Do The Right Thing

I have thoroughly enjoyed Mike Huckabee's talk show on Fox News. I just finished reading his book, Do The Right Thing. As you will see from the quotes below he is the "real" thing.

To truly be pro-life means that we should e just as much concerned about the child who is eight years ld and living under a bridge or in the back seat of a car, or the life of an elderly person who is eighty years old, terminally ill, and living in a long-term-care facility. My answer prompted spontaneous applause from his audience. Whether or not they agreed with my position, they at least respected that being pro-life was not limited to being pro-"pre-born." In fact, our passion for human life needs to be as equal and uniform as we perceive the value and worth of each human being to truly be. It is impossible to claim to be pro-life and have one's compassion end at the moment of birth. Truly being pro-life requires that at every stage of a person's life, regardless of the function of that person, there is a respect and protection of that life. pp. 40-41

The most closely watched of these statewide polls is in Ames, a town of about fifty-five thousand right in the middle of the state. It's a nonbinding poll, you don't have to be a republican to vote in it, and only a relative handful of people take part. Besides that, voters have to buy a $35 ticket to a fund-raising dinner for the Iowa Republican Party to get in, and candidates can scoop up as many tickets for their supporters as they want in an effort to influence the outcome. All in all, not the stuff of big time political campaigning. Yet in the eyes of the party leaders, national media, and many of the Republican faithful, the Iowa straw poll is the first test of a candidate's organization and marketability. p.98

Virtually all of the Ivy League colleges and universities (the complete lists includes Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale) were started with a very specific Christian mission.

Of the eight current Ivy League Schools, all except Cornell and Penn (founded by Benjamin Franklin) were founded by ministers, clergymen, or churches and had the express intent of training new ministers. p. 112

Ivy League Schools

Brown University

Founded: 1764

Location: Providence, Rhode Island

Motto: In Deo Speramus

Meaning: "In God We Hope"

Columbia University

Founded: 1754

Location: New York, New York

Motto: In Lumine Tuo Videbimus Lumen

Meaning: "In Thy Light We Shall See the Light"

Cornell University

Founded: 1865

Location: Ithaca, New York

Motto: "I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study"

Dartmouth College

Founded: 1769

Location: Hanover, New Hampshire

Motto: Vox Clamantis in Deserto

Meaning: "A Voice Crying Out in the Wilderness"

Harvard University

Founded: 1636

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Motto: Veritas

Meaning: "Truth"

Princeton University

Founded: 1746

Location: Princeton, New Jersey

Motto: Dei Sub Numine Viget

Meaning: "She Flourishes Under Protection of God"

University of Pennsylvania

Founded: 1751

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Motto: Leges Sine Moribus Vanae

Meaning: "Laws Without Morals Are Useless"

Yale University

Founded: 1701

Location: New Haven, Connecticut

Motto: Lux et Veritas

Meaning: "Light and Truth"

pp. 113-114

On the first day of school in August of 2005, Martha prepared her classroom by taking all the desks out of the room. She told her principal what she was doing and had permission for her most vivid lesson ever. When the students arrived for class that day, they entered an empty room with not a school desk in sight. Naturally they asked, "Ms. Cothren, where are the desks?"

Martha told the first-period class, "You don't get your desk until you can tell me how you earn it."

The students were stunned to think they would have to "earn" a desk and began to venture guesses as to what might earn them one. The ideas ranged from making good grades to behaving in class, but with each guess Martha told them they had not come to the correct answer as to how to earn a desk. The students sat on the floor or stood against the wall for the entire class period. Same for second period. Ditto for third period. By lunch time, the campus at Joe T. Robinson High was buzzing about the teacher who flipped out and wouldn't let the students have desks. Kids called their parents on their cell phones and by the afternoon, all four of the local network affiliate television stations had sent crews to the school to find out what was going on with the teacher who removed the desks from her classroom.

By the last period of the day, no one had yet guessed how to earn a desk. Martha stood at the front of her room and looked out at the confused faces of kids sitting on the floor and standing around the wall.

"OK, no one today has figured out how you can earn your desk, so I will tell you," Martha said, as she then went to the door of her classroom and opened the door and motioned. In walked twenty-seven veterans, all carrying a school desk. They quietly placed the desks neatly in rows, and as they did, Martha told the students something they likely will never forget:

"Kids, you don't have to earn your desks because these guys earned it for you. Every day when you come to class,, you get to sit in these desks for free. You are given books for free, and you don't have to bring money to pay me each day. You have access to a free education, but while it is free to you, it wasn't free to these men or to their friends who didn't come home from wars they fought to give you your freedom. Whenever you sit in that desk, try to remember who earned it for you."

By the time she had finished, there were tears in the eyes of the students and the veterans, and even on the face of one of the TV news photographers who approached Martha afterward and said, "Ma'am, I was in Vietnam, and when I came home, people spit on me and cursed me. I was made to feel shame for what I thought was my proud service to my country. Today is the first day since I've been home that I felt like someone appreciated what I did." pp. 193-194

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