Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) discusses his upcoming reintroduction of the former Parental Rights Amendment from 2008 into the 111th Congress. The Congressman confirmed that efforts from citizens are working with an increase from 24 co-sponsors to 54 co-sponsors to the proposed Parental Rights Amendment.  Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, will be on an upcoming episode. We were also joined by Phyllis Schlafly of Eagle Form. Congressman Hoekstra stated very clearly that “I don’t want anybody coming between the parents and the kids, and creating a barrier.”

The language is simple:  “The liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right.“  The Congressman demonstrated clear examples of where parents make a better caregiver than the government. Congressman Hoekstra further said that one of the causes of the erosion of our parental rights is government growth, “Men of zeal who lack understanding,” people that basically mean well but who lack understanding. It is imperative that we protect our parental rights from both domestic and international government intrusions, but that means discussing our concerns consistently with our government officials.

Phyllis Schlafly discussed the erosion of parental rights, the rogue judiciary that are taking away parental rights, and the role of the multi-issue lobbying organization model. Phyllis also discussed the issue of bad welfare policy destroying fatherhood. I offered the statement again as I do with every single organization which is “Parental Rights should be respected and protected by all,” which strikes the proper cord. This is an issue about children needing their decisions to be made by those that know them best, their parents.

 

 EPISODE199 - Get Your Justice Live! US Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) [54:22m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

This is just one of a series of broadcasts about the importance of parental rights in America. The god-given right of children being led by their parents and not the government. We are leading a major fight to reject government usurpation of our parental rights.

Eighty years ago the Supreme Court declared that “the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.” Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925).

Complete Bio of Phyllis Schlafly from http://www.eagleforum.org

Phyllis Schlafly was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies’ Home Journal. She has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo, and a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization now called Eagle Forum.

Mrs. Schlafly is the founder and president of Eagle Forum, a national organization of citizens who participate as volunteers in the public policymaking process. It maintains offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and in Alton, Illinois. She is also the founder and president of Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, a think-tank which has its national headquarters at the Eagle Forum Education Center in St. Louis.

Books: Mrs. Schlafly is the author or editor of 20 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism (The Power of the Positive Woman and Feminist Fantasies), nuclear strategy (Strike From Space and Kissinger on the Couch), education (Child Abuse in the Classroom), child care (Who Will Rock the Cradle?), and foreign policy (Allegiance). Her lifetime dedication to the problem of illiteracy led her to develop a phonics system to teach reading skills. First Reader (1994) is designed for the beginning child, and Turbo Reader (2001) is a revised version for the student of any age. Her most recent book is The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It.

Radio: Mrs. Schlafly’s 3-minutes-a-day 5-days-a-week radio commentaries (running since 1983) are heard daily on 500 stations, and her radio talk show on education called “Eagle Forum Live” (running since 1989) is heard weekly on Saturdays on 75 stations. Both series can be heard on Eagle Forum’s website: www.eagleforum.org. Mrs. Schlafly’s radio career began in the 1970s when she was a regular semi-weekly CBS commentator on the Spectrum series (1973-1978), and for WBBM Chicago (1973-1975). For four years in the 1960s, she was the speaker on a 15-minute weekly statewide radio program sponsored by the Illinois Daughters of the American Revolution.

Legal: Mrs. Schlafly is an attorney admitted to the practice of law in Illinois, Missouri, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. She served (with the late Chief Justice Warren Burger) as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Reagan. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, foreign policy, education, tax, encryption, and family issues. She served five terms as a member of the Illinois Commission on the Status of Women, 1975-1985, appointed by the Illinois Legislature. She served as a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, 1983-1986. She has filed many amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal.

Family: Mrs. Schlafly was the 1992 Illinois Mother of the Year. She and her late husband of 44 years are the parents of six children (John, Bruce, Roger, Liza, Andrew, and Anne) and 14 grandchildren. She taught all her children to read before they entered school and all had outstanding academic success: three lawyers, one physician, one Ph.D. mathematician, and one businesswoman.

Political Activism: In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment. She assembled the movement called Stop ERA. She is America’s most articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement. She has appeared on virtually every national television and radio talk show and has lectured or debated on more than 500 college and university campuses. Other political battles she led and won include defeating the national movement in the 1980s to call a new national Constitutional Convention.

Republican: Mrs. Schlafly’s lifetime hobby has been politics, starting with working as campaign manager for a successful Republican candidate for Congress in St. Louis in 1946. She served as an elected Delegate to eight Republican National Conventions: 1956, 1964, 1968, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2004; and as an elected Alternate Delegate to three other Republican National Conventions: 1960, 1980, 2000, and 2008. She has attended and played an active role in every Republican National Convention since 1952. Her 1964 book A Choice Not an Echo is a history of Republican National Conventions. She was three times elected President of the Illinois Federation of Republican Women, 1960-64, and was elected First Vice President, National Federation of Republican Women (1964-1967). She was a candidate for Congress from Illinois in 1952 and in 1970, in two different districts. She received numerous awards for volunteer service to the Republican Party. In 1990, she founded Republican National Coalition for Life with the specific mission of protecting the pro-life plank in the Republican Party Platform.

DAR: Phyllis Schlafly served five terms as National Chairman of National Defense for the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution (1977- 80, 1983-95). Previously, she served as National Chairman of American History Month (1965-68) and as National Chairman of the Bicentennial Committee (1967-70). A DAR member of Ninian Edwards Chapter in Alton, Illinois since the 1950s, she served two terms as Chapter Regent and is now Honorary Chapter Regent. She served two terms as Illinois State Chairman of National Defense and one term as Illinois State Recording Secretary and Editor of the State Yearbook.

Awards: Mrs. Schlafly has received numerous awards for service in a variety of fields. Honorary LL.D. from Niagara University. Honorary Doctor of Christian Letters from Franciscan University of Steubenville. Ten honor awards from Freedoms Foundation of Valley Forge. Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews (1975). National patriot awards from both the Sons of the Revolution and the Sons of the American Revolution. She was named one of the Ten Most Admired Women in the World in the Good Housekeeping poll, 1977-1990. The World Almanac named her one of the 25 Most Influential Women in America during the years 1978-1985. When Richard Amberg, publisher of St. Louis Globe-Democrat, presented her with the Women of Achievement Award in 1963, he said:

“Phyllis Schlafly stands for everything that has made America great and for those things which will keep it that way.”

President Ronald Reagan gave Phyllis Schlafly, a lifetime fulltime volunteer in public policymaking, this tribute at a national meeting in 1984:

“Eagle Forum has set a high standard of volunteer participation in the political and legislative process. . . . You’ve been out front on so many of the most important issues of our time. . . . Your work is an example to all those who would struggle for an America that is prosperous and free. . . . Our nation needs the kind of dedicated individual volunteer service you and Eagle Forum have demonstrated over the last 20 years.”

When The Reagan Diaries were published in 2007, it was discovered that the President wrote on March 21, 1983:

“Phyllis Schlafly came by. She’s darned effective. Her plan to counter the new E.R.A campaign is brilliant.”

The economist George Gilder wrote in his book Men & Marriage (Pelican, 1987):

“When the histories of this era are seriously written, Phyllis Schlafly will take her place among the tiny number of leaders who made a decisive and permanent difference. She changed the political landscape of her country. In fact, by the measure of the odds she faced and overcame, Schlafly’s achievement excels all the others’. . . . She won in part because she is one of the country’s best speakers and debaters and its best pamphleteer since Tom Paine. She won because of her indefatigable energy and will power, mobilizing women in state after state.”

Joseph Lelyveld wrote in the New York Times Magazine (April 17, 1977):

“Phyllis Schlafly has become one of the most relentless and accomplished platform debaters of any gender to be found on any side of any issue.”

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