"It is easy to imagine the response of bloggers and broadcasters now to these unpopular men with unorthodox ideas. Darwin would be accused of ignorance by the academic elite. Lincoln would be called a war-monger. In the end, the pair won their arguments thanks to the quality of their thinking and the courage in talking when nobody would listen. The world needs a few like them now."
-www.theaustralian.news.com

I had the great pleasure of viewing Tuesday's sacred ceremony with 72 students, from three of my Rutland High School Science Classes. You know those apathetic, video warped, hormone drunken malcontents with baggy pants you've been hearing about in all those articles about NECAP test scores.

In the few hours we fixed our eyes upon Washington I heard only respect, interest, and very intelligent comments about how blessed they feel to live in this great Nation. When the National Anthem began, they ALL stood without being cued. Some sang. Some wept.

I guess I witnessed that "New Birth of Freedom" that Mr. Lincoln spoke of when he honored the dead at Gettysburg. Sharing the family name with one of that battle's great heroes, I realized that afternoon that I was witness to the fruits of all those Union Soldiers, slaves, abolitionists, and leaders who have given all they had to see those words from our Declaration of Independence Manifest. Tuesday that document was finally delivered. Not to the King of England; to every citizen of the United States of America.

Let us remember it was not one or two people who brought this change! It was not one political party. It was not one military leader, or Presidential Candidate. Let us also remember it will not be you or I that bring this next great move! It will take more than one to turn around our economy and trade deficit. It will take more than one to make our youth the leaders in Science and ingenuity once again. It will take many!

Like General Stannard, who led his Vermonters into that flank attack that turned around a battle; a war; and years later a nation.....I will do my small part in leading those 72 young charges o’er the ramparts into the dredges of a failing America.
Today they start with mastering the Metric System, the steps of the Scientific Method, and introductions many alternative energy concepts. Quiz Friday!

Your Humble Servant,
Mr. Stannard, Science Teacher

The day that Vermont's "beer tax" went into effect I took notice!

I also started to better comprehend all the times I had heard my father expound upon the injustice imposed through taxation, under the guise of conscience, in Vermont and the United States.

In the past months, My father has been writing his first book, "Tax me until it stops hurting" (see: Jan. '07 post) about his call for a Vermont "consumption tax". I have been researching a bit, for him. This diatribe, from the desk of D. Crockett may best sum up the premise of true conservatism in America............but you have to read it all!

Originally published in "The Life of Colonel David Crockett," by Edward Sylvester Ellis.

One day in the House of Representatives a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support. The speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose:

"Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living, if there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member on this floor knows it.

We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I ever heard that the government was in arrears to him.

"Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."

He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.

Later, when asked by a friend why he had opposed the appropriation, Crockett gave this explanation:

"Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. In spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made houseless, and besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them. The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.

"The next summer, when it began to be time to think about election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up. When riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came up, I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but as I thought, rather coldly.

"I began: 'Well friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates and---

"Yes I know you; you are Colonel Crockett. I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine, I shall not vote for you again."

"This was a sockdolger...I begged him tell me what was the matter.

"Well Colonel, it is hardly worthwhile to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting you or wounding you.'

"I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest.

But an understanding of the constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the honest he is.'

" 'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake. Though I live in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress. My papers say you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by fire in Georgetown. Is that true?

"Well my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just the same as I did.'

"It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means.

What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.

If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give at all; and as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. 'No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity.'

"'Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this country as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have Thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week's pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life.'

"The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from necessity of giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.'

"'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.'

"I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and this man should go to talking and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:

"Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.'

"He laughingly replied; 'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.'

"If I don't, said I, 'I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of people, I will make a speech to them. Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.'

"No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. 'This Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.

"'Well I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-bye. I must know your name."

"'My name is Bunce.'

"'Not Horatio Bunce?'

"'Yes

"'Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend.'

"It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his remarkable intelligence, and for a heart brim-full and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him, before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.

"At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.

"Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight talking about the principles and affairs of government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before."

"I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him - no, that is not the word - I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the world by storm.

"But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted - at least, they all knew me.

"In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying:

"Fellow-citizens - I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only."

"I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:

"And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.

"It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit for it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.'

"He came up to the stand and said:

"Fellow-citizens - it affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.'

"He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.'

"I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of Congress.'

"Now, sir," concluded Crockett, "you know why I made that speech yesterday. "There is one thing which I will call your attention, "you remember that I proposed to give a week's pay. There are in that House many very wealthy men - men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased--a debt which could not be paid by money--and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $20,000 when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."

In the spring of 1777, My Great Grandfather (many times over) Samual, settled a fertile, wooded piece of land in the lower Champlain Valley, of what is now Vermont. Here many of my ancestors were raised.

Although my father was able to take most of the remaining farm into the family in the 1980s, one small 13 acre woodlot had remained in another family’s possession since Brig. General George Stannard's Father was just a kid, playing in these woods.

Acting mostly on faith and dreams, my father, wife, and I have purchased back this land and have begun the process of settling here ourselves.

The spruce and pine have been purchased from Adirondack Loggers, and is at the small family run saw mill near the land.

The crew of builders has been assembled.

The home has been brainstormed about by everyone in the family, and designed by “Big Ed” our great friend and builder.

In the coming Month I will move my family of five out of our overpriced carriage house apartment in the village. We will spend our spring, summer, and fall in a Cabela’s wall tent next to my family’s camp.

If our land perks and is approved to build…..I will spend 15 hour days, building a 3 story, passive solar/solar, wood radiant floor heated, “sugar shack” for my family.

I will update on all our positive news for months to come. I hope I can inspire others to kick the rent and oil habit and follow the faith of our fathers, into the American Dream!

It is 7:03 a.m. and only one of my two boys has agreed to eat their peach oatmeal. The oldest is holding out, since he was promised waffles at bed time last night. In his protest he keeps repeating last night’s agreement in a whiny tone that could make a wine glass resonate. The other has finished breaking his fast, which was easy since a blob of grain meal the size of his fist sits on his lap ground into his corduroys.

My wife has just pulled out of the drive, already late for work, having had to change the baby girl’s clothes for a second time…….reflux. The same misfortune that had kept her up ‘till 10:30 each night this winter....only to rise upon each hour to nurse.

I trip on a toy fire truck to the dismay of the boys, and remember that I should have been at work earlier today, as grades are going out for my 65 students and a couple hundred of the 350 assignments I correct each week are without a mark. “Shit, I was supposed to scan and email the home plans.” to Ed, my builder, I scream (under my breath). And why are we out of milk? we spent our last $8.00 earned in March to get some….when was it?

It’s typical (although a bit less stressful and confusing than normal) morning at The Preacher’s parsonage.

To someone young, just married, or debating parenthood, a look into the life of a family of five may be very ominous. What they do not understand is that all this confusion and sacrifice feels to a good parent, like the feeling of pressure from a championship game, speech, election, or business deal in which you cannot loose,
Unless.

During the end of the winter, cabin fever, lack of spending money, and stress was leading me to question when I would ever again have fun. When would my love and I go out, hear music, have dinner, or laugh with our close friends. One night, feeling as though I had somehow been duked, by myself, into becoming and old guy, who drives a gray caravan with two missing hubcaps, and sometimes cuts out coupons for canned beer. What had I done with my life? In sober defeat, before retiring after an extremely boring Friday night, I posted “$300 REWARD: For the individual who locates or returns my youth.” on a friend's blog.

Although the weekend seemed to be a blast for my kids, who I helped become space travelers and firefighters, while dogsledding across Greenland (on their mushing couch) in two short days…I was blah and pissed off at all the responsibility.

Upon my next check of the blog, I read the following response from a great friend, and father of two. “Look into your children’s eyes. You’ll find your youth there."

I was home, ill with pneumonia. For the next couple days I waxed very emotional about my own youth. I remembered my imaginary friends. My red bike. The way I would wear the closest thing I had to my dad’s cloths every morning, and the feeling of going with him to work or visit some of the old Vermont Characters that have gone now. My slingshot, my dog Jake, and Friday night when my PJs were on and Waylon’s theme song for The Dukes of Hazard began. The crush I had on my babysitter and Daisy. I remembered tearing the shit out of my mom’s house; creating an entire imaginary society each Saturday morning before my parents were up. The time I went fishing with my friends……over night…..and forgot to leave a note.

With that I realized it may be best to stop recalling my youth. For one, projecting the shit I pulled on my own kids got scary. But also, I was afforded that wonderful childhood, by parents who sacrificed for me….and never once complained. And they had gone through much more struggle than I. What had I done? My youth has turned to theirs!

In the past week, I have realized that if I were diagnosed with pneumonia in late March 1919, I would be dead right now…..leaving a widow and three children in need. How blessed am I from every angle.

This epiphany has been a long time coming. Luckily, embracing the chaos of my progeny seems to be easier than cultivating dismay. I think the idea of seeing my youth in their eyes will always help me come to terms with how hard it is to raise three children.

The true beauty of childhood has been squandered by many in our society. Children are given expensive toys designed by engineers, stamped with a valueless cartoon character, and advertised by brainwashing. The intent is that all this stuff will keep them busy. Out of the way. Sedated.

I am glad that we have steered from this televised mess with our boys. They seem to have great ambition and creativity. I need to allow for even more of the spirit of adventure and imaginative PLAY in their lives, and allow for mine to gradually wane.I’ll have my fun when I can, and much of it from watching the boys slay dragons and race go carts.

Childhood is so beautiful and so fragile. It should be honored on the highest level and treated like an heirloom china doll.....past from generation to generation.........only a couple glue seems.....unless broken by a parent who cannot see their duty.

Oh, the things I feel from looking into my children's eyes.

This is a great opportunity I had to pass on!

Last thursday, my grandmother..of all people...told me her friend got FREE round trip jet blue tickets to visit her grandchildren in Oregon....by simply visiting http://www.lovelongears.com/spottedpix.html
and answering a couple questions about shoes and pet food. I tried it that night and my tickets came in the mail this A.M.!

Try it, and have a great day!