Books'nSundries

NOTE: This Graphic and character set was designed by: http://www.moonandbackgraphics.com/
(some very nice things here!) ©Copyrights now owned by Emil T. Miller

    Here we offer an interesting and informative article on a subject of interest to us all, especially as we get a few years hung on us and realize we have time for things we have put off for too many years. The article below is from Robert Bonner of Carrollton, Georgia, my friend of some 60 years (since we were in the first grade together in 1943), although neither knew where the other was for about 44 of those years. Finding each other again via the Internet, we have taken up our friendship where we left off. I asked Robert to do this article since he is the one who first interested me, then motivated me, then helped me to begin my own Genealogy work. Even so, without the help and encouragement of my dear relatives Earline Powers and her brother Bill Johnson, also of the Carrollton area, I would not have completed the three large volumes of the BROCK GENEALOGY / MEMORY BOOKS described elsewhere in this site - my gift to my beloved Brock, Matthews, Mote, and other extended families of kinfolk on my mother's side of my family:

                                                                                                  ...ETM

                                                                  ~~~~~~~~~~

Want to know where you came from???
by Robert F. Bonner - Carrollton, Georgia

(Click to Enlarge)

    I have always been interested in my heritage. I have been doing genealogical research off and on for several years. Maybe it runs in my blood because many of my family members have also been involved off and on throughout their lives with genealogical research.
     The advent of home computers fascinated me, so about four years ago, after some serious considerations I bought my first home computer, taught myself how to use it and went about the task of entering our family data into a genealogical database program. It was quite an experience, an exercise in trial and error, but a very rewarding one. Years ago there weren't very many programs and all were very difficult and time consuming to use. Internet "surfing" was very laborious with difficult tools ... things have changed since the early days! How lucky we are to now have easy access with point and click tools! Anyway, my family database has continued to grow. It went online in 2001 because I wanted to freely share my info with others.
    I have been hunting for my Bonner, Sloan, McPherson & Lyle ancestors for several years. After getting thoroughly confused, and having accumulated piles of notes & memos, I decided that I should put it all in a DataBase to easily be able to keep track of them - and the references of where I found them. Lots of folks have helped by sharing their data with me too. The result is a study created as a research tool for anyone trying to find roots with these surnames and related families. The database includes information on many other related families.

LETTERS FROM THE PAST:
     A wonderful way to learn about our ancestors and the environments they lived in, is to read their letters and correspondence. We experience a glimmer of understanding in the hardships they endured, in the simple joys of everyday life and the common man's point of view of the political forces that eventually shaped our lives in the 21st century.

DIGGING FOR YOUR ROOTS:
     There are several good genealogy programs for building your family tree. My personal preference is Family Tree Maker. After you have loaded the software on your personal computer, open the program and start building your family tree. Start with yourself and work backwards. Enter the names and all the pertinent information about you and your immediate family.
     Before you do anything, talk to the older family members and ask them to relate anything at all that they can remember about the family. Record every detail. You may need several visits to some of the older relations as they tend not to remember details until after you have left and they continue to think and recall.
   Find out if there are any birth, christening or baptismal certificates, or marriage or death certificates anywhere within the family. To make a start on your research you really need your grandparent's birth certificates and marriage certificates. If the marriage certificate is not in your family's possession, as long as your parents know the names of their parents and the marriage date, the certificate is easily obtained from the Office of the Registrar of Births Deaths & Marriages. A Marriage Certificate is your link to the next generation, as it usually gives the names of the father of both the bride and groom.
     Search old family photo albums and scrapbooks. Ask questions. Find out as much as you can about the people in the photos, location, dates etc. Make copies and write the information on the back. If you don't, someday one of your descendants may be gazing at the old photo wishing they knew who it is.
    Check the family Bibles. It was commonplace to record the family births, deaths and marriages inside the cover of the family Bible. But don't try and go too far back too soon. Take small steps and be very sure of the facts before taking the next step. Never ASSUME. Document everything and keep a careful record of every search. Make use of the various free pedigree charts and family group sheets available on the web to record all the details as you find them:

                           http://www.ida.net/users/elaine/pedigre2.HTM

     Once you have established a few family facts, have a few leads to follow and are feeling confident enough to start delving more deeply then I suggest you visit Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet.

                                        http://www.cyndislist.com/

    Invest in a good digital camera and visit local cemeteries and take photos of the tombstone inscriptions. You will have a record of names, dates of birth and death.
     Search the internet for family websites. You might find someone with a wealth of information about your ancestors. I have found many "Internet Cousins" and friends that I have never met but we have exchanged a lot of information about our related families.
     As the Internet grows and becomes a part of our lives, it brings with it a unique opportunity to meet people we likely would never have met in any other way. And very often, those people we meet on line will become friends. Sometimes, very close friends. Friends are special people. We can't pick our family, and we're sorely limited in the number of them at any rate. Our friends, in a very real sense, reflect the choices we make in life.

"RootsWeb" is a good place to start your family search:
                                                              http://www.rootsweb.com

"Ancestry" is another popular genealogy site:
                                                              www.ancestry.com

     The "Web" is a treasure trove of information. All it takes is a little of your time and you will soon have your "Family Tree" growing.
     Don't worry if you are not "Computer Savvy". Go ahead and take the plunge. You and future generations will be glad you did. If nothing else, keep paper records in some sort of orderly fashion so that future generations can make sense of it.

Good Luck and "Happy Trails"

©Robert Bonner 2004

NOTE: You can visit Robert's very nice Genealogy website here:

http://www.geocities.com/a_ga_rebel/index.html

...and get more useful genealogy information as well as ideas for your own Genealogy website.

A STUDY CONDUCTED IN 1976 SHOWED THAT MORE THAN 70% OF ALL AMERICAN SURNAMES WERE OF IRISH ORIGIN. ~ HERE ARE A FEW GOOD, MOSTLY IRISH ORIENTED WEBSITES TO GET YOU GOING. ~ THERE ARE MANY OTHERS.

http://www.irishgenealogy.ie/

...and here are even more very good sites which you can use and will find very interesting!

               The Awful Hurricane Disasters in Florida, Mississippi, and Louisianna (Katrina, et al)...

                     - as related to a compelling story from our AMERICAN HISTORY
                                            by Emil T. Miller (Tony) - October 25, 2004

OR, PUT ANOTHER WAY:
"THE ON-GOING EDUCATION of DAVY CROCKETT"

(and Yours Truly!)

                                                     Davy Crockett (1786-1836)
               Frontiersman, War Hero of the Alamo, Congressman from the State of Tennessee

     By now you no doubt know that by contemporary standards, I, Tony Miller, am a rather unconventional individual. One could use several uncomplimentary adjectives to describe me and be reasonably close on some counts. But I have a few good points and here I have an entertaining and true story, one that I offer for your edification and benefit, and I will begin it by stating something which I believe may perk your attention ...and outrage:

            NOT ONE SINGLE PENNY should have been paid out, or ever should be paid out
            of the Federal Treasury for Disaster Relief in Florida, Louisiana's Katrina, OR
            ANYWHERE ELSE!

     Now that some of you are properly outraged and confounded, let me continue by saying that some years ago when I was employed by the Texas State Building Commission in Austin, Texas, one of my responsibilities was to administrate U. S. Public Law 91-88 as it applied to presidential declarations of all National Disasters occurring in the state of Texas - the same as is now being applied in Florida.   Rather than include a lengthy description here, of what all was (is) involved, let me just refer you to a thing on this Website entitled "Tugboat Gumbo", if you feel the interest.   It goes into a little more detail, but the focus is on another subject - a very interesting and entertaining article in itself, if I do say so myself - and with a great recipe to boot.   I hope you will CLICK HERE and read it.

The first of these declared disasters which I covered as the Governor's administrator, was covered as the law specified; not just related to State facilities but to ALL public buildings and facilities of any and every kind and nature in the affected 40+ counties, as the result of a very damaging hurricane ("Celia") - which caused damages into the multiple millions of dollars. Although a Federal law, it was and still is strictly administered and funds disbursed by the State, with oversight by the Federal agency that has now been renamed FEMA.

I jumped in with all four feet in the aftermath of this storm, and proceeded with alacrity to have teams of inspectors verify and secure quantified damage estimates which I then priced out and totaled up myself, securing more than ample Federal funds to repair and/or replace all the affected facilities. Although I was a Conservative back then too, I was not intensively as focused politically as I am now, and so I gave little thought to the validity of this law and the work I was doing, except that I knew that it was the people's tax money nationally, which was being appropriated, and therefore (from my viewpoint at that time), getting all of it I could, back for the people of Texas, was my great goal. And I must say, I was good at it. It was easy to get stuff past the bureaucrats sent out from Washington since they didn't know diddley about major construction or it's cost, but since I had been a Project Superintendent and recently come from some years with a large building construction firm in Houston, Texas, I did.

But through that and the other disasters during the 8 years I was with the State, I had an underlying, uneasy feeling about it all. A feeling that I could not exactly put my finger on. Although I received many complimentary letters for my work from heads of state agencies, county judges, school superintendents, mayors, city managers, and even the Governor's office (all of which greatly puffed up my head), I still didn't feel right, even though I justified it all as being the law of the land -- and anyway it was some of our public tax money being "benevolently" returned, was it not?

Some years later I discovered the basis of my unease, upon reading the following item; "A LESSON IN LIMITED GOVERNMENT", excerpted from the book "The Life of Colonel David Crockett" (1884), compiled by Edward S. Ellis. The famous American frontiersman, war hero, and congressman from Tennessee relates how he learned -- from one of his own backwoods constituents -- the vital importance of heeding the Constitution and the dangers of disregarding its restraints. As you read this story, think of the sad condition of our Social Security system, our huge National Debt, and all the countless unjustified claims upon the Public Treasury along with the untold disbursements from it which are draining away our now exorbitant burden of taxation before it is even paid in! -- and consider too, that the following occurred BEFORE the Income Tax was levied on us without our vote or agreement, and at a time when the public taxes were derived primarily from trade tariffs and the (still) arbitrary government tax on the making and selling of whiskey:
                                                                                                                ...Tony

          (NOTE: Please also read the CONCLUSION in red print at the end of this story)


                                            Davy Crockett - (1786 - 1836)

              A LESSON IN LIMITED GOVERNMENT
                            by a contemporary fellow Congressman of Davy Crockett

    Davy Crockett the Congressman is not as well known as Davy Crockett the frontiersman. Yet Crockett's defense of the Constitution may be as inspiring as his defense of the Alamo. Crockett was then the lion of Washington. I was a great admirer of his character, and, having several friends who were intimate with him, I found no difficulty in making his acquaintance. I was fascinated with him, and he seemed to take a fancy to me.
    I was one day in the lobby of the House of Representatives when 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, rather, as I thought, because it afforded the speakers a fine opportunity for display than from the necessity of convincing anybody, for it seemed to me that everybody favored it. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose. Everybody expected, of course, that he was going to make one of his characteristic speeches in support of the bill. He commenced:

    "Mr. Speaker --- I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a 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 no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon 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 grounds 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 have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. This government can owe no debts but for services rendered, and at a stipulated price. If it is a debt, how much is it? Has it been audited, and the amount due ascertained? If it is a debt, this is not the place to present it for payment, or to have its merits examined. If it is a debt, we owe more than we can ever hope to pay, for we owe the widow of every soldier who fought in the War of 1812 precisely the same amount. There is a woman in my neighborhood, the widow of as gallant a man as ever shouldered a musket. He fell in battle. She is as good in every respect as this lady, and is as poor. She is earning her daily bread by her daily labor; but if I were to introduce a bill to appropriate five or ten thousand dollars for her benefit, I should be laughed at, and my bill would not get five votes in this House. There are thousands of widows in the country just as the one I have spoken of, but we never hear of any of these large debts to them.
    Sir, this is no debt. The government did not owe it to the deceased when he was alive; it could not contract it after he died.   I do not wish to be rude, but I must be plain. Every man in the 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 a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much of our own money 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."

    Crockett 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.

    Like many other young men, and old ones too, for that matter, who had not thought upon the subject, I desired the passage of the bill, and felt outraged at its defeat. I determined that I would persuade my friend Crockett to move a reconsideration the next day.

Previous engagements preventing me from seeing Crockett that night, I went early to his room the next morning and found him engaged in addressing and franking letters, a large pile of which lay upon his table.

I broke in upon him rather abruptly, by asking him what devil had possessed him to make that speech and defeat that bill yesterday. Without turning his head or looking up from his work, he replied;
    "You see that I am very busy now; take a seat and cool yourself. I will be through in a few minutes, and then I will tell you all about it."
    He continued his employment for about ten minutes, and when he had finished he turned to me and said:   "Now, sir, I will answer your question. But thereby hangs a tale, and one of considerable length, to which you will have to listen."

    I listened, and this was the tale which I heard:

    "Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other 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. When we got there, I went to work, and I never worked as hard in my life as I did there for several hours. But, 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 women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them, and everybody else seemed to feel the same way.
    "'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. I said everybody felt as I did. That was not quite so; for, though they perhaps sympathized as deeply with the sufferers as I did, there were a few of the members who did not think we had the right to indulge our sympathy or excite our charity at the expense of anybody but ourselves. They opposed the bill, and upon its passage demanded the yeas and nays. There were not enough of them to sustain the call, but many of us wanted our name to appear in favor of what we considered a praiseworthy measure, and we voted with them to sustain it. So the yeas and nays were recorded, and my name appeared on the journals in favor of the bill.
    "The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the 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, and I thought it was best to let the boys know that I had not forgot them, and that going to Congress had not made me too proud to go to see them.

    "So I put a couple of shirts and a few twists of tobacco into my saddlebags, and put out. I had been out about a week and had found things going very smoothly, 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 to the fence. As he came up I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly, and was about turning his horse for another furrow when I said to him: 'Don't be in such a hurry, my friend; I want to have a little talk with you, and get better acquainted.' He replied;
    "'I am very busy, and have but little time to talk, but if it does not take too long, I will listen to what you have to say.'
    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 sockdolager... I begged him to 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 the 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 in 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 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 positions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.'
    "'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, for I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.'
    "'No, colonel, there's no mistake. Though I live here 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 that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown. Is that true?"
    "'Certainly it is, and I thought that was the last vote which anybody in the world would have found fault with.'
    "'Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?"
    "Here was another sockdolager; for, when I began to think about it, I could not remember a thing in the Constitution that authorized it. I found I must take another tack, so I said:
    "'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 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 to do 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 to one, you have the right to give to 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 county 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 in and 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 credibly; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving, by 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.'"

"There is nothing the Government can give to one person or one group, that has not already been taken from another person or some other group."          ...Just common sense     ...ETM

    "I have given you, " continued Crockett to me, "an imperfect account of what he said. Long before he was through, I was convinced that I had done wrong. He wound up by saying;
    "'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, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawnskin. 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 say that 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 the 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 is 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-by. 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. You must let me shake your hand before I go.'
    "We shook hands and parted. 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 incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in his 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 would 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 a 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 told you Mr. Bunce converted me politically. He came nearer converting me religiously than I had ever been before. He did not make a very good Christian of me, as you know; but he has wrought upon my mind a conviction of the truth of Christianity, and upon my feelings a reference for its purifying and elevating power such as I had never felt 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 there 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 as I have told it to you, 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 of it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.'
    "'He came upon 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 ever 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. I have had several thousand copies of it printed, and was directing them to my constituents when you came in.
    "There is one thing now to 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 $10,000, 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."

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          CONCLUSION: The 'compassionate' but UNCONSTITUTIONAL National Disaster law, illegal to begin with but now on the books nonetheless, is and has been, absolutely out of control for decades. Many Americans now have a "victim" and "entitlement" mindset that demands Federal tax money to be distributed to them for every conceived natural calamity, large and small, real or imagined. Many smaller "Declarations" even go unreported on the news, such as heavy rainstorms, icing, tornadoes, dry spells, and minor flooding. I know, I was required to administrate all of them in Texas for 8 years back in the 1970's, and such is exponentially wider spread now.
          The request is made of the local officials, who then out of fear of being accused of lack of compassion in their next election, go to the Governor and demand both state and Federal relief money, the Governor then in turn and for the same political considerations, acquiesce, calls up the President and emphatically requests a presidential declaration of a National Disaster in his state. The Leftist Media (who have promoted this extension of Socialism all along) jump on this request, raising such a hue and cry that it puts overwhelming pressure on the President, who is under the same political considerations, to declare and make such a declaration public - thereby opening up free money (grants) out of the Public Treasury to be then distributed so as to "compensate" the "victims".   Then immediately thereafter, every storm or disturbance 6 months before and after the main storm, is appended to it, damage estimates are prepared and bloated out of proportion, the Federal agency of oversight looks the other way out of ignorance and apathy (or direction), and HUGE sums of NATIONAL taxpayer money are drained out of the Public Treasury to cover all real and imagined effects of that local disaster - which were once all taken care of by the Spartan but adequate help and compassion of LOCAL individuals, states, churches and civic organizations.
          Need I point out that over the years, Presidents including Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Klinton and Bush, have come to use this illegal largess as an extension of their campaign funds to quite literally buy the votes of the people in the affected state, using the people's National tax money to do it? In fact the practice is now so embedded in the political system that NOT to use it is to almost insure defeat in the next election! But it is STILL unconstitutional!
          In point of fact, in the case of Florida, MILLIONS of wealthy Americans have deliberately CHOSEN to move to Florida, directly into the areas known to be hit by hurricanes year after year, encouraged to do so by this law. Is it right for Americans to support this nationally? When the poorest among us cannot afford to move and live so luxuriantly, yet whose tax dollars are appropriated to support it?? I say NO! Many of these wealthy people and retirees have conveniently left and returned afterwards to have their homes rebuilt by the taxpayers ever bigger and better, time and time again! And this National Disaster Law is but ONE OF MANY such unconstitutional laws which have been passed for political reasons and which have also opened the floodgates of our Public Treasury. In fact THE MAJORITY OF ALL THE LAWS passed since before the turn of last century, amount to total usurpation of the Constitution and/or public funds. This law is one of the most effective tools of the Liberal (Socialist) agenda of their big, invasive, "benevolent" Big-Brother government, because who at this point, in his right political mind, will (or can) kick against it? Davy Crockett could and did, but have we now gotten too fat, sassy, rich, greedy and lecherous? Of course we have! All congressmen swear to go by and to uphold the Constitution, but few actually do it, right OR left. Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas is the only one who comes to mind who truly upholds his sworn oath of office in this way with his every vote, and he is roundly vilified for it by his peers on both sides of the isle.
          I posit as I have many times, in point of fact, that as founded by our Forefathers and as all of us know (or should know), we are a Constitutional Republic, NOT a "Socialist Democracy", and Conservative, patriotic Americans in this country are in an ideological War of Survival with degenerate, godless Liberal SOCIALISTS who are seeking to destroy our Republic by legislating our Constitution out of existence. They now have us miles down this road to ruin. THE 2008 ELECTION WILL SET THE STAGE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE, after which we will see if Americans still have what it takes to preserve our Constitutional Republic. Mark me now!!!

                                                                                 ...©Emil T. Miller (Tony Miller)
                                                                                           (Click here for AUTHOR'S BIO)

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Post Script:   - Allow me one more example of an egregious breach of the Constitution: Nowhere in this hallowed document can either the words OR the idea of "Separation of Church and State" be found. This travesty and usurpation came about THROUGH THE DEMOCRAT-APPOINTED SOCIALIST JUDGES IN THE FEDERAL COURTS in the 1960's when an old letter (NOT the Constitution) from Thomas Jefferson to a friend, containing the word "separation," was dug up and used out of context as the "basis" for taking prayer out of our public schools, thereby "setting a precedent". Liberals have subsequently been allowed by us "patriotic Christian Americans" to virtually enshrine this noxious phrase and Atheist concept into our national discourse, and as a result several generations of Americans have now attended the resulting undisciplined, dangerous, crime ridden, sex promoting, drug infested, Government-run public schools which no longer teach American History, and doesn't allow prayer or the teaching of the 10 Commandments on which all ordered society is and has historically been based - all with the effect of foisting this deep and tragic degeneracy on our culture and American way of life. Graduates of most of these schools can't even read, and have literally been indoctrinated with an ignorant, atheist, Socialist, dependent, "blame America" mindset. It is no wonder the fanatical Islamists feel justified in their War of Terror against us here in America and the world over. As the country boy says; "We got it coming!"

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