Teachers Saving Children® Inc. - National
Newsletter
Volume 16, Number 3
February 2006
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“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails…”
I had the opportunity to meet with National Education Association (NEA) President Reg Weaver at the NEA Headquarters Building while in Washington D.C. for the January 23rd Annual March for Life. Five other educators also took part in this dialogue.
A total of approximately 40 pro-life NEA members and letter-bearing proxies, visited the NEA Headquarters Building as a result of a fairness issue. In April 2004, NEA, along with the Planned Parenthood Federation, the ACLU, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and other groups, co-sponsored the March for Women's Lives and opened its headquarters' doors to NEA members who were attending the event. Afterwards, pro-life union members objected since NEA had never opened its doors to members participating in the annual March for Life (See Washington Times, April 19, 2004, "Pro-life Teachers Angered by March"). Judy Bruns, a teacher and NEA member from Coldwater OH, formally requested that the same courtesies be extended to members attending the March for Life.
In 2005 with two-week’s notice that Bruns's request had been granted, approximately 15 pro-life educators and their families visited the NEA Building for the hospitality issued to members participating in the 2005 March for Life. This year, during the January 23rd March for Life, that number more than doubled.
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NEA President Reg Weaver |
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NEA President Reg Weaver |
Four days later, Judy Bruns and I attended the NEA Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference in Philadelphia. During President Weaver's keynote address, he emphasized to those in attendance that while NEA is concerned about the "radical right," the "radical right" and the "religious right" were not one and the same. He pointed out the need for each member to be allowed to share their opinions about any issue in which NEA is involved.
It has been a long road to get to open dialogue between conservative NEA members and NEA leadership. Further dialogue is needed, but NEA leadership seems to be more open this year to listening to all members' views and concerns – more than they were before. I want to thank those of you who continue to be involved through your prayers and by serving in various positions as the Lord so leads. The Lord has and is anointing us and our efforts of sharing the truth about the Sanctity of Life. When we exemplify the love of Christ as we persevere in sharing the truth and our concerns, the Lord blesses those efforts. Let us each continue to be on our knees before the Lord seeking the anointing of His love and clear direction in our efforts as we persevere in being a light and testimony in the midst of a very darken world.
The 2006 NEA Mid-Atlantic Conference in Philadelphia started on a promising note when NEA President Reg Weaver, during his keynote speech at the opening dinner, discouraged participants from calling public education opponents the “religious right.” His admonishment followed a discussion, the week before, between Weaver and 6 pro-life NEA members who were at NEA headquarters during the January 23rd March for Life. From that group discussion came the claim that, over the years, NEA has discriminated against its own Christian members who adhere to their Biblical beliefs.
Both Connie Bancroft and I participated in the January 23rd discussion with NEA’s president. Four days later we traveled to Philadelphia to pose questions at the NEA Mid-Atlantic Conference, where Weaver’s words of advice were disregarded at a workshop, less than 24 hours after he said them. We attended various workshops and open hearings—Resolutions, Budget, and Legislative—to learn more about the direction our union was taking its members. While union treasuries, at one level or another, paid most conference participants’ costs, my local lacked the money to send me. Bancroft’s local chose not to financially support her expenses to the 2006 conference since they had supported her in 2005 stating that support was to have been a one-time deal. So we footed our own expenses to the conference.
At the Resolutions Hearings, Connie Bancroft asked about the status of two Resolution amendments that had been proposed at the 2005 NEA Representative Assembly in Los Angeles. The amendment authored by Keith Gudorf (OH) proposed that the words “The Association urges that teachers encourage compassion and respect for all living things” be copied from the Classroom Use of Animals section in the Resolutions document, and placed, also, in the controversial Family Planning section that supports the choice to abort a baby up to birth. Ohioan David Kaiser had proposed that the words “including the right to reproductive freedom” (that lock in abortion) be deleted from the I-12 [now I-13] Family Planning section. In Philadelphia, the chair of the Resolutions Hearings said that the decisions would be forwarded to Miss Bancroft after the February Resolutions Committee meeting. Also at the Mid-Atlantic Resolutions Hearings, I asked if NEA, through its support of “reproductive freedom,” supported adoption services. The chair responded that the NEA takes no position on these things; that it is neutral and it leaves this up to the woman.
During the Budget Hearings on Saturday morning NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelson gave an update on the NEA budget and expenditures. During these hearings I asked several questions, two of which were the following: 1) Because of the words “reproductive freedom” in NEA’s Resolutions document, would NEA or HIN (Health Information Network) consider assisting pro-life pregnancy help centers? and 2) Has NEA put any money into backing NBI 1990-65? That NBI, still in effect, says that NEA will oppose any efforts to erode the status of Roe v. Wade. Those facilitating the hearing stated that responses will be e-mailed to me. At the Legislative Hearings held on Sunday morning I asked several questions, one of which inquired about NEA’s position on the selection of Justice Roberts and Judge Alito. NEA Executive Committee member, Michael Billirakis, said NEA took no position on Roberts, but that they opposed Alito. When asked for what reason, Billirakis said it was because of Alito’s record against education and human and civil rights.
On Saturday, I attended two different workshops. The morning workshop, an international perspective and comparison of education and literacy in different parts of the world, offered analysis and insights as to what seems to work and what doesn’t. NEA brought in several guest educators from Spain. Most participants touted this one as the best workshops offered at the Mid-Atlantic Conference.
In the afternoon I attended the workshop “The Right Wing Attack on Public Schools,” during which the speaker hurled scathing remarks against organizations that oppose forced unionism. She went, one by one, down a compiled list that included names like Walton, DeVos, Heritage Foundation, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Heartland Institute, Landmark Legal Foundation, National Right to Work Defense Fund, and many more. The speaker revealed that she had “spied” with a false name at a national meeting of the State Policy Network. The session ended with Executive Committee member Carolyn Crowder bringing up that Dr. James Dobson, of Focus on the Family, promotes home schooling and that the Southern Baptists are encouraging their members to take their children out of public schools. A gentleman in the audience responded by stating that the “religious right” was definitely a part of the anti-education effort. Anger against people of faith who disagree with NEA’s policies, made another union teacher’s face turn red. President Weaver’s admonishment became remote, and finally lost, in that hour.
Editor’s Note: Judy Bruns is a teacher in the Coldwater Exempted Village School System, Coldwater OH. She has been a delegate to both state and national Representative Assemblies for several years.
Once again we have the opportunity to reach thousands of educators with the pro-life message. The NEA Expo 2006 will be held June 30 – July 2 in Orlando FL prior to the NEA RA. The purpose of the exhibit will be to promote and provide educational classroom materials especially for science and health teachers.
Through your generous and faithful giving, the monies for the exhibit space have been received and the application has been officially processed. Thank you! Additional contributions are still needed for educational materials that will be distributed free to individuals who visit our exhibit. Please consider financially assisting Teachers Saving Children® in sharing the truth about “The Wonder of Life.”
Note: Please make checks payable to “TSC Inc. – National”. Please carefully note how the amount given is to be designated (NEA Exhibit) so that the contribution will be appropriately allocated.
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO “MARCH FOR LIFE” PARTICIPANTS
THE PRESIDENT: Nellie, thank you very much. I appreciate the invitation to speak. I'm calling from Manhattan, Kansas. Sounds like you got some good folks from Kansas there. I want to thank everybody there -- if you're from Kansas, or anywhere else in our country, for your devotion to such a noble cause.
You believe, as I do, that every human life has value, that the strong have a duty to protect the weak, and that the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence apply to everyone, not just to those considered healthy or wanted or convenient. These principles call us to defend the sick and the dying, persons with disabilities and birth defects, all who are weak and vulnerable, especially unborn children.
We're making good progress in defending these principles, Nellie, and you and I are working together, along with others, to build what I've called a culture of life. One of my first acts as the President was to ban the use of taxpayer money on programs that promote abortion overseas. I want to thank you all for getting that ban on partial-birth abortion to my desk, a bill I was proud to sign -- and a law which we are going to defend -- and are defending -- vigorously in our courts. Because we acted, infants who are born despite an attempted abortion are now protected by law. Thanks to "Laci and Conner's Law," prosecutors can now charge those who harm or kill a pregnant woman with harming or killing her unborn child, as well.
We're vigorously promoting parental notification laws, adoption, teen abstinence, crisis pregnancy programs, and the vital work of our faith-based groups. We're sending a clear message to any woman facing a crisis pregnancy: We love you, we love your child, and we're here to help you.
There's more work to be done. The House has passed a bill to ensure that state parental involvement laws are not circumvented by those who take minors across state lines to have abortions. And the United States Senate needs to pass this bill so I can sign it into law.
We also must respect human life and dignity when advancing medical science, and we're making progress here, as well. Last month, I signed a pro-life bill supporting ethical treatment and research using stem cells from umbilical cord blood. I also renew my call for Congress to ban all forms of human cloning. Because human life is a gift from our Creator and should never be used as a means to an end, we will not sanction the creation of life only to destroy it.
By changing laws we can change our culture. And your persistence and prayers, Nellie, and the folks there with you, are making a real difference. We, of course, seek common ground where possible; we're working to persuade more of our fellow Americans of the rightness of our cause. And this is a cause that appeals to the conscience of our citizens, and is rooted in America's deepest principles -- and history tells us that with such a cause, we will prevail.
Again, Nellie, thank you for letting me come to speak to you. Tell everybody there that I ask for God's blessings on them and their families, and, of course, may God continue to bless our grand country.
(Source – The White House, January 23, 2006)
When my children and I heard about the first T-Shirt Day, we wanted to participate. At the time, we could not find a commercial T-shirt we liked. A local T-shirt printer was having a special promotion, so we decided to print our own. Through word of mouth to friends, church youth groups, our Catholic grade school, and a Christian club at our public high school, we managed to obtain 111 advance orders for our shirts. The shirt read “Smile, your mom was pro-life!”
The following year, 2004, a graphic artist agreed to design flyers that would serve as both ads for T-Shirt Day and order blanks for our shirts. We kept our prices close-to-cost, only factoring in the costs for postage, paper, and photocopying. We do not make a profit. We received permission from our pastor to insert the flyers into our parish bulletins, and a Protestant friend promoted the event in her Evangelical church. A student-led pro-life club, which had formed in our public high school, wanted to hand out our flyers in the school and take orders for shirts. A few Christian bookstores and coffeehouses also displayed our flyers and sample shirts. Our 2004 design was “Ten Reasons to Choose Life,” which highlighted the human characteristics at each of ten stages of fetal development. We sold about 300 shirts that year.
In 2005, our parish youth group agreed to send letters to other Catholic youth groups in the area inviting (and challenging) them to wear pro-life shirts, and offering our shirt for sale. Some members of Protestant youth groups, who were also members of Christian clubs at various public schools, sold shirts in their groups. All in all, we sold 574 shirts which were worn in 23 schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools; public, Catholic, and Christian schools; homeschools; and two college campuses. Teachers in at least four public schools also wore our shirts. Our 2005 shirt was a design borrowed with permission from a National Right to Life ad which showed the silhouette of a fetus filled in with multi-colored words representing what he could become (doctor, accountant, etc). The heading read “infinite possibilities.”
Wow! The possibilities of sharing the pro-life message are infinite! So, consider getting involved in 2006. For more information contact American Life League (Rock for Life) at 1-540-659-4171 or www.all.org.
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