Report from the 2012 Freedom Rally in Bossier City

The takeaway message from tonight's Freedom Rally at the Bossier Civic Center was all about restoring freedom and prosperity in America.

The event kicked off about 5:30 inside the Bossier Civic Center and the crowd quickly filled two huge meeting rooms.  As host Royal Alexander began his opening remarks, event staff was busy bringing in more chairs to accommodate the crowd which was spilling out into the hallway.

Mr. Alexander quoted Thomas Jefferson in his opening remarks, reminding us all that "A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything that you have."

I was sitting next to Sharon McCullar who is a veteran, a small business owner, and a mother of two Marines; she was one of tonight's speakers.  She estimated the average age of the crowd at about 60, but I think it dropped a bit lower as people filtered in from work.  Steve estimated the crowd to be about 300 but I had it a little higher.  The enthusiasm was infectious.

One of the first speakers was U.S. Senator David Vitter who spoke about the need for a pro-growth tax rate in America to encourage business development.  He stressed the need for Republicans to take back not just the White House but also the Senate so that we can put in targeted health care reform and repeal ObamaCare.  This was met with thunderous applause.

Addressing national security and military budget cuts, Senator Vitter called for an end to "the apology tours" and quoted Reagan who said, "Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because America was too strong."  Senator Vitter says that "peace through strength" is the only way.

Another popular theme, especially here in oil rich, and Haynesville Shale country, Louisiana was Vitter's derision of "speculative green energy companies," many of which go down the tubes; we need to develop our energy resources here at home.

Senator Vitter closed his remarks by stressing that this election is "razor thin."  He said, "I DO believe the polls," rather than the conspiracy theorists who suggest that the polls are misrepresenting the actual numbers.  "Every vote counts," he said, reminding everyone of Florida.

Sharon McCullar has been a popular speaker at these events and she was warmly received.  She spoke of the socialist, entitlement mindset of this administration and encouraged everyone to engage their children in this debate because it is, after all, their future.  McCullar said we are "on the verge of a nuclear holocaust between Israel and Iran...our world in possession of 20,000 nuclear weapons!  We hope and pray humanity will have the restraint not to detonate."

She spoke of the huge debt, the Arab Spring, the Muslim Brotherhood, and of course, Benghazi.  McCullar says "these days, we are living in?  These are the days God ordered for us," because "he knew we would be willing to stand with courage."

She said that God "is not neutral in the affairs of humankind."

McCullar's remarks were filled with humor and optimism as she reached out to everyone there and of every religious persuasion, to believe and to pray for the future of our country.

Here's a segment of her speech on Benghazi and Obama's national security policy which she says, "he's gonna get us all killed!"  And, I apologize for the angle.  Sharon isn't very tall so mostly what you see is the podium.  It's the words, really, that you need to hear.  And the thumbnail is sideways but it doesn't play sideways.  Anyway, just watch it.



One of the highlights of the night was Karen Watson, author of Being Black and Republican in the Age of Obama which you can order here. What a spitfire she is!



When she finished speaking there was a dash to the back of the room to pick up her booklet.  (I got one.)

Royal Alexander said, "She tells it like it is!"  and he's right.

She said, "Do not assume when you see a black person that they are a Democrat because they are not.  Do not assume when you see a Hispanic that they are Democrat.  They are not.  Do not assume when you see a woman that she is pro-abortion because she is not."  I mean, they may be all that, but it was a gentle reminder that maybe the opposition is larger than we know.

In addition to the rousing speakers, there was also great musical entertainment.  Johnny Rowland entertained the crowd between speakers and at one point did a take-off on "Midnight Special" which got these two patriots up on their feet.  It's a blurry picture because they were dancing up a storm in the aisle:

 They were having a great time!

The evening closed with "God Bless America" and a promise of a brighter future for America.

Now is the time.

Fisking Kathleen Parker

I'm still hospital sitting and will bring you up to speed on all that later.  I brought my laptop with me today because it's easier to blog on it than on the iPad (at least for some posts).  Plus I wanted to work on a letter to the Nursing Director of WK to commend an angelic, wonderful nurse we had on seventh floor last week.

Now that that's done, let's take a moment to fisk Kathleen Parker.  It's a good thing I'm sitting in a hospital because I'm sputtering and hyperventilating as I'm reading her column. 

Let's take a look, shall we?  Her thesis seems to be that the Republican convention was too white.  She opens with the mind boggling question: "What if Barack Obama had been a Republican?"  Have I been hospital-bound too long?  Can anyone even fathom that concept?  I can't.  She contends that if he'd been Republican, i.e., if Republicans had a black nominee, then the delegates on the floor would have been black.  And she gets paid the big bucks for this.

To Parker, it's all about race.  She writes:

 Obama was elected not only because of his attractive eloquence but because we are fundamentally a good people who value fairness and equality. Electing Obama was part of our reward to ourselves. It allowed us to feel that we were this good and this big.

Choke, sputter, gag.  "part of our reward to ourselves"?  Is she kidding?   Is this satire?

More:

He was also a tantalizing candidate with a message of hope that felt like honey after eight bitter years of terrorism and war. He courted our better angels and articulated our best instincts. We were going to become a purple, post-racial nation, never again to be divided. Who wouldn’t fall in love with that?

His "message of hope that felt like honey" never came across to me.  His message from day one was of big government and socialist style programs.   Anyone who fell for his "purple, post-racial nation" bullshit was not listening past the scripted prose to examine the real man.

And by the way: Republicans are racist:

Republicans were certain that Obama was all style over substance, but their criticisms quickly were interpreted in some quarters as racial animus. Certainly some who call themselves Republicans also can be called racist. Anyone who spends time on the Internet is aware of the racist content of some political dialogue. It’s out there, and it’s ugly.

Then Parker asks "Where are the blacks?"   Kathleen Parker, meet just some of the blacks in the Republican party:

Let's start with Rev. C. L. Bryant:

Rev. Bryant gave a brilliant speech at FreePAC in July following on the heels of his brilliant documentary Runaway Slave.  Did you see Runaway Slave, Miss Parker?



Meet Mia B. Love.  Did you see her at the RNC convention?  Wonderful speech!



Meet Mason Weaver, author of It's Okay to Leave the Plantation.

 

Meet Marvin D. Rogers, author of Silence Makes the Loudest Sound, a revealing look at the racist history of the Democratic party.

 Marvin appeared in C. L. Bryant's Runaway Slave documentary and was one of the more powerful segments in the film.

Meet Star Parker, author, activist, and founder of CURE.  She speaks out on a regular circut of conservative appearances:



Meet Deneen Borelli, author and activist.  She spoke on Fox and Friends recently about her new book Blacklash.



Meet K. Carl Smith, a Frederick Douglass Republican:



Mrs. Parker, I'm sure you're familiar with Condoleezza Rice, Herman Cain, Allen West, Alveda King, David Webb, and others.

What about Stephen Broden, Sonja, Schmidt, Kevin Daniels, Jesse Lee Peterson, and Erik Rush.  You ever heard of them?

In Kathleen Parker's article, she does note that there are some minorities in the Republican party, she writes:

Appearances matter, and the GOP simply doesn’t look that friendly. Regardless of what is true, when an arena full of white people cheers jabs aimed at the first African American president, it feels wrong. This may not be a conscious recognition, but the subliminal is powerful. It was with a deep, inner sigh of relief that white Republicans heard Romney say that he had wanted Obama to succeed because he wanted America to succeed. Bless the speechwriters. 

I would suggest that Miss Parker and others get past the appearances and quit worrying so much about surface issues.  Nobody boo'd or jabbed Obama at the RNC because he was black.  It's because his policies are failures. It's not "subliminal" racist code.  His policies are failures.  They'd be failures if he was a white man.  It's not about race here.  Get over it

In all her search for racial code and dog whistles, she concludes with this, which I'm not even going to touch:

There they’ll learn that ecosystems thrive and are most productive when there is biodiversity. The same can be said of political parties. An all-white party will not long survive in a diverse environment.
The strongest and fittest are those who adapt, and that species for now goes by the name Democrat.

Take a look around you, Miss Parker.  The black conservatives are rising.