The Simmons Family

The Simmons Family

The Colonial Flag

The Colonial Flag

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Political Asylum Ruling Expected Today for German Homeschooling Family

By Peter J. SmithMEMPHIS, Tennessee, January 20, 2010

A federal immigration judge in Memphis is expected to issue a ruling today on the case of a German family that applied for political asylum after suffering persecution from the German government over homeschooling their children.Uwe and Hannelore Romeike fled Germany and sought safe haven within the United States in 2008 after enduring years of punishment from the German government for educating their five children at home in conformity with their Christian values – a legal crime in Germany. "The persecution of homeschoolers in Germany has dramatically intensified," said HSLDA staff attorney Michael P. Donnelly. "They are regularly fined thousands of dollars, threatened with imprisonment, or have the custody of their children taken away simply because they choose to home educate."Although Germany is a modern social democracy, the nation retains statist attitudes formed by the National Socialists during the Third Reich regarding the rights of families. In order to bring about the uniform educational and social formation of the youth by the state, the Jugendamt (Youth Welfare Office) was created, and Germany outlawed homeschooling through a compulsory education law. The laws outlawing homeschooling remained on the books in Germany after the demise of Hitler’s Germany, but German officials for the most part maintained a policy of salutary neglect as late as 2002, when the Education Minister of the time stated the government would not crack down on the homeschooling minority since their children “are generally not lacking in any other respects.”But even then a marked sea-change in the government’s attitude was underway, and by 2006, the succeeding Education Minister K. Horstmann, made clear its policy. He warned homeschooling families: “The education administration in future will also not recognize so-called homeschooling and act in proportionate measure considering the individual case and circumstances.” For Uwe and Hannelore Romeike that meant enduring thousands of euros in crippling fines, threats of prison time, and in October 2006, Jugendamt officials made good on their threat to seize their children and place them in a local state-run school.The persecution faced by the Romeikes, however, is typical of the suffering faced by homeschooling families, some of whom have also had the traumatizing experience of armed police storming their homes at night to take their children away. However, Christian parents have persisted in homeschooling, saying that they want to keep their children free from the corrupting influence of the state-run schools, which they say have been peddling occultism, secular values, and grossly explicit sex education. "We left family members, our home, and a wonderful community in Germany, but the well-being of our children made it necessary," said Uwe Romeike.Hannelore Romeike praised the freedom that they now enjoy to educate their children at home in Tennessee. "The freedom we have to homeschool our children in Tennessee is wonderful,” said Romeike. “We don't have to worry about looking over our shoulder anymore wondering when the youth welfare officials will come or how much money we have to pay in fines.”"If the political asylum application is granted it will be the first time America has ever granted political asylum to Christian homeschoolers fleeing from German persecution," said Donnelly. Donnelly hopes that if the court grants the Romeike’s asylum, it will put more pressure on Germany to back down from its persecution of homeschoolers or face international embarrassment. A positive ruling could also pave the way for other homeschooling families to apply for political asylum in the United States.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Tim Hawkins-- The Government Can

The Burning Light of Freedom



by Lesley Swann
Assaulting the dream left to us by our Founders, we now have proponents of a nanny state who would have us give up our freedoms because they say it is too hard to be free. It is too hard being free to make a living, so instead we should have the government take from those who do earn and redistribute it to us. It is too hard to be free raise a family on our own as we see fit, so we should abdicate our roles as parents and let the government school systems and day cares raise our children as they see fit. It is too hard to be free to provide for our own health care and retirement in the best manner for us as individuals, so we should just abandon personal responsibility and choice, instead settling for a blanket one-size-fits-none health care plan that tells us what is best for us. Would Americans really rather be lazy than free?The Founders weren’t willing to sacrifice their freedoms just because times were tough and they would be appalled today that some Americans are willing to lay down their hard-won freedoms because of sheer laziness. Welfare, government-run health care, and a cradle-to-grave nanny state is NOT freedom, it is the essence of captivity and tyranny.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

The United States is NOT a Nation!




by Brion McClanahan

John Adams once wrote that, “I expressly say that Congress is not a representative body but a diplomatic body, a collection of ambassadors from thirteen sovereign States….” Each state had its own political and cultural life and each was “sovereign.” Robert Yates, writing as Brutus in 1787, observed that “In a republic, the manners, sentiments, and interests of the people should be similar. If this not be the case, there will be a constant clashing of opinions; and the representatives of one part will be continually striving against those of the other."States’ rights and the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution were intended to protect this cultural distinctiveness. This is why the three most powerful States in 1788, Virginia in the South, New York in the mid-Atlantic, and Massachusetts in the North, considered an explicit recognition of States’ rights an essential condition for ratification of the Constitution.Of course, those who champion States’ rights and decentralization are often accused of preferring “Balkanization” over the blessings and security of “one nation.” If the federal government followed its limited, constituted authority, such “Balkanization” would not be necessary, but hardly anyone in the founding generation would have agreed to a system of central government that currently exists in the United States.