B. Bopp Productions

I'll be performing my FREEDOM program at the Hardin County Fair this afternoon. 2:00 PM in the Youth building. I wonder if they have any food...on a stick....wrapped in bacon? :-)

Lots of fun at the IA State Capital yesterday with NICHE and wonderful homeschooling families!

Thomas Jefferson's views on the Supreme Court? His fear was that the court would act as a "huge weight" bearing down on the rights of the states until they controlled everything.

His thoughts on appointing justices to that court? "Judges are as honest as other men, but not more so." He feared they would become a law unto themselves, since they are not responsive to elective control.

When our government becomes destructive of our "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" he declares it the right and duty of the people to "alter, or abolish it."

Is it time for the people to rise up and attempt to correct the abuses of power in our day? Would the founding fathers approve?

Just a few thoughts about our presidential selection process from the man who set the precedent for presidents, our founding father, George Washington; These are drawn from his first inaugural address.

First - He stressed that we achieved our independence with God's help. "No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

Second - He restated the importance of personal morality. ".. the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality; ....I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which an ardent love for my Country can inspire: since there is no truth more thoroughly established, than that there exists in the economy and course of nature, an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness..."

Finally - He refused compensation over the amount of expenses he occurred while in office. "I must decline as inapplicable to myself, any share in the personal emoluments, which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the Executive Department; and must accordingly pray that the pecuniary estimates for the Station in which I am placed, may, during my continuance in it, be limited to such actual expenditures as the public good may be thought to require."

Citizens and candidates, please be like George Washington.

Mt. Rushmore comes to life again this month!