give them the chance to love their country.

Thank you for your consideration.

I pray for your guidance.

Sincerely,

Nancy E. Thoerig
Mount Savage, MD

*****

Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 3:49 PM
Subject: Re: Texas Social Studies Standards


"IN GOD WE TRUST"
Mrs Morrow,
Just Wanted to tell you thanks for forwarding this information to me. I feel that every citizen MUST stand for the freedoms which all out generations before us fought for and we also must continue the fight so that our generation and the ones after us can live in a free Nation
We must never give up the title of "AMERICANS" and we must pass this idenity on for generations to come.

God Bless
Ron

*****
Sent: Tue, February 16, 2010 3:20:36 PM

Subject: Texas Social Studies Standards

Dear Ron Maiers:

The State Board of Education (SBOE) in Texas is currently reviewing the social studies standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). It is from these standards that a proclamation will be issued in a year or so for instructional materials that include textbooks for Texas public schools. The SBOE makes decision for Texas public schools and does not decide standards or instructional materials for private schools or homeschoolers within the state and does not make decisions for other states.

Drafts of the revised standards from social studies Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) review committees can be found at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=364. The State Board of Education (SBOE) met in January and made amendments to Kindergarten through Grade 8 and high school U.S. history. These amended documents will be posted on the same link in early March.

By examining the standards drafts, you will find that there is a history, citizenship, and government strand at every grade level. U.S history is taught at Grades 5 and 8 and high school. U.S. government is required for high school graduation. There are no plans to remove the courses nor radically change the content of the courses. Standards are generally intended to be broad concepts, not specifics of names, places, etc. These specifics are generally included at the level below the standards, curriculum writing, which is left to local school districts in Texas.

If you have any further questions regarding social studies standards, please contact me at (512) 463-9581 or by e-mail at rosemary.morrow@tea.state.tx.us.

Sincerely,

Rosemary Morrow

Rosemary Morrow, PhD, Director of Social Studies
Division of Curriculum

Texas Education Agency
1701 North Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas 78701
512.463.9581
http://www.tea.state.tx.us/

*****
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 5:19 PM
Subject: textbook revisions

Dear Texas State Board of Education members,

Texas' purchasing power determines textbooks that other state boards of education order for their students. Therefore, your decisions regarding textbook revisions affect all students across the country.

When you consider revisions, please -- along with portrayals of important historic scandals and mistakes -- respectfully present the fullness and beauty of the American experience, the courage and commitment of our founders and our prominent historical heroes, so that our students may understand the sacrifice and witness of our predecessors.

Only with an understanding of the past -- our countrymen's struggles that are grounded in exceptional primciples and common sense, the experience known as the American experiment -- can our students embrace and cherish their unique heritage in the world. Only with love for this country, nurtured through knowledge of its people and accomplishments, can the well-informed American citizen develop a realistic view of his or her place in the world.

Ours is a legacy that deserves reverence and pride. America is the envy of the world, a light of truth and justice, the desire of the oppressed and the destination of generations of immigrants. From its troubled beginings, this country and its people have been blessed and guided by divine providence to realize uncommon greatness.

I pray that wisdom will guide you.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Nancy E. Thoerig
Mount Savage, Maryland

Power without God deludes, tyrannizes, destroys

Published Wednesday, February 10, 2010 in Cumberland Times-News.

“Throughout the years, the United States Senate has honored the historic separation of Church and State, but not the separation of God and State”: From the web site of Barry C. Black, U.S. Senate Chaplain.

“The first Senate, meeting in New York City on April 25, 1789, elected the Right Reverend Samuel Provost, the Episcopal Bishop of New York, as its first Chaplain.” Since then, “all sessions of the Senate have been opened with prayer, strongly affirming the Senate's faith in God as Sovereign Lord of our Nation.”

Intending to undo our country’s unbroken grounding in God, 255 atheists, humanists, secularists, skeptics and freethinkers, along with thousands from 19 national and local organizations, represented by Michael Newdow, renewed their fight on Dec. 15, 2009 to remove prayer from public life.

In at least nine suits filed since 2002, Newdow leads the charge to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance; strike “in God we trust” from American currency and as the national motto; stop invocations at Presidential inaugurations; eliminate “so help me God” from the Presidential swearing-in; and wipe “God save the United States and this honorable court” from court session openings.

In its amicus brief filed in Newdow’s appeal (the D.C. Circuit dismissed the case), American Center for Law and Justice attorney James M. Henderson writes that Newdow’s “targeting of religious expression at Presidential inaugurations is particularly meritless given the controlling decision” in Marsh v. Chambers (July 5, 1983).

Nebraska state senator Ernie Chambers sued to prove that prayer offered by a state-supported chaplain at the legislature’s opening violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The Supreme Court held that prayer in the legislature, and state-hired chaplains, are constitutional, given the “unique history” of the United States.

“The practice of opening sessions of Congress with prayer has continued without interruption…since the First Congress drafted the First Amendment, and a similar practice has been followed…in Nebraska and many other states,” writes then-Chief Justice Warren Burger in the court opinion.

“To invoke divine guidance on a public body entrusted with making the laws is not…a violation of the Establishment Clause; it is simply a tolerable acknowledgment of beliefs widely held among the people of this country.”

As Justice Burger cites, “the Continental Congress, beginning in 1774, adopted the traditional procedure of opening its sessions with a prayer.” Burger quotes from a document of the first Senate session to recount that one of our founders’ early items of business was “to take under consideration the manner of electing Chaplains.”

Burger notes the House followed the Senate by six days to elect its first chaplain May 1, 1789. “A statute providing for the payment of these chaplains was enacted into law on September 22, 1789,” Burger writes, adding that three days later, “final agreement was reached on the language of the Bill of Rights.

“Clearly the men who wrote the First Amendment Religion Clauses did not view (paid chaplains) and opening prayers as a violation of that Amendment.”

The Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, a Catholic priest, is U.S. House of Representatives Chaplain. In Maryland’s General Assembly, House sessions open with the Pledge of Allegiance; then a different delegate each day offers a prayer. In the Senate, either an invited religious leader or one of the senators leads daily prayer.

Our founders, imperfect but striving, knew that political pursuits without God’s blessing were untrustworthy. History demonstrated for them -- as it does for us -- that power without God deludes, tyrannizes and destroys. Let us pray that our leaders hold fast to exceptional American principles and common sense, and never lose sight of God.

Monument to constitution should honor document

Letter written January 4, 2010 to Allegany County Commissioners. Published January 10 in Cumberland Times-News.

Dear Sirs:

Thank you for (assistant county attorney) Barry Lavine’s prompt response to my December 21 letter to you. I appreciate the chance to see the proposed Constitution monument inscription in full, and to read Mr. Lavine’s rationale for its acceptance.

Sadly, Mr. Lavine overlooks the obvious: “The meaning conveyed by a monument is generally not a simple one like ‘Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner,’” writes Justice Samuel Alito in the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum (February 25, 2009).

The proposed inscription, innocuous as it may seem to Mr. Lavine (and it contains two typos in the Preamble), is a commentary, a viewpoint, an interpretation by one group that has a right, under the Constitution, to take a slant on that document. However, as ruled by the Supreme Court, one group does not have the right to present their slant, as a foregone conclusion for everyone, on a public monument.

Our society’s Judeo-Christian grounding is the philosophical “backbone of our country.” God endows the rights and dignities ensured by the Constitution. The Constitution generated from our forefathers’ gratitude for God’s graces, to establish a framework to order our society toward a balance that keeps the people free from tyranny.

A monument is a sort of fine art object, intended to inspire us and bring us to pause and reflect, in a personal or communal way, on matters of individual or social significance. A monument to the Constitution, then, should lift viewers’ minds and hearts to ponder the document’s significance, not draw us into one viewpoint.

Therefore, I urge you to reconsider the inscription for a monument to the Constitution. I ask you to choose one that presents facts about the document’s genesis, rather than a viewpoint, along with the Preamble:

The United States Constitution

“We the People of the United States,
in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare,
and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Drafted by Gouverneur Morris of Pennsylvania, the United States Constitution joined thirteen states under one government and established a framework for the nation’s growth and stability.

At Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, after a summer of study and debate in a convention presided by General George Washington, and eleven years after the Revolution won under General Washington’s leadership, fifty-five delegates signed the United States Constitution.

“Having conducted these states to independence and peace,
he now appears to assist in framing a Government to make the People happy.”
-- William Pierce of Georgia, about General George Washington,
from Character Sketches of Delegates to the Federal Convention

A committee is in place to review proposals. The board of commissioners has final say on how such a project should take form. Please consider my proposal.

I hope this note finds you well and in agreement, that such an important project as a monument to the Constitution on the courthouse lawn deserves great deliberation.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Nancy E. Thoerig

Manhattan Decllaration: Call to Saintliness

Published in Cumberland Times-News Monday, Dec. 7, 2009.

"All pledge their commitments, and urge us to pledge ours, to stand up, or sit down, and refuse to comply with laws that kill the vulnerable, defile the natural union, or silence conscientious objectors."

Saintliness is difficult, but simple: Do what is right in the eyes of the eternal God, not what is popular in the current culture. We all are sinners, but each can be a saint.

This Advent, let’s pray for strengthened conviction, for ourselves and for others, so that the visionaries of the Manhattan Declaration will accomplish their goals: To invigorate America’s Christians to do heroic acts of civil disobedience; and to inspire others of faith (or no faith at all) to adhere to biblical and natural truths that preserve life, define marriage, and exercise conscience.

One hundred sixty-eight American Christian clergy and leaders signed the Manhattan Declaration, presented to the public Nov. 20 in Washington, D.C. Thirty-one represent Catholic communities – bishops from Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York City, Brooklyn, Newark, Kansas City (Kan.), Birmingham, Denver, Oakland (Calif.), Louisville, Detroit, Portland, Madison, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Fargo, Phoenix and Colorado Springs, along with Catholic editors, activists, educators, writers and scholars. Others represent the Orthodox, Evangelical and Anglican faithful.

All pledge their commitments, and urge us to pledge ours, to stand up, or sit down, and refuse to comply with laws that kill the vulnerable, defile the natural union, or silence conscientious objectors.

Nearly 300,000 Americans have signed onto the document, so far, to support renewal of Christians’ “2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God’s word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.”

Most poignantly, during this holy season, as we reflect on our own shortcomings and imperfections, and in this troubled time for our institutions, our religious leaders call us to take courage and do what is right, not comply with what is popular.

This is a protest against compromise and complicity with the inherent evils of abortion and euthanasia, unnatural unions, and coercive repression of religion. The declaration reminds us of those “who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.”

We would hope that no modern-day saint in America would face death for civil disobedience; but these times are unsettled: A revolution brews.

The Taxed Enough Already Tea Party crowds protest corruption, redistribution and over-spending by big government. Black conservatives protest socialist and communist ideas (termed “plantation politics”) that undermine the American identity, perpetuate oppression, and resurrect racism (“Time to Be Heard: Black Conservatives in America” transcript, Nov. 16, http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,575301,00.html).

Now comes the Manhattan Declaration: Drafted by Dr. Robert George, law professor at Princeton University; Dr. Timothy George, founding dean of Beeson Divinity School at Stanford University; and Chuck Colson, founder of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, the effort unites the thoughts, voices and actions of America’s Christians on matters of justice, human rights and the common good.

The Manhattan Declaration web site defines conscience as “the faculty of judging, informed by faith and reason, what one is bound by a law higher than oneself to do or not do, even if one would prefer…to do otherwise.”

Those who wish to preserve truth and freedom in America, and to live by “principles of right reason and natural law,” as Cardinal Justin Rigali summarized at the press conference, are logging on and signing up: http://manhattandeclaration.org.