Bearing Arms for the Cause of Freedom – II
By Jim MacDonald
Where did my history go?
As I stated in last month’s article, Bearing Arms for the Cause of Freedom, Part 1, be prepared for a brutal attack on the 2nd Amendment from the Marxist left. They must have our guns to complete their tyrannical mission, and their methods never change. History proves tactics such as changing word meaning, propaganda, disinformation, division, hatred, jealousy, etc., work.
Our Constitution remains the law of the land. However, the subversion of the language since 1930 by the Supreme Court has jeopardized its original intent. Unfortunately, with history taking a back seat, most Americans are oblivious to the differences.
The question to ask is: why has there been such a solid effort to eliminate God from the public square, diminish the value of the Constitution, and erase or distort history? Answer: because these measures are critical for the accomplishment of the Marxist agenda. Now, knowing these facts, how do we rebuild our nation? By restoring the principles of truth and integrity, they erased from our country.
We must allow God to reign again over the sovereign people of this land. Teach the Constitution like it’s the new currency of our nation. Finally, tell the truth about our founding, both the good and not so great moments.
Situational Awareness
If we re-made America great again, what would that look like?
By Merle Archer
At our last COS Points of Light meeting, the question was posed: What would a great America look like? Of course, for every American, the answer will be different. However, at our local Convention of States meeting, the patriots seemed to know precisely how a great America would look.
First, it would be a nation whose people love and honor our God in heaven—having the freedom and the desire for daily prayer and worship.
Secondly, our great nation would stand for truth. Where what is right is right and what is wrong is wrong—a country where people are held accountable for their actions.
Thirdly, there would be no career politicians. Instead, they would be elected to serve their fellow citizens for a short term and return to their civilian careers.
Finally, the American people would be free to express their opinions, travel around the country without a mask, vaccine, or need to show our papers.
This would make you a true COS Point of Light free-thinking Patriot.
Raising civic-minded children is essential to a great America and vital to us—and it’s our job to protect them. It’s our duty to pass this U.S. Constitution onto our kids and grandchildren to defend their freedom. They deserve a country as good or better than the one we grew up in.
That’s why we’re dedicating our time and money to the Convention of States Project. It’s the ONLY solution big enough to solve the major problems we face in the nation today.
We desire a smaller government with the states maintaining their rightful control. In addition, we want fiscal restraints, term limits, and reduced power and jurisdiction of Congress and all federal officials. 
By Marcy Brooks
What we can learn from the Pilgrims. (Early morning ponderings)
As I woke up this morning, my mind wandered as it frequently does until I landed on a fact. Entitlement started a long time ago. Most people don’t realize that the problems we’re fighting today started years ago when those who envied the benefits of the American Dream wanted the benefits without paying the great price the American Dream entails. Our forefathers knew the cost and were willing to pay it. For years, we called it the Pilgrim work ethic, but unless you know the fullness of that ethic, you can’t understand what we need to do and, more importantly, who we need to be to regain the life we have been given and now lost. Alex de Tocqueville summed it up in one sentence, “America is Great because America is Good; once She stops being Good, She will no longer be Great.” We cannot toss God and His values out and expect Goodness to remain. The absence of God is Hell. Make sense? So, this Thanksgiving, as you gather around the table with loved ones, let’s have an honest discussion about who we have to be and what we have to do to be Great again. After all, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” Have a glorious and FREE Thanksgiving.
A Thanksgiving Message of Hope
By Jim MacDonald
How on earth can we be anything but grateful to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world? God had blessed America with freedom and liberty, which no country had experienced since 1440 B.C. when God gave the Jews the land of milk and honey after being enslaved for four hundred years in Egypt.
Yes, we have squandered the gift given to us by our loving Creator. But God’s amazing glory always shines through His grateful servants who remain faithful.
It’s no secret that Marxism has a stronghold on all the major segments of our land. Including our political leaders, business leaders, educators, the media, and countless misinformed Americans. But bear in mind, we serve a mighty God, and He has not been caught off guard.
Don’t be fooled; we have much work to do to restore this country to the self-governing nation God established for us. Thankfully, God inspired the Founders to modify Article V of the Constitution to allow We the People to seek God’s face and call a convention of states to place the power of our government back into the hands of the people where it belongs.
But here’s the kicker: victory becomes ours after leaping from our knees in prayer, believing God is in control, and us following His plans and meeting His expectation for our life. Complacency must be replaced with an empowered spirit and determination to uplift ourselves and others with positive energy.
You reap what you sow. Therefore, pray hard, dream big, seek the destiny God designed for you, and believe in miracles. Super-charge your attitude with the belief that is contagious and has astonishing power.
This Thanksgiving, let’s recharge our energy banks and begin with courage and strength to radiate our resolve to grow the grassroots organization for self-governance. Let’s get the thirty-four states across the finish line and call a convention of states. Learn the Constitution of the United States and commit to teaching our posterity the history of our remarkable country and the importance of having a thorough understanding of our founding documents.
No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness of the Great Disposer of Events of the destiny of Nations than the people of the United States…And to the same Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are so richly enjoyed in this favored land. —James Madison
For Liberty!
How Well Do You Know Your Constitution?
In 2007, a game show aired called: Are You Smarter than a Fifth-Grader? The program featured adults competing with questions out of school textbooks from first to the fifth-grade level.
I would argue that most adults today wouldn’t match well with the intelligence of a fifth-grader from the early 1800s. American children during our early history were very astute. Their education stemmed from the Bible, the Constitution, history, and even their ancestor’s heritage.
Alexis De Tocqueville visited America from France and traveled the land for six months, then wrote about the phenomenal experience he witnessed in this new country. Throughout the book, he’d compare America to the European experience as each nation grew, changed, and evolved. Here are several quotes from his book: Democracy in America, first published in 1835.
“…the American people will seem to him the most enlightened people on earth.”
“In Connecticut and Massachusetts, it is very rare to find a man who knows all these things imperfectly and whoever is absolutely ignorant of them is in a way a phenomenon.”
Tocqueville compares the plight of other countries’ beginnings as they developed in time. He states that as these countries grew and developed, the people became less educated and ignorant. He asserts:
“The reason for this is simple: the peoples of Europe have left the shadows and barbarism to advance toward civilization and enlightenment. Their progress has been unequal: some have run down this course, others have in a way only walked along it; several have halted and still sleep on the road. It has not been the same in the United States.”
So what made America different?
There are countless reasons that made America different. But for this article, I wanted to point out the educating of our youth as part of the foundation. The children were primarily taught from the Bible and history. They knew who the Founders’ were and the sacrifices they made. They had a strict understanding of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Socrates emphasized questioning as a vital form of learning. Therefore catechism (questions with answers) were used to teach religious truths. In 1828, Arthur J. Stansbury wrote: Elementary Catechism of the Constitution of the United States.
Here is an excerpt from the Preface of the publication states:
“It is written expressly for the use of students, and it has been the aim and effort of the writer to bring down the subject completely to a level with their capacity to understand it. Whether he has succeeded the trial must show. He has purposely avoided all abstruse questions and has confined himself to a simple, common-sense explanation of each article.”
This catechism on our Constitution has 333 questions with their answers, designed for elementary students to understand. In the following several issues of the Volunteer Voice newsletter, I will refer back to this article and challenge you with about five or six questions directly from this stated publication. In addition, I’ll include several easy, moderate, and a few difficult questions to challenge the readers.
In the publication’s conclusion, Stansbury had some powerful parting words for the students that are as appropriate for us as students and adults today as it was for them. He states:
In the first place, consider how happy and how highly favored is our country, in having a system of government so wisely calculated to secure the life, liberty, and happiness of all its citizens. Had you lived or traveled in other parts of the world, you would be much more sensible of this, than you can possibly be without such an opportunity of comparing our lot with that of others. But, as your reading increases, particularly in history and in travels, you will be able to form a more just estimate of what you enjoy. When you read of the oppression which has been, and still is exercised,…but even in the most enlightened countries…; under absolute monarchs, a proud and haughty nobility—a worldly, selfish, and ambitious priesthood—a vast rapacious standing army, and a host of greedy officers of government; and then turn your eyes on your own happy home, a land where none of these evils has any place—where the people first make the laws and then obey them—where they can be oppressed by none, but where every man’s person, property, and privileges are surrounded by the law, and sacred from everything but justice and the public good; how can you be sufficiently grateful to a beneficent Providence, which has thus endowed our country with blessings equally rich and rare?
Arthur J. Stansbury finishes his conclusion with two more powerful paragraphs, which I’ll print in subsequent issues of this newsletter along with the questions. So here are your questions with the answers following, enjoy!
Questions:
6. Q. Is some government necessary in every country?
7. Q. Cannot all the people of a country govern themselves?
27. Q. When and where did the war of the Revolution begin?
28. Q. How long did the struggle continue?
31. Q. What was the change produced by the Revolution?
32. Q. Had not one state any power over the other?
Answers:
6. A. Certainly; without it nobody would be safe; not only our property, but our lives would be in danger.
7. A. If every man was perfectly virtuous and knew what would be best for himself and others, they might. But this is far from being the case; and therefore the people of every country are and must be governed.
27. A. At Lexington and Concord, villages near Boston in Massachusetts, on the 19th of April, 1775.
28. A. More than seven years.
31. A. The different Colonies became each a free STATE, having power to govern itself in any way it should think proper.
32. A. None at all—and the several states might have remained entirely distinct countries, as much as France and Spain.
Tennessee is on the move...
Make no mistake about it; the COS volunteers are on the move. They can no longer sneak under the radar because America’s sights are set on the team making all the noise. From our prayer warriors and telepatriots to district captains and state leadership. Each month there are more and more activities generated from this team.
If you’re reading this newsletter and still sitting on the sideline, join this red-hot team working hard to restore America to its true colors. There is so much work to be done, and we need all the help we can get. We dropped the ball on our watch, and our children and grandchildren deserve a free and fair country to raise their children in as well.
Please have a look at pictures from some of the events that filled the calendar during the month of October, and let’s make November even better.
Knoxville Gun Show
Dickson COS Points of Lights
Gallatin COS Meeting
Upcoming Events
COS Points of Light Meetings in November:
1) Kingsport (new group) November 6th, at Harbinger Christian Church 320 Cherokee St. Ste A Kingsport, TN, 9:30 - 11:30 am Eastern
2) Greeneville (led by Doug Gibson) November 13th at Gondolier Restaurant 3465 E. Andrew Johnson Hwy Greeneville, TN, 11:30 am - 1:30 pm Eastern
3) Johnson City November 13th at Olive Garden 1903 N. Roan 12:30 - 2:30 Eastern
4) Chattanooga Exponential TBA (Watch the Events Channel)
5) Sevierville November 20th at King Family Library 408 High St., 9:30 - 11:30 am.
6) Knoxville November 20th at Office Options 9041 Executive Park Dr. Knoxville, 1:00 - 3:00 pm Eastern
7) Munford TBA (Watch Events Channel)
8 ) Dickson TBA (Watch the Events Channel) For any questions regarding COS Points of Light, contact Marcy Brooks (423) 747-4500
Meeting COS Central Tennessee
Gallatin, TN, Saturday, December 4th at Gallatin Public Library, 123 East Main St. Gallatin, TN, 10:00 am till 12:00 pm. For more information, contact Debbie MacDonald at 614-296-0851
Murfreesboro, TN, Saturday, November 13th at the Technology Engagement Center, 306 Minerva Dr, Murfreesboro, TN, 10:00 am. For more information, contact Linda Lamphear at linda.lamphear@cosaction.com
Save the Date:
Capital Surge Day on January 11th, 2022 – Be sure to put this date on your calendar. Detail will follow.
BattleCry
Join Mark Meckler for the BattleCry every Sunday at 8:00 EST on Facebook
Foundations of Freedom
Join Rick Green Live for the Foundations of Freedom 6 week course starting Monday at 8:00 pm EST.
