Republican Women's Voices

—excerpts from talks given at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, August 28-30, 2012

 

 ●Mia Love, Mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah and a Republican candidate for Congress

The American Dream “Mr. President I am here to tell you – we are not buying what you are selling in 2012.  Why?  Because we know that the American dream is not just my story, and it is not just your story, it is our story.  It is a story of human struggle – of standing up and striving for more.  It’s been told for over 200 years with small steps and giant leaps: from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream; from the bravery of the greatest generation to the entrepreneurs of today.  This is our story – this is the America we know because we built it.” 
           

●Kelly Ayotte, Senator from New Hampshire, Live Free or Die - New Hampshire’s motto 
Small Business “Under this Administration, the regulations are up—and the job creation is down.  President Obama’s view is clear: he actually believes that as a family business grows, the federal government should take a larger share of its earnings.  That’s punishment for expanding and creating more jobs.  I call it a “success tax.”

“That’s why Mitt Romney is running for president.  He’ll get the federal government out of the business of small business.  He’ll fight to lower and simplify taxes.  He’ll work to eliminate job-killing red tape.  And he will roll back Obamacare starting on Day One!”

●Nikki Haley, Governor of South Carolina 

Illegal Immigration “South Carolina recently passed one of the most innovative illegal immigration laws in the country.  What did this president—who has failed to secure our borders and address this issue in any meaningful way—do?  He sued us”

Voter ID  “We said in South Carolina that if you have to show a picture ID to buy Sudafed and you have to show a picture ID to set foot on an airplane, then you should have to show a picture ID to protect one of the most valuable, most central, most sacred rights we are blessed with in American—the right to vote.  And what happened?  President Obama stopped us.”

Mitt Romney “This is a man at peace with who he is, with the challenges he faces, and with what he intends to accomplish. This is a man who is not just a candidate looking to win an election, but a leader yearning to return our nation to its greatest potential.”

●Susana Martinez, Governor of New Mexico

Success  “Success, [my parents] taught me is built on the foundation of courage, hard work and individual responsibility.  Despite what some would have us believe, success in not built on resentment and fear.”

“[The promise of America] is success and success is the American dream, and that success is not something to be ashamed of or to demonize.”

I’ll be damned we’re Republicans “I was a Democrat for many years, so were my parents.  Before I ran for district attorney, two Republicans invited my husband and me to lunch, and I knew a party switch was exactly what they wanted.  So, I told Chuck, ‘We’ll be polite, enjoy a free lunch, and then say good-bye.’  But we talked about issues—they never used the words Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal.  We talked about many issues, like welfare, is it the way of life or hand up?  Talked about size of government, how much should it tax families and small businesses?  And when we left that lunch, we got in the car and I looked over at Chuck and said, 'I’ll be damned, we’re Republicans.'"

●Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State now teaching at Stanford University

American Exceptionalism “After all, when the world looks to America, They look to us because we are the most successful political and economic experiment in human history.  That is the true basis of “American Exceptionalism.”  The essence of America—that which really unites us—is not ethnicity or nationality or religion—it is an idea—and what an idea it is:  That you can come from humble circumstances and do great things.  That it doesn’t matter where you came from but where you are going”

Class warfare “Ours has never been a narrative of grievance and entitlement.  We have not believed that I am doing poorly because you are doing well.  We have not been envious of one another and jealous of each other’s success.  Ours has been a belief in opportunity and a constant battle—long and hard—to extend the benefits of the American dream to all—without regard to circumstance of birth.

Danger of failure at home “But the American ideal is indeed endangered today.  There is no country, no not even a rising China, that can do more harm to us than we can do to ourselves if we fail to accomplish the tasks before us here at home.”

Leadership “Yes, America has a way of making the impossible seem inevitable in retrospect.  But of course it has never been inevitable—it has taken leadership, courage and an unwavering faith in our values.  Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have the experience and the integrity and the vision to lead us—they know who we are, what we want to be and what we offer the world.”

●Ann Romney, wife and mother

About Mitt Romney

“You many not agree with Mitt’s positions on issues or his politics.  Massachusetts is only 13% Republican, so it’s not like that’s a shock. But let me say this to every American who is thinking about who should be our next president:  No one will work harder. No one will care more.  No one will move heaven and earth like Mitt Romney to make this country a better place to live!”

“…as his partner on this amazing journey, I can tell you Mitt Romney was not handed success.  He built it.”

“Mitt doesn’t like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as a privilege, not a political talking point.”

“This man will not fail.  This man will not let us down.  This man will lift up America!”

Once in a Blue Moon

No, I’m not talking about the nomination of a Mormon, Mitt Romney, for the President of the United States.  I’m talking about a phenomenon that won’t occur again until July 2015— a Blue Moon.  I have been interested in astronomy and the phases of the moon since I was a little girl growing up in the clear, clean air and blue skies at the end of the prairie in Laramie, Wyoming.  

While perusing Glenn Beck’s theblaze.com —I found an interesting reference to Friday, August 31, 2012.  It seems on this night a second full moon in the same month will fill the sky. Why this particular moon is called “blue” you can find out for yourself on farmersalamac.com by searching for what-is-a-blue-moon.  Hint: it’s not because it’s made of blue cheese.  

And, by coincidence, the funeral for Neil Armstrong, an American hero and the first man to walk on the moon, is on the same day as this "Blue Moon," August 31, 2012. When you are "gazing at the moon" on this night, think of this man, this pioneer astronaut who has been laid to rest under a celestial object on which he has walked. 

Movie Review update--The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Last night (and I mean at 9:30 p.m.) my friend, Letty, and I went to see the "Marigold Hotel" movie again.  And, I must say, "It was better the second time."  I listened closely to the dialog and I think I finally got Sonny's quote right.  He said,

"Everything's alright in the end; and if it's not alright, it's not the end."

I don't know why I have had such a hard time remembering the exact words--and this may still not be the exact quote but--Whatever!!

Why Mitt Romney is Unlikable! (not really)

This post came to me in an email from my son Jay in Houston.

A lot is being said in the media about Mitt Romney not being "likable" or that he doesn't "relate well" to people. Frankly, we struggled to understand why. So after much research, we have come up with a Top Ten List to explain this "unlikability."

Top Ten Reasons To Dislike Mitt Romney:

 

1. Drop-dead, collar-ad handsome with gracious, statesmanlike aura. Looks like every central casting's #1 choice for Commander-in-Chief.

2. Been married to ONE woman his entire life, and has been faithful to her, including through her bouts with breast cancer and MS.

3. No scandals or skeletons in his closet. (How boring is that?)

4. Can't speak in a fake, southern, "black preacher voice" when necessary.

5. Highly intelligent. Graduated cum laude from both Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School (at the same time)...and by the way, his academic records are NOT sealed.

6. Doesn't smoke or drink alcohol, and has never done drugs, not even in the counter-culture age when he went to college. Too square for today's America ?

7. Represents an America of "yesterday”…when  people believed in God, went to Church, didn't screw around, worked hard, and became a SUCCESS!

8. Has a family of five great sons....and none of them have police records or are in drug rehab. (but of course, they were raised by a stay-at-home mom, and that "choice" deserves America 's scorn).

9. Oh yes.....he's a MORMON. We need to be very afraid of that very strange religion that teaches members to be clean-living, patriotic, fiscally conservative, charitable, self-reliant, and honest.

10. And one more point... pundits say because of his wealth, he can't relate to ordinary Americans. I guess that's because he made that money HIMSELF...as opposed to marrying it or inheriting it from Dad. Apparently, he didn't understand that actually working at a job and earning your own money made you unable to relate to Americans.

My goodness, it's a strange world, isn't it?

Book of Mormon Stories--Helaman's Stripling Warriors

Helaman was a prophet, a military commander, a keeper of the sacred records, and the leader of the stripling warriors.  He lived around 90 to 57 B.C. somewhere in the Western Hemisphere.  But, this story begins many, many years earlier in Jerusalem with another prophet named Lehi.

About 600 B.C. the people have become wicked.  Many prophets warned of the destruction of their city if they did not repent.  While praying to the Lord, Lehi has a vision of the destruction of Jerusalem (1 Nephi 1:6-13).  But the people mock him when he testifies of their wickedness and their destruction.  Because they seek to kill him, the Lord appears to Lehi in a dream and commands him to take his family, his wife Sariah, sons Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi and depart into the wilderness, which he does (1 Nephi 2:1-5).  Later they are joined by Zoram, a servant of Laban from whom Nephi took the Plates of Brass (the sacred records) (1 Nephi 4:35), and the family of Ishmael and his household which includes daughters and sons (1 Nephi 7:6).

After eight difficult years in the wilderness, they are led to the seashore and commanded to build a ship (1 Nephi 17:4-6, 8).  During the journey in the ship Laman and Lemuel rebel against Nephi and bind him with cords. By the power of God, Laman and Lemuel repent and unbind Nephi and he guides the ship to the promised land in the Western Hemisphere (1 Nephi 18:21-23).

Some years later the Lamanites (followers of Laman and Lemuel) have become so wicked that they seek to slay Nephi but the Lord warns him and he takes his family, his righteous followers, and all the records of his fathers and flees into the wilderness.  After many days they stop, and in that place they build buildings of fine workmanship and call the land Nephi.  And they began to “prosper exceedingly” (2 Nephi 5:1-17).  However, the Lamanites, because of their iniquity and hardened hearts are cursed by God and become an “idle people, full of mischief and subtlety” (2 Nephi 5:20-25).

At the time of Helaman's warriors (about 74 B.C.), many wars have been fought between the Lamanites and the Nephites.  But Nephite missionaries—Alma and the sons of Mosiah—have gone to preach to the Lamanites.  In seven lands and seven cities among the Lamanites, thousands are converted to the gospel of the soon-to-come Christ.  They become a righteous people; they bury their weapons of war in the ground, and call themselves Anti-Nephi-Lehies (anti, meaning joined with, later called the people of Ammon or Ammonites). 

When the wicked Lamanites come upon them again, these righteous souls, who have made an oath with God not to shed blood in war, prostrate themselves on the ground and begin to “call on the name of the Lord” (Alma 24:21).  One thousand and five of them are killed “and we know they are blessed, for they have gone to dwell with their God” (24:22).  When the warring Lamanites see the slaughter their hearts swell, they stop and throw down their weapons, and repent of their sins.  In this way, more than a thousand of those Lamanites were joined with the righteous and brought to the knowledge of the truth of God (see Alma 24).  And the wicked Lamanites did not attempt to slay the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi again at that time (Alma 25:1).

The Lord commands Ammon (one of the sons of Mosiah) to take the Anti-Nephi-Lehies to safety in the Nephite land of Zarahemla where they are given the land of Jershon.  And the Nephites send their armies to guard them from their enemies.  There they become a zealous and beloved people, a highly favored people of the Lord (Alma 27:22, 30).

Now, ten years later preparations for war with the Lamanites and other “ites” are happening again (Alma 53:4).  And the people of Ammon have kept their oath “that they never would shed blood more” (Alma 53:11).  But because of compassion for the Nephites who protect them, they desire to take up arms in defense of their country. When Helaman perceives their desire he persuades them not to break the oath (covenant) “lest…they should lose their souls” (53:15).  But they have many young sons who have not taken the oath and these two thousand young men make a covenant to fight for the liberty of the Nephites, to protect the land even unto death, and to protect the Nephites and their people from bondage (53:16-18).  And, they want Helaman to be their leader.

These stripling (meaning young) warriors—these men of Ammon—were descendents of Laman, the eldest son of father Lehi (56:3).  They were exceedingly strong, active, courageous and valiant—“they were men who were true at all times in whatsoever thing they were entrusted.  They were men of truth and soberness, for they had been taught the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him” (Alma 53:20-21).  Helaman took his young sons (as he called them) and joined them with the army which had been reduced because so many had been slain.  And Helaman said, “Never had I seen such courage, nay not amongst all the Nephites” (Alma 56:45).  And they said to Helaman, “Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall” (Alma 56:46).  Though these young men had never fought, they did not fear death.  They thought more about the liberty of their fathers than they did their own lives.  “Yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them” (Alma 56:47). 

When Helaman with his two thousand came upon the rear of the Lamanite army and began to slay them, the Lamanites halted and viciously turned on them. This allowed the Nephite army to surround them on the other sides and the Lamanites were defeated and forced to give up their weapons of war.  With fear, Helaman numbered all those of his stripling warriors and, to his great joy, not one soul of them had been lost.  “They had fought as if with the strength of God…and with such mighty power” (Alma 56:52-56).  Later, sixty more of the sons on Ammon joined the two thousand.  They obeyed and performed every word of command with exactness and much faith, and remembered the words their mothers had taught them (Alma 57:21).  And they fought for their cities; nevertheless the Nephites suffered great losses.  Many of the stripling warriors lost much blood and fainted, and all suffered many wounds but not one soul did perish because of their exceeding faith in what they had been taught to believe—“that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power” (Alma 57:25-26). 

After the wars were over, Helaman and his brethren went among the Nephites with power to declare the word of God and to convince the people of their wickedness.  Many repented of their sins and were baptized into the Church.  Now, the people began to prosper again in the land.  In spite of their riches they were not prideful nor slow to remember the Lord their God; “but did humble themselves exceedingly before him” (Alma 62:49).  And Helaman died about the year 57 B.C.— probably in his forties—one of the mighty men of the Book of Mormon.  (See Alma 31 through 62.)

Movie Review--The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Movie Review—The Odd Life of Timothy Green

Shortly after the beginning of the movie, we are taken to a scene in a doctor’s office where Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim Green (Joel Edgerton) are told that even though they have been trying, they might never be able to conceive a child.  Fast forward and we see them seated in front of adoption agency officials telling them the story of their son, 10-year-old Timothy (CJ Adams). They are explaining to a younger man and a middle-aged woman “it may be hard to believe....but”—flash back to the story.

Cindy Green is devastated by the news from the doctor.  At home she goes into her room and weeps.  Jim knocks on the door and together they decide to confront their problem by drinking wine and imagining all the best qualities their son would surely have.  They write down all the things on little pieces of paper and put them in a wooden box.  In a terrible rain storm with lots of thunder and lightning, they bury the box in the garden. 

During the night Jim wakes up and instead of Cindy in the bed, he finds dirt.  Puzzled, he calls the police because he thinks someone has been in the house while they slept.  He refers to the storm the night before, but they tell him there was no storm.  It seems it was only at their house.  Shortly, they find a small boy covered with dirt in the house playing with some things packed in a box. Though surprised, they get him scrubbed up and discover he has leaves growing from the bottom of his legs.

In the morning Cindy's sister, Brenda Best, (Rosemarie DeWitt) shows up at the front door with her family.  Jim and Cindy hurriedly put socks over his legs and calmly introduce Timothy to everyone. The development of the plot involves all the good qualities that they imagined their son would have—though he is different and even odd.  He befriends a girl (Odeya Rush) who is self-conscious because she has a birthmark, he changes Jim’s intimidating father (David Morse), he shows his musical talent by beating a rhythm on a coconut shell, and he frequently throws out his arms with his face to the sun.  And, always the leaves, both on his legs and on the trees are part of the story.

Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Garner are flawless as Timothy’s playful and protecting parents, but CJ Adams (Timothy) carries the story.  The setting is the small town of Stanleyville, somewhere in the Midwest (actually filmed in Albany, Georgia). The main industry is a pencil factory where most of the people work.  The movie has a range of emotional issues such as father/son relationships, sibling rivalry (Cindy and her sister Brenda Best—her name is appropriate), bullying, competition, love and sadness.  Part of the movie is a fantasy (who “finds” a child from the garden?) and part is reality (infertility, difficult people, work problems, etc.).  It is perfect for children and enjoyable and entertaining for adults--maybe not Disney’s best, but still worth seeing.

Book of Mormon Stories--"The Title of Liberty"

There was dissension in the land of the Nephites.  Certain unrighteous Zoramites who were descendents of Zoram, the servant of Laban from whom Nephi had taken the brass plates in Jerusalem, left the church of God and united with the Lamanites to war against the Nephites.  “And now the design [plan] of the Nephites was to support their lands, and their houses, and their wives and their children, that they might preserve them from the hands of their enemies; and also that they might preserve their rights and their privileges, yea, and also their liberty, that they might worship God according to their desires” (Alma 43:9).

The chief captain of the Nephite army was a 25 year-old named Moroni.  He was “a strong and mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery; Yea a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people” (Alma 48:11-12).

And when the Lamanites came against the Nephites to put them in bondage, the Nephites, seeing the fierceness of their anger were about to flee but Moroni rallied them by inspiring their hearts with the thoughts of their lands, their liberty, and their freedom from bondage. Even though the Lamanites were more numerous, they were beaten because of the stratagems of Moroni who had prepared his people for war and led them to victory (Alma 43: 48-50). 

After the wars with the Lamanites were over, “Moroni caused that the work of death should cease again among the people.  And he took the weapons of war from the Lamanites; and after they had entered into a covenant with him of peace they were suffered [allowed] to depart into the wilderness” (Alma 44:20).  Because of the wars more “dissensions and disturbances” among the Nephite people made it necessary “that the word of God” should be declared among them again to once more establish the church in the land.  But some of the people had grown proud because of their riches and refused to “walk uprightly before God” (see Alma 45:21-22, 24).

Now a wicked man named Amalickiah who desired power to be King, by “cunning device” began to lead away some of the lower judges and by flattery won over many in the church who were quick to forget their “deliverance by the hand of the Lord” (Alma 46:4-8). 

When Moroni heard of the dissensions [divisions] among the people, he was angry with Amalickiah.  And he took his coat and tore it apart and wrote on a piece of it—“In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children”—and he fastened it on the end of a pole; and called it the title of liberty. With his helmet on his head and his breastplate fastened to his body, with his armor about his loins, holding his shields “he bowed himself to the earth, and he prayed mightily unto his God for the blessings of liberty to rest upon his brethren, so long as there should a band of Christians remain to possess the land” (Alma 46:11-13).  And, he “poured out his soul to God” (Alma 46:17).  After Moroni prayed, “he went forth among the people, waving the rent [torn] part of his garment in the air, that all might see the writing…saying, Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and enter into a covenant that they will maintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them” (Alma 46:19-20). 

After Moroni proclaimed these words, the people came running girded with their armor, rending [tearing] their garments as a covenant that “they would not forsake the Lord their God” and they cast their garments at the feet of Moroni vowing to be destroyed rather than fall into transgression (Alma 46:21-22).  Those few who continued to follow Amalickiah, who would not enter into the covenant of a free government, were put to death (Alma 46:35).

Then the title of liberty was “hoisted upon every tower” in the land; “and thus Moroni planted the standard of liberty among the Nephites.  And they began to have peace again in the land” (Alma 46:36-37).