“Saving Freedom” From The Hands of Big Government

In the aftermath of our country’s largest government bailout, the concept of big government is an evident reality to many Americans.  In his new book, “Saving Freedom,” Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) sends out a “cry for help” by offering advice and a call to action for his fellow Americans to join the fight against big government.

On Wednesday evening, DeMint promoted his book by addressing a crowd at The National Press Club.  Attributing the title of his book to an inspiration from the award-winning film, Saving Private Ryan, the senator emphasized the importance of ensuring that our freedom is maintained.  “It’s key for younger generations to understand where our freedom comes from.”

DeMint claimed that many Senators today are failing to uphold the oath that they affirmed upon taking office, in which they each swore to ”support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” He pointed out that the founding fathers intended the document to limit government, but that intention is being compromised by the government’s “death grip” on healthcare, transportation, energy, and other prominent issues. “You’re delusional if you think we’re following the Constitution,” he said.

The senator also pointed to religion as a driving force for freedom. “Democracy doesn’t work without Judeo-Christian values.” He explained that the values of early America created the principles of freedom that our country is built upon. “We don’t want a government that is trying to purge religion.”

Again making reference to a Hollywood classic, the senator stressed the important role of every American in preserving the freedom of our country.  For the younger audience members, he briefly recounted the plot of It’s A Wonderful Life, in which James Stewart’s character, George Bailey, believes the world would be better off without him.  Then, his guardian angel shows him the negative effects his town would suffer without him in it, and helps him realize that he has indeed touched lives and made a difference in his community. 

 

Similarly, DeMint believes that individual Americans have a responsibility to get involved in the government process.  “We can’t look at the problems in Washington and say ‘someone needs to fix it.’ It starts with the individuals.”

 

The senator recently attempted to put those words into action when he became the first Republican to support S. 604, The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act of 2009.  S. 604 is the companion to H.R. 1207, legislation introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Ron Paul, calling for an audit of the U.S. Federal Reserve.  However, on Monday, Democratic leaders in the Senate blocked DeMint’s proposed amendment to the annual spending bill based on procedural grounds.

 

Despite this bump in the road, he is not backing down from his fight against big government.  He acknowledged that U.S. spending is following an unsustainable course that requires action.  “I do think it’s the eleventh hour….and if we continue to vote with our hearts instead of our brains this November, we’re going to lose our country.”

I'm Back! and "The Last Best Hope"

Well, after three straight semesters of being required to maintain this blog for my political communication courses, I'm finally home free! However, tonight I realized that I actually kind of miss blogging and want to pick it up on my own again. So alas, here I am!  For those of you who are not aware, I'm interning in D.C. this summer, which gives me lots of opportunities to attend events and find some decent content for blog posts. 

This evening, I was very excited to attend Joe Scarborough's book promotion event at the National Press Club!  Joe and his co-host Mika Brzezinski made a stop in the nation's capital today as part of their book tour to promote "The Last Best Hope."  Scarborough and Brzezinski kept the audience entertained with their friendly jests back and forth.  They fielded questions from the audience ranging in topic from gay marriage to whether Joe has ever considered running for president, in response to which he made a witty remark about working his way up the offices of Rotary Club.

At the close of the Q & A, I hopped in a rather long line to get 2 copies of his book autographed. The wait was quite lengthy, but it was totally worth it!  Joe and Mika both took extra time to engage in personal conversations, pose for photograph after photograph, and write personal messages in books.  I found them both to be refreshingly delightful!  They even told me that I have a lovely name (thanks Mom & Dad!). LOL.

As I was waiting at the Metro station following the event, I read a few pages of my freshly autographed book. On page 6, I read the following:

Because of Burke--and the words of Russell Kirk and Ronald Reagan--you'll also discover another area where I believe conservatives can make great gains, and that's the environment. To my friends on the Right I say, "Hear me out. It's the job of conservatives to conserve."

Amen to that!!!  Thank you, Joe!  Finally, a fellow conservative who is willing to take a stand when it comes to the environment!!!  That statement perfectly conveys the point that I've been trying to make to other conservatives for quite some time now.  How can we call ourselves "conservatives" when we don't make an effort to conserve the earth which God left to us to preserve for all of the generations after us?!  What if our ancestors had been as careless toward the environment as so many of us are today?  It's a scary thought!

Obviously, I was completely thrilled when I read Scarborough's take on this issue, and I'm sure there will be plenty more "ahh yes! well said!" moments as I read the rest of the book!

On that note, I'm off to pack for a weekend trip back home! :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

The poli. sci. major who took this pic didn't do the best job with the framing, but we can't all be SMAD majors after all :P

"Brew 4 JMU"?

Last Thursday, I stopped by the Commons to check out an event sponsored by a few of my fellow classmates. These guys chose to advocate an open discussion about bringing alcohol to JMU's campus. While JMU has an ABC license and is allowed to serve adult beverages at catered events, there is no place where students can hang out and enjoy a beer with friends. Apparently, George Mason and several other universities across the country have such on-campus pubs, which prompted my classmates to explore bringing a similar facility to campus. A handout that they provided outlined several reasons why we should consider bringing a bar to campus. These included: providing "revenue for the school during difficult economic times," providing a "much safer and supervised environment for students 21 & older to drink in," possibility of promoting "positive drinking habits," and "strengthening connections between JMU and the local community" by selling beers from local microbreweries. This is certainly a controversial topic, but the guys were out on the Commons, handing out pizza, stickers, and flyers in hopes of engaging others in conversation about the idea. I was there early on, and at the time, while lots of flyers were handed out, few people actually stopped to discuss the matter, but this may have changed as the evening progressed. Personally, I have mixed feelings about the idea of a bar on campus. While it is widely known that college students drink, I am unsure as to whether the line should be crossed between the behaviors we engage in off-campus and those that are promoted/allowed on-campus. "Brew 4 JMU" certainly has the potential to spark arguments from both sides, and the result should prove to be quite interesting.

A Post-Event Analysis of the Healthy Eating Advocacy Project

Now that it's over, it is nice to be able to look back over the course of the semester and see how our final project planning came together and resulted in an actual advocacy event with moderate attendance. If you read over my posts from earlier in the semester, you will notice that my fellow group members and I were initially unsure of the type of event we wanted to promote. Early on, we were leaning toward sponsoring a healthy run/walk for children and families, but soon realized that such an event would require money and more time/effort than we would be able to devote to it in the midst of a semester already filled with lots of papers and projects for other classes. A brainstorming session led us to the idea of hosting an on-campus speaker from the nutrition field who would discuss healthy eating. After further discussion, I suggested hosting a panel of speakers so we could present varying perspectives from experts in different nutrition/health related fields. The other girls liked this idea, so we agreed to move forward with planning for such an event. Each of us contacted possible speakers for the event; I contacted JMU Dining Services, while the other girls contacted professors in the Health Comm. dept, UREC staff, and the Dietetics dept. It turned out that the Health Comm. professors declined our invitation, since they don't really focus on nutrition, which we understood. Then, I received an enthusiastically positive response from Dining Services, who promised not only to provide a speaker for the panel, but also agreed to cater healthy snacks for the event! This was certainly an encouraging response to receive as we were excited to have secured at least one speaker, along with snacks that would provide an incentive for students to come to our event. Then, we heard back from UREC, who recommended a particular grad student who would be able to participate on our panel. Also, our contact in Dietetics referred us to the registered campus dietician from the Health Center. We reserved a room in Harrison for Thursday, April 23rd at 6:30 p.m., since this date and time worked best for those we had asked to speak. We thought 6:30 would be early enough to catch some students who were still on campus, while not affecting typical Thursday night college activities. It turned out that the dietician had to cancel at the last minute due to a funeral, but we replaced her with another person from dining services. So, for our actual event, we had 3 panelists: the marketing director of dining services, the district manager of dining services, and a UREC grad assistant.

All in all, we felt that our event was a success. While the speakers did an excellent job of talking about nutrition, fitness, and eating healthy on campus, it would have been nice to hear a dietician's opinion. Also, during the question and answer session, several questions addressed topics that only a dietician could effectively answer, and the panel speakers noted that fact. The speakers provided lots of informative handouts for students, but the most impressive part of the event was the selection of "light snacks" that Dining Services provided. As you can see from my pictures in the previous post, the catering far exceeded our expectations! The spread consisted of red pepper hummus dip, pita bread, bean dip, couscous salad, fresh veggies, trail mix, and angel food cupcakes. Attendees even got to take home leftovers!

Finally, in hindsight, there are several things that we could have done differently that may have resulted in increased attendance. Near the end of the semester, students tend to be busy with projects and papers, and aren't likely to attend educational type events unless they are required. Holding the event earlier in the semester and attempting to make it a wellness passport event would likely have helped attendance. Also, I realized that we should have created a Facebook event to invite friends and classmates, since it would have provided a subtle reminder for those who may have considered coming but forgot about it. Lastly, most students are eager to get off campus on Thursday evenings, so a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday may have been a better idea. Despite these factors, I still feel that things went very well for our first attempt at putting on such an event. Hopefully those in attendance left with a greater knowledge of how to incorporate healthy choices in their everyday lives.

Pics from tonight's event

Overall, we deemed tonight's event a success!!! Here are some pics so you can see how it turned out. I'll post a write-up within the next week.

Delicious & healthy refreshments courtesy of JMU Dining Services

I know what you're thinking..."how are cupcakes healthy?" They're angel food and made with low-fat ingredients...even health nuts can enjoy tasty treats! :)

Handouts for attendees

Mrs. Angela Ritchie, Marketing Manager of JMU Dining Services

Stephanie Hoshower, Director of JMU Dining Services

Sarah Price, UREC Graduate Assistant

Sarah, Kristen, Alex, and Me...all smiles that our event was successful! :)

Amusing Conversation at Market One

Leave it to me to engage in a healthy-eating related discussion in the drink line of a campus dining facility...but I found this exchange amusing and wanted to share it with you all.

So, I had just gotten my red pepper hummus and veggie wrap (like I do practically every day) from the sandwich shop in Market One and was standing in line at the fountain drink machine. One of the dining services ladies was in line ahead of me. It turned out that we both began filling our cups at the same time, mine with Coke Zero and hers with Mr. Pibb. She looked over at my cup, then back to hers and said "Yeah, I prefer the high fructose corn syrup in my soda, while you're being all healthy with your no-calorie drink." I laughed a bit and then she added, "but at least I'm being somewhat healthy and eating a salad along with it!" She motioned to the prepackaged salad in her hand, and I couldn't resist jumping at the opportunity to take our discussion one step further. "Ah, well that's good...but are you going to put dressing on it?" She responded "Oh yes, but not too much though." To this I replied "Oh ok, but what kind of dressing?" I had a feeling I knew what was coming...and she quickly validated my suspicion. "Oh, I love ranch dressing!" At this response, my health conscious self couldn't resist making a final remark. "Ohh, but ranch is one of the worst ones for you!" I played this off with a slight laugh, as if I was joking, in an attempt to keep from offending her, to which she responded "Oh well, it's not like it matters to me...I'm not on a man hunt or anything!" Priceless response, although it's kind of sad that the only incentive for some people to eat healthy is the idea that they should maintain their weight in order to impress the opposite sex.

While my discussion with the dining services lady in Market One today was quite amusing (to me at least), it provides an example of a typical healthy eating myth that needs to be debunked. While it is true that eating a plain salad, or one with low-calorie/low-fat dressing is indeed healthy, combining it with a sugary soda and high fat dressing completely obliterates its healthiness. Many restaurants have taken advantage of this recent popularity of salads by introducing all types of chicken salads, fiesta taco salads, cobb salads, seafood salads...you name it, and it's probably in a salad! Sure, anything with "salad" in the title automatically sounds healthy, but once they add cheese, croutons, creamy dressing, bacon bits, etc. these salads end up having as many calories and fat grams as a burger!

Now, I'm not saying that you shouldn't order salads...definitely not! Just make sure that you make smart choices when you order (i.e. order a low cal dressing and ask for it on the side, avoid anything crispy, and ask them to go easy with the cheese). Okay, I feel better now that I've debunked that myth for anyone who was unaware of this. Be sure to come out to our Healthy Eating panel discussion tomorrow to hear many more myths "debunked!" (Shameless plug for our advocacy event....you knew it was coming!)

Hope to see you there!

Healthy Lifestyle panel discussion event...finalized details!

It's hard to believe that our Healthy Lifestyle panel discussion is this week! For anyone who is interested in coming (and we hope you will!), our event is this Thursday, April 23rd in Harrison room 1241 from 6:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.! There will be representatives from UREC, Dining Services, and Dietetics engaging in discussion and answering panel questions. As an added incentive to attend, Dining Services has kindly agreed to provide free healthy snacks for all attendees! I realize there are many other things you might rather be doing on a Thursday evening, but our event will be over by 7:30, which leaves plenty of time to go enjoy the typical H-burg Thirsty Thursday nightlife. Our group is really excited to see our event coming together and really want it to be a success! Hope to see you at our event on Thursday, and please bring friends! :)