"IMMEDIATE"

"Senator Government" was hilarious. In fact, your buddy Rush exclaimed the exact same thing not more then an hour ago - "use it!" I know you don't like him but I find it humorous that you two arrived at the same quip on the same morning (happening more and more often this election cycle I might add ... just to twist the knife). Which brings me to my next point ..."Frustrated Trumanite" ... "newly converted conservative" = nearly the same thing in US politics circa 2008. Or AT LEAST you are closer to the modern conservative agenda then you are the modern Democrat Party. I think it's just stubborn loyalty (not always a bad quality) that has you occasionally issuing these caveats regarding Party labels and conservative icons. Drop the charade man - in terms of what it means in 2008 (abortion, gay marriage, anti-Christian hostility, taxes, guns, victory strategies versus exit strategies), YOU, TITUS, ARE A CONSERVATIVE! Embrace it, like it, love it ... deal with it my friend. OK, now that I have sufficiently broken the knife's handle off in the wound ... he, he ...

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I met with my son's teacher this morning. He is a straight A student and he came home with an ominous "C" glaring on his progress report (in between report cards) in mathematics. Curious as to the cause I of course set a meeting with his teacher. It turns out he was missing an assignment, which she offered to let him make up thus get his "A", and that was that. So on my way out I noticed something astonishing on the wall of a public school ... astonishing for the year 2008. Let me preface this by my own acknowledgement that I am more then a little suspicious about public educators via the teacher's union, and especially PhD's. Now, I consider myself an "intellectual enthusiast", so their level of education is not the beef. It's just every poll has them voting 85-90% Democrat, for years. And you add that to stories like eliminating the celebration of Mother's Day in some New York schools so as not to offend male gay couples with kids (still not sure about the biology on that, but whatever). As well as a 1st grade field trip in San Fransisco last week to City Hall ... no, not to teach about civics, but rather to witness the gay marriage of their teacher in a lesson in "tolerance." Nice huh? I mean, we all realize that there has been a concerted effort in too much of the public school curriculum to indoctrinate social morals (of the liberal orientation) and secular PC (Christmas Break is replaced with the words "winter celebration") rather then just teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. So basically, for me, every public educator is guilty until proven innocent in my mind.

Well, I couldn't get a clear read on this school's principal. I mean, the district compels him to celebrate "Earth Day", but he only puts up signs and gives talks about littering. Hmmm? No global warming? Ok. Also a district mandated "day" is "Peace Day." During war time?, I thought. Yet, he focused solely on being "kind" to your neighbor classmate (almost Biblical). No talks railing against wars or war making. Again, hmmm? You might remember my post about the problem student whom pulled a box cutter in class (and I mean an upscale neighborhood and brand new school!). He (the principal) smiled as I voiced my concerns and nodded his head in agreement with me and I felt as if I was being "handled" a bit during my meeting with him to insist on the child's expulsion. Yet several days later the kid was in fact expelled. Well, today solidified my sneaking suspicion of, let's call him "Dr. A."

As I was exiting the school in the main hallway I noticed a huge plaque over several eloquent, glassless oak frames (roughly 35 or so total ) containing black and white writings, which extended down the entire length of this main hall. The plaque read: FREEDOM SHRINE, Created by the National Exchange Club to Strengthen Citizen Appreciation of Our American History. "Great" I thought. What's this now? Probably the only worthy document will be a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, with the rest being some receipts for slave auction's, and probably a dissertation or two on how many Indians Columbus slaughtered. Do you want to know what the first frame contained? General McCauliffe's hand written Christmas letter to the troops, 1944. I mean an authenticated, exact replica. That's what this Exchange company does. They sell and sometimes donate exact replicas of historical documents found in the Smithsonian and history museums across the nation. Next up, in order of how they appeared on the wall, in the original type writer set or hand written, which I will delineate with a (hw): The Monroe Doctrine; Washington's Inaugural and Farewell address (hw); The Mayflower Compact; The Japanese Instrument of Surrender; The German Instrument of Surrender; The Constitution including all Articles (hw); The Declaration of Independence (hw); Jefferson's Inaugural Address (hw); The Emancipation Proclamation; Lincoln's 2nd inaugural Address; Robert E. Lee's letter of acceptance as president of Washington College (hw); Washington's letter to Col Nicola (hw); An account of the proceedings of the Susan B. Anthony trials (hw); JFK's Inaugural Address; and my personal favorite in terms of rarity - A small hand written note by General George C. Marshall, written for FDR (to sign). It was a message to "Marshal Stalin" informing him of the installation of D.D. Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, with particular emphasis on OPERATION OVERLORD. FDR wrote with his own hand in only two places: his signature, and he drew an up arrow (^), in between the words "the installation" and wrote above that arrow the word "IMMEDIATE." And that's not even half of what's there.

Now how do you like that? On an elementary school house wall ... in 2008, with all the PC concerns and social moral espousing, this principal, this educator "gets it."

Oh ya, I was so enthralled with all these handwritten notes and replicas of original documents that it wasn't until the end that I noticed all 50 state flags (just above a hand held size) aligning the top of the wall. And guess what, the Mississippi flag, with the confederate battle flag in the upper left corner, right there with the rest of them. Not that I'm a huge proponent of that flag (especially after 9/11 when I felt one flag was enough for us all, baring in mind it's a state right not to be infringed upon), but rather I mention that flag because the flat out BALLS of a public educator in 2008, the principal no less, to be willing to put ACTUAL history on the wall and say "NO", "I will not pretend like the Japanese weren't war mongers in 1941 because we have 2 Japanese-American students and it might offend them; I will not pretend like that's not a real state flag"; and I will not pretend like WAR is never neccessary", is something I am sincerely impressed with.

I asked the office manager on my way out if those things were donated. She replied, "No." It turns out that not only did this principal have to cut out school funds in order to PURCHASE the items, but given this company reproduces literally hundreds of documents, he must have gone through and hand selected the ones to hang on his school's wall! And he sees the Monroe Doctrine, McAuliffe's Christmas letter, the Japanese Surrender and Eisenhower's appointment and says: "Oh ya, I gotta have those." Hmmm ... I think I like this guy. And I called him and told him just that.