Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Denny & Claire’s Suggestions for Tonight’s Letter-Writing Party

Well, actually, it was last night's letter-writing party. Only 8 of us were present
but we still turned out 50 cards and letters in 90 minutes. Good job, guys!

(And we de don't count the additional 1/2 hour of conversation, coffee, and chocolate chip cookies!)

We present this "action target" list (and, as the next few days go by, a few samples of our work) in hopes that you might consider sending a few notes of your own. For, believe me, we have seen throughout the years that personal letters do make quite a difference.

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1) Thank you notes to Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds for signing a law that will (if allowed by leftist judges) ban most abortions; that is, if a fetal heartbeat is detected.

2) Thank you notes to First Lady Melania Trump for her new initiative “Be Best,” a White House-based effort she will lead to raise awareness of critical issues children now face in America, especially their well-being, social media use, and opioid abuse.

3) Thank you notes to Nebraska Family Alliance: Karen Bowling, Executive Director; Nate Grasz, Policy Director; Hallie Hamilton, Communication Director; Rachel Menter, Administrative Assistant; and Dawn Witt, Bookkeeper.

This year, four NFA-supported bills became law, but those weren’t our only victories. Every NFA-opposed bill was defeated this year!

4) The Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act is likely the only religious freedom bill that the Congress will consider all year. And it’s an important one that seeks to protect faith-based adoption agencies from adverse action by the government.

5) Omaha Congressman Don Bacon was recently criticized by former Democrat Congressman Brad Ashford for Bacon’s earning a 100% rating from the Family Research Council. Imagine that — a noble charitable organization that works for the sanctity of human life, religious freedom in the U.S. and abroad, the protection of Constitutional liberties, the promotion of biblical teachings on marriage and the family, and so on is deemed by Mr. Ashford as a bad thing! What does that tell you about his values?

6) Thank yous to President Trump for his efforts to drain the swamp, to place conservative jurists in America’s courts, and to promote religious liberty and the sanctity of life.

However, letters should also be sent to the President asking him to withdraw the ultra-liberal (and Obama appointee) Chai Feldblum for the Commissioner post of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Ms. Feldblum is on record as believing that religious liberty must give way to postmodern ideas of sexuality. For instance, she has written, “I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win...Sexual liberty should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win because that's the only way that the dignity of gay people can be affirmed in any realistic manner.”

Ms. Feldblum's advocacy has already resulted in numerous outrageous actions taken by the U.S. government. Executive Branch. The President must be reminded that he campaigned on promises of religious liberty and actually has issued an Executive Order to that end, part of which reads, “Faith is deeply embedded into the history of our country, the spirit of our founding and the soul of our nation…[This administration] will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore.” Yet the re-nomination of Ms. Chai Feldblum would profoundly undermine that promise. Mr. President, don’t do it.

7) Political leaders of every stripe need to act in opposing Planned Parenthood. Most expressly, they should be working to defund the nation’s leading abortion business and transferring those tax monies to local health centers that deal in genuine health and well-being and have nothing to do with destroying preborn boys and girls.

8) Thank you to Sarah Huckabee Sanders (White House Press Secretary) and Kellyanne Conway (Counselor to the President) for serving our country in jobs that require great personal sacrifice, courage, a forgiving spirit, and vision. (You might also say thanks to Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, and others.

9) Speaker Paul Ryan has announced he will not seek reelection this November. Therefore, U.S. Senators need to support for a new leader someone who will truly fight for conservative values. Enough of the soft headed and compromising members of the GOP establishment like current frontrunners Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader (R-CA) or Steve Scalise, Majority Whip (R-LA). Let’s get someone instead who is a visionary, a principled leader, and a genuine champion…someone like Jim Jordan (R-OH), a constitutionalist, a man of integrity, and a founder of the House Freedom Caucus, the band of members of Congress dedicated to fighting for liberty.

“If Jordan or someone like him runs, he could also nationalize the race for Speaker. This would encourage voter turnout in the 2018 mid-term elections to elect more conservatives to Congress. Jordan could also lead the conservative argument for Congress to preserve and protect the Republic by launching a ‘Contract to Save America’ campaign. Congress needs to bind themselves to the will of the people for the good of the Republic.

10) Senators should end the Democratic obstruction of judicial nominations…now. “Democrats have been using an existing Senate rule requiring 30 hours of Senate floor debate on most of President Trump's nominees. At the current rate of the Democratic obstruction, confirming the president's nominees will take about 9 years!

Senators should be signing on as co-sponsors and promising to work hard to secure Senate Resolution 355 in order to put an end to the Democratic obstruction.

11) Thank yous to Governor Pete Ricketts, Lt. Gov. Mike Foley, State Senator Dan Watermeier, and others for their recent pro-life efforts here in Nebraska.

12) Letters should be frequently written to diplomats representing countries who are persecuting Christians, asking the leaders of those countries to stop their unjust persecution of believers through property confiscation and other financial pressure, imprisonment, torture, and execution.  Here’s a sample note: “I write today with a simple but urgent request, one that is prompted not only by my studied convictions that Christianity is true and a great blessing to all cultures, but also by those common human ideals which should direct the laws of all nations towards justice, mercy, and wisdom.  My request is that you please stop persecution (of any sort) against Christians and other peaceful men and women of conscience.”