/images/pic1family_scroller_6_18_10.jpg"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."      ~Thomas Jefferson

My studies, as a Masters of Divinity Student at Phoenix Seminary, have taught me the value of not only knowing what I believe, but researching why I believe it.  This skill has carried over into the political arena where now, as a candidate, I can no longer rest on simply believing something, I must be able to defend that belief.  This has led me down a journey into the discovery of our founding history.

The history we now teach in our school system is, at best, a pale reflection of our history and at worst, a complete revision.  Our founders had an understanding that freedom from a tyrannical, overbearing government was not only necessary to the happiness of the individual, but the only way  to keep that government in check.  Freedom would keep the government at bay, that is why they limited the size and scope of the Federal Government to twenty distinct roles as lined out in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.  This is a far cry from the monstrosity we see today.

After all of the taxes, except the tea tax had been rescinded, and that tax lowered to such a degree that the colonists would be paying less than ever for tea, one would have thought that to be a victory.  In fact, today's politician would be hailed a hero.  But what the British Parliament understood, as thankfully did the colonists, it was not the amount of the tax, it was the fact that any tax was by default, acknowledging Parliament's right to tax.  Thus, the Boston Tea Party and the rest, as we say, is history.  Today, our politicians have forgotten the most valuable lessons of our founders.  When we are given Federal monies, or matching dollars, for an act that is not within the constitutional authority of the Federal Government, we are by default, acknowledging their right to do so.  By not knowing our own history, our politicians have created, for we the people, a slave environment. This is an environment where many of us work almost six months out of the year in order to fund an overreaching, overbearing, and unconstitutionally authorized in most cases Federal travesty.

I am not speaking of a revolution, but a return.  A return to the country that our founders and generations after them, fought and sacrificed to give us.  Voting for me will be a strong first step in returning our country to its foundational principles.