An apology to my former students | Beaufort County Now | What I taught in 1965 if now a lie

By:  Delma Blinson

Fifty-six years ago I began my teaching career in a social studies classroom at Garner High School.  I taught a freshman course in Government/Geography and a senior course in Advanced Government, along with a section of U. S. History.  If I say so myself, I was a good teacher, in large measure because I believed in what I was teaching.  I was proud to be an American and wanted every one of my students to understand why.  I admired the Constitution and those who founded our nation.  I taught my students that they were responsible for making sure that our government did the right thing and that any official, elected or appointed, should be held accountable by the voters.  I lied.

I did not lie intentionally because I believed that the voters controlled our government.  But I was wrong.  Not as much then, as how it has turned out.

No longer do I believe our government is a government “of the people, for the people and by the people.”  I now know it is a government of special interests and power greedy politicians, with so few exceptions that the honest people either become corrupt or cannot really change the system.  I donated hard earned money to a couple of candidates I thought were good people who would be different.  I worked hard for a couple of them to help get them elected and re-elected.  Then one of those, after two terms, told a group of us who visited him in Raleigh that “politics is a team sport.”  What he meant was that he had to play ball with the big guys and that this is the way it was.  I have seldom been so disappointed in a human being in my life. 

Again, I emphasize that not all public officials are corrupt.  But it is rare to find one who has been in office for several terms who has not sold his soul for the metaphorical 30 pieces of silver.  Hood Richardson is one of the exceptions.  I have worked closely with Hood over the last few years and have never witnessed him do anything dishonest and put his interests above what he believed was best for those he represented.  Doug Mercer was another, as is Stan Deatherage.  Moreover, I have worked with some very honest school board members over the years.  But there is little money involved in those seats.    There may be others, but my point is simple:  The honest ones are not enough to make our government honest.  It is corrupt to the core.  And there is no real difference between Democrats and Republicans in this regard.  If they stay in Washington or Raleigh long enough they all become corrupt, more or less.  It’s a power thing. 

I apologize to my former students for misleading them.

What we have witnessed in Washington, D. C. this past year perfectly illustrates that our government has gone to the Devil.  It is now an evil Leviathan.

.I do not feel it can be saved.  It must be abolished, and we must begin again with a clean slate and re-create what our Founders intended.  This is true in large measure because we have now seen that elections are not always a true reflection of the voters’ intent.  Without honest elections, nothing else much matters. 

Moreover, the corruption that results from Big Money in politics is incorrigible.  It cannot be fixed because those who must reform the system are getting rich off it.  Special interests buy whatever they want.

Diane Rufino has written a profound treatise that is being published in Beaufort County Now.  Every American should read it, reflect upon its truths and then decide whether they will accept tyranny or fight for liberty.  Go to Beaufort County Now.com and read:  Part I: -A Re-Declaration of Independence - First Installment | Beaufort County Now. 

So, I have been a student of politics and government since 1965.  In those 56 years I have seen so much loss in the values our nation was built upon.  Much of that loss has come from our leaders and their governance turning away from the natural laws of Almighty God.  The dumbing down of academic standards in our schools has extracted a tremendous cost.  The infringement of those traditional values by secular humanism in our colleges and universities has insured that no reform will be quick, no matter what we do.  We have lost several generations and it will take much to correct that.

The mess could be helped with term limits and I would even now consider dividing the United States into five sovereign governments.  Short of that, nullification and interposition would go a long way toward restoring the original federalistic system our Founders intended and in providing a much needed check and balances for the corrupt judicial system.  But those measures are spitting into the wind when you realize the depth of corruption that now exists.

I do believe the fundamental problem and the essential prerequisite for saving our republic is a Great Awakening…a spiritual revival, if you will, that will expel the evil that has consumed our governments and return our nation to its religious roots.

It is not too late.  It is always darkest just before the dawn.  That new day will come, I pray.  It will be led, I predict, not by politicians but by pastors who will gird up their courage to speak the Truth regardless of the consequences and not cease their effort until that dawn cometh.  It will not come from weak pastors who allow the government to illegally shut down their churches.

I want to make this point very clear:  I do not advocate violence, except in self-defense of person or property.  Rather, I subscribe to Dr. Martin Luther King’s commitment to non-violence.  But I would go further than marches.  I believe it is going to take civil disobedience such as Mahatma Gandhi led in India.  Patriotic Americans are going to have to grow a backbone and refuse to toe the government’s line when those mandates are illegal by God’s law.

And once again, because of my guilt, I sincerely apologize to my former students for misleading them.