December 02, 2018

Faith of the Children

Jack Kemp forwards this:

The Religion of Leftism

From the article:

"Over the last decade, America has moved drastically to the left. Not only are more people on the left than ever before, the left is further left than it's ever been. This radical brand of progressivism has come to be known as "leftismÃ¢€â€an extreme yet increasingly dominant segment of the political spectrum.

At the same time, America has grown more secular. According to Pew, "religious nones"Â are rapidly growing in number. These "nones"Â are most concentrated among millennials: 36% of millennials are religiously unaffiliated. Millennials happen to also be America's most politically progressive generation.

This probably isn't a coincidence, especially since the same trends have occurred in a similar way in other parts of the world, such as Europe. While correlation doesn't prove causation, politics and religion are so closely related that it's hard to believe the simultaneous popularization of extreme leftism and secularism is insignificant.

Read the rest at Townhall

more...

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December 01, 2018

Salena Zito Visits the The Resistance - to GM plant closings

Jack Kemp

She isn't Superman - but you can call her "Clarissa Kent."

The great Salena Zito reports today in the NY Post about how Lordstown, Ohio once fought off a GM plant closing and how the same folks are organizing to do it again now.

Here are the "money quotes:"

Ohio town that stopped GM from leaving once before vows to do it again

By Salena Zito

December 1, 2018

It was 1998 and the General Motors plant had been given a few months to live.

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Then they went to the town and asked locals to prove it. "We got the Chamber of Commerce on board, and we came up with this simple idea that engaged the entire community. It was called â€˜Bring It Home.â€™ We had signs in every business, home, church. People wore blue ribbons. The workers knew the entire valley had their back,â€ said Graham.

In return, union members gave deep concessions and GM brought the Chevrolet Cobalt to Lordstown. "We lived to fight another day,â€ said Graham.

When he retired in 2011, he thought theyâ€™d weathered the storm for good.

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Then, on Monday, GM announced it would end production at four plants in the US â€” the one here in Lordstown, two in Michigan and one in Baltimore, all by next spring. The move comes just less than 10 years after the US government distributed $50.2 billion in bailouts to GM after the 2008 economic crisis, followed by the companyâ€™s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the summer of 2009.

The Treasury Department auditor estimated in 2014 that American taxpayers lost $11.2 billion in the GM deal.

The sprawling 6.2-million-square-foot assembly plant employs more than 1,600 people and has solely manufactured GMâ€™s compact Cruze vehicle since 2010.

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Now, Graham is encouraging new union leadership to put a flyer out reassuring townsfolk that everything is being done to get a new product allocated for Lordstown.

"Now is not the time to panic,â€ said Graham, 71, now a Democratic city council president in Warren. "Just do your job, do it right, do it well like weâ€™ve been doing since 1966, and good things happen. I have all the confidence in the world that General Motors is not gonna let that plant just blow in the wind. I have a gut feeling, just like I did 20 years ago.

END OF QUOTES

Click on the title above, "Ohio Town that stopped GM," to read the whole story.

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Free Space for veterans at WeWork helps entrepreneurship

Jack Kemp

Backpacks for Life has been getting their story out to more sources. Early in November they were in an article at the NY Post. I'll quote some of it but I have to leave out the nice photos of cofounders Bret D'Alessandro and Alexa Modero - and the photos of their new backpacks.

Free space for veterans at WeWork helps entrepreneurship

By Erika Prafder

November 5, 2018

Upon his return from deployment in Afghanistan as a sergeant in the Marines, Brett Dâ€™Alessandro had a tough time re-integrating.

"I went through hell, as a lot of vets do,â€ he says.

With medical help and that of organizations such as the Starlight Military Program, Veteran Racing Team and Operation Rebound, Dâ€™Alessandro recovered, but on the way to an appointment, he spotted a homeless vet.

"I went to my motel and pulled together a backpack filled with hats, gloves and warm clothing layers, and brought it to him,â€ he says.

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Inspired to help, he and his girlfriend, Alexa Modero, created Backpacks for Life, a 501c3 nonprofit organization that collects toiletries and basic supplies in backpacks and distributes them to needy vets with the help of Stand Down events, veteran service organizations, first responders and police officers. They also coach and mentor homeless and at-risk veterans.

Since launching his nonprofit in 2014....the charity has given out 5,500 packs...

Then, in August, they were accepted to the Veterans in Residence program at WeWork. This nationwide effort was launched in 2016 by the global network of workspaces and Bunker Labs, a nonprofit that helps vets and their families start and grow their businesses.

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Since every entrepreneurâ€™s journey is different, "weâ€™re trying to leverage and activate member companies and members to help folks build a product, a team, help with product launches and form strategic partnerships. If youâ€™re a Vet in Residence, your story is our story.â€

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Veterans can apply for the program at WeWork.com.

END OF QUOTE

There is a lot more in this compact article and didn't want to have to type "Section Omitted" or the three periods, but I had to. Readers can, however, click on the large title "Free Space for Veterans" above and read the rest as well as check out the photos.

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Veterans' Help List revisited for Christmas

Jack Kemp

A week or so ago, I was walking on Metropolitan Avenue in Queens, NY, when I passed a gas station which had a small Christmas tree lot set up in a corner it. Their sign said the business was "Veteran Owned."

I often carry a one page list of organizations that help veterans in need and happened to have it on me that day, a list from Backpacks for Life and one that was written about on the Aviary two years ago. You can find it here.

Walking into the Christmas tree lot, where three people were working, I asked to see the veteran owner. He was a middle aged man, solidly built. His name was John When I told him about my writing and showed him the list, he asked a question I often get from veterans: "Can I have this?" "Sure," I replied. John says he visits the Veterans Affairs Dept. (VA) often and wanted to make copies of it.

At that point I told John that I wasn't in the market for a Christmas tree because I am Jewish. John gave me a warm smile. We shook hands and I went on my way.

That Helping Hand list takes about one page to print out on Microsoft Word. If you run into homeless vets on the street where you work or live, I'm sure they'd appeciate a copy for themselves. New York City has some local homeless veterans and also a number who have come from other cities and towns, men and women alike. Much of the information, that there are other organizations than the "VA" that they can call upon for help, is surprising news to many of the ones I've met. The list found here represents years of the young Marine's experience and also some of my own research. Once again, see if you can go ot the link above spread this list around, either in person or by reposting it at a website or local newspaper where you live. It will be a valuable gift this Christmas and Hannukah season for a homeless veteran.

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Meet Sue Dickson, a Hero of American Literacy

Jack Kemp

American Thinker offers this piece about what's wrong with our schools and how to fix them..

December 1, 2018

K-12: Meet Sue Dickson, a Hero of American Literacy

By Bruce Deitrick Price

Sue Dickson is best known as the creator of Sing, Spell, Read, and Write, one of the most popular phonics programs.

Now in her 80s, she is still active as ever, pushing phonics however possible and refining a new approach.

The ups and downs in her career tell us a lot about the sad state of American education. In her college's pre-teacher program, she was taught nothing about phonics. Not only that, but when she started to teach first grade, her superiors constantly emphasized their verdict that phonics is useless and even dangerous.

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In 1986, the Selma (Calif.) Enterprise reported that Sing, Spell, Read, and Write is "an educational phenomenon" for its power at teaching Spanish-speaking students to read.

Arguably, K-12 reading has been a disaster for 85 years, and this short biography tells you why. The school system at every level was opposed to the best way to teach reading. Talk about comically incompetent. All the stuff that the professional educators claim to know was basically less than zero. Memorizing sight-words is a bad way to proceed. Children rarely learn to read fluently; additionally, they are harmed by the whole process...

Her newest venture is called Winning Reading Boost, developed in cooperation with the University of Florida's Lastinger Center, where it was shown to teach both non-readers and troubled readers, even in poverty-area schools, to read fluently in 90 hours!

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Ever since 1931, America had been on a two-tier system. The lucky kids learn to read with phonics. The unlucky kids, the great majority, learn various non-phonetic methods and stay illiterate, to one degree or another. It's a big scam and should be recognized as a preposterous and unnecessary national scandal

END QUOTE

Go to link above to read the whole article.

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Ocasio-Cortez compares her election to first moon landing

Jack Kemp

Ocasio-Cortez is the gift that keeps on giving. She is the non-perv equivalent of Anthony Weiner. Recently Townhall.com reports she made this claim...

Democratic socialist and Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) compared her election victory to historic events in American history like the moon landing and the civil rights movement during a press conference about a "Green New Deal.â€

END OF QUOTE

As Ralph Kramden said on the Honeymoners, "One of these days, Alice, you're going to the moon!" But Alice was a whole lot smarter than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and knew she wasn't going there.

In the 1970s, when I was in Israel, I learned the Hebrew slang term for a delusional person who wasn't centered was to call them an "astronaut." In that sense - and only that sense - is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez an astronaut.