I spoke at our TEA Party here in Uvalde, and I told the folks that came that we are not pushing the Democratic platform OR the Republican platform, simply an American platform. I so hope that this movement doesn't fade into oblivion...that people get fired up. Please phone or write your state legislator about the 10th amendment resolution. It is a resolution and has not been passed as a law. Let's encourage our legislators to make it law. I have a SECEDE bumper sticker on my truck (and I am a grandma!). Frankly, the rest of the country could take a lesson from Texas and those few wackos we do have can move to the east coast or wherever all the liberals congregate. By the way, the 10th amendment resolution that Gov. Perry is talking about is HCR 50.

You are so right, yourself, MSD Trinity...except we are not a democracy, we are a republic.

Long ago, when Davy Crockett was in Congress, he voted "yes" on a resolution to spend $10,000 from the public treasury to rebuild a wooden structure in Georgetown which housed the wives, children, and widows of navy sailors. The building had burned to the ground in a fire. As he was riding around his district in Tennessee, trying to garner votes for reelection, he met a farmer who told him that he would not vote for him based on the "yes" vote he had given for the Georgetown incident. The farmer told him that if he could vote $10,000 out of the public treasury today, no matter if the cause were worthwhile, at some point in the future the treasury could be bankrupted on the whim of public officials. I guess we are living to see that day.

America will never be the same again without a return to her moral foundations. Whatever other ills we may describe (and there are many), a return to decency and moral values is the bedrock on which all other reforms need to be built.

Federal Reserve System. Not constitutional. Congress is to assume that burden as per the Constitution. Now granted, we have become a nation with global interests, so some type of central banking system is necessary--however, the Fed is private and has absolutely no oversight whatsoever. Not acceptable!!

I am also in favor of the fair tax. Our current system of taxation is used by politicians to promote class envy. The haves and the have nots. With the fair tax, you are only taxed on what you spend. Of course there are those who may argue that income tax is not constitutional, as the amendment was not ratified. Our country did quite well on excise taxes and other forms of taxation before the income tax. Maybe we should not tax the product of an individual's labor.

I am not in favor of term limits. It prohibits all but the wealthy from serving. I mean, are you really going to quit your job or close your business if you are going to Washington for 2 years and then home again? Term limits are a safety chute for an ill-informed electorate. The remedy is to perhaps require some qualifications for voting in the first place...such as passing a test on the constitution. We used to require that of all immigrants (not sure if we still do). Perhaps we can require the National Education Association to teach our children the fundamentals of the American system of government. I can say that because I am a retired teacher, and I know that there is little to no dialogue in government schools about this. How about citizens becoming politically active and involved? Attend a city council meeting, visit the state legislature, write your representatives about issues, or call their local offices.

Steve, I am in agreement with you. I am really reluctant to advocate term limits. In the first place, an individual who wishes to serve his or her country as a member of congress, must have the ability to leave their business or their position for two or more years and relocate to Washington, D.C. We may eliminate many qualified and honest people because of that choice they must make. You are very right in saying that if we do not like the people who represent us, we must vote them out...we must become politically active and educate fellow citizens on the decent people who run. I think we have a pile of rats in Washington because many of us either sit back and say, "oh well, what can you do?" or we don't bother to inform ourselves about a person's qualifications or ideology. Our voting electorate is ignorant. I believe we should have restrictions on voting. Not by income or by sex, but by knowledge. We require immigrants to pass a constitutional test (or at least we used to). Why can't we do the same for voters?