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What Are You Willing to Lose?
“I don’t want to get involved.” “I don’t want to speak up.” “It’s none of my business.” “There’s nothing that I can do.” Maybe you have heard some of these phrases from others; maybe you have uttered them yourself. When we see a problem, what is our response? Our general struggle may be that we like to be liked; we don’t want to disagree with anyone. Or we may hate to rock the boat. Or we may be timid in the face of disagreement. Or, honestly, we may simply look at a problem and say, “I don’t know what to do.”
Or maybe, when intimidating forces face us, we may simply want to keep quiet and keep what we own, out of selfishness. Francis Schaeffer warned people about a self-centered perspective when faced with hostility. Schaeffer was concerned with what he called “personal peace and affluence.” Our general disposition is “I don’t want to lose my status, my job, or my friends, so I’ll just keep my mouth shut when I see a social problem or encounter governmental overreach of power.”
But there are people like “Moms for Liberty” who have taken a stand for their children and for their children’s education. The seeds of Moms for Liberty were sown during the 2020 Virginian gubernatorial campaign. Parents were being told that educators know best about a child’s education. Parents were frozen out. So, moms banded together for educational reform; these children were their children, after all. Personal peace and affluence were the last things on their minds.
The adage is true, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.” All of us have been given gifts to exercise in our time and place. With those gifts, we desire to benefit all around us, being responsible for preserving what, and who, has been given to us. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of the Comenius Institute, personally seeking and speaking up for Truth, wherever it’s found. [First published at MarkEckel.com]
AFTERWORD There have been numerous essays written about Moms for Liberty. Below is just a smattering of articles written in defense of the group. Here is the press page with more articles about the group Moms for Liberty.
And if it hasn’t been made clear yet, I stand with them.
On a personal note, the one immutable truth I learned in K-12 education is, don’t tick off mothers.
The Free Press, “Who’s Afraid of Moms for Liberty?”
‘I WILL … ERADICATE YOU’: Moms for Liberty Threatened, Treated as ‘Subhuman,’ After SPLC Attack
Nextdoor Cites SPLC to Exclude Moms for Liberty, Alienating Neighbors (dailysignal.com)
Postman’s Warning | MarkEckel.com
Dr. Seuss said it best in The Lorax, “Unless someone like you / Cares a whole awful lot / Nothing is going to get better / No it’s not.”
How will you know when it is time to make your voice heard? Moms for Liberty decided the answer to that question for them was for the sake of their children.
Published in General
I don’t support this group, because their message is Liberty.
They should be Moms for Virtue, or Moms for Tradition, or Moms for the American Way. Not Liberty.
They seem to want government out of education. I want good government participating in good education.
I don’t think that the problem is government involvement. I think that the problem is Liberalism, a false religion with many variants.
Frankly, I find the Liberty approach wicked. Here’s what it means. It doesn’t oppose the transgender agenda being taught to children. It just wants to allow parents to teach whatever they want.
If you want to raise your little boy to be a woman, that’s fine with the Liberty folks. If you want to raise him to be a killer, or a thief, or a rapist, well, who’s to judge? It’s up to the parents, according to the mantra of Liberty.
I’m doing a Bible study in the book of Judges right now. Every episode is the same thing. Authority breaks down, and the people do whatever they want, which is inevitably “evil in the eyes of the Lord.”
Great post soiled by the first comment. That act is so tiresome.
It is, isn’t it? Comment is out of context, IMHO, and misses the point of the OP. But maybe that is the point of (every) comment by that particular commenter. Sure seems to be.
But you support (something like) Ordered Liberty, don’t you? Do you automatically object to any use of the word Liberty if not preceded by Ordered?
Here’s another bit of wisdom:
Pick your battles.
Here’s another:
Discretion is the better part of valor.
The regime occupies the commanding heights. The leadership of Moms for Liberty might find themselves the target of a pre-dawn FBI raid. The time for public, organized protest may have passed. Just ask the Electoral Justice protesters (aka J6) who have been rotting in prison for years. Many of them are destined to rot in prison for decades.
I just had my post on the excessive Jan 6 sentences spoiled by not one but two of these acidic Phillipics.
I say the following in sadness as my brother, RIP, lived in and loved Scottsdale but I must wonder: is there something in the air or the water or the 115 degree August days which causes people in Arizona to be so sour and dour?
Just sayin’
Just a minor nitpick . . .
That election was in 2021; Virginia’s elections are a little weird.
I don’t support Jerry because his message is Good Government.
Government is force and Good Government is a false religion with several variants. The one Jerry seems to believe in would use the force of government to impose virtue, as if the chicken of Good Government can lay the egg of a virtuous people rather than a virtuous people hatching into good government.
They have virtue police in Muslim countries. How’s that working out for Christians?
Besides, imposed virtue isn’t really virtue at all. The fix in the West is one conversion to virtue at a time, which means it’s likely a long hard slog with much suffering at the front end.
This trouble to standing up is an issue for everyone across the political spectrum. It goes beyond worried about others, but engages at a level of “I am not a nice person” or “I am not a good person” if I don’t go along with X.
As do I based on what I have read about them and, not to be petty about such a serious topic, but as a general rule of thumb anything or any organization the SPLC brands as a hate group is practically presumtively one that I would admire and work for. I read the article on The Daily Signal and reading it gives one a sense of how absolutely dangerous some of these people are. I would urge everyone to take a look at that particular article, if you have to pick one out of all of them discussed here, as the level of hatred spewed all over the page at Mothers is quite simply astonishing- and very troubling. I’m so old I remember when the one group in our society which was universally revered and loved were our Mothers; sure was true in our family and in every family I knew of or had ever heard of. Now you have to see for yourself what some of these commenters are calling these Mothers who formed their group out of love for their children. I couldn’t repeat any of the terms here as the C of C would be shredded and I would be, rightfully, flagged.
Some time ago, I spent quite a bit of time researching and writing about the Southern Poverty Law Center, a name which is so far from what this mega-rich, con game, hate merchant bunch of muckrakers actually is as to be ludicrous, and it was a real eye opener for me and apparently for those who read my piece judging by some of the comments. If anyone ever started seriously advocating for limitations on the First Amendment right of free speech –I had written those words and realized it is already happening all around us– which I pray will never be successful, but if it ever did look like it would happen the SPLC would be the first place I would start, right up there with the flag burners and the Nazi paraders.
Again, please read the piece referenced above to have the full impact of what Mark is writing about here. It is no exaggeration to fear that one of these Moms for Liberty could be seriously wounded or worse if the words in these comments are any indication of the disordered mindsets at work. To answer Mark’s question, that’s how much they are willing to lose and they should be lauded and applauded for their courage and bravery.
Liberty is the necessary prerequisite for virtue. One cannot be virtuous without first making a choice. If there is no choice, it is compelled and not virtue. So, Moms for Liberty is the appropriate and best name for a group espousing virtues.
h/t to Dinesh D’Souza.
And perhaps vice versa?
Either way, it sure helps if you don’t start the discussion with a laughably anti-intellectual definition of the terms being used.