Dear friends,
I am launching this year’s annual donation campaign a bit earlier than last year’s. That’s because we have added a new and convenient way for you to donate to the museum just in time for the Holiday shopping season. The program is called AmazonSmile. AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support the Cave Creek Museum every time you shop, at no cost to you. The AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5 percent of the purchase price from your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the Cave Creek Museum. You’ll need to login to smile.amazon.com to shop instead of just Amazon. Be sure to select (or change to) Cave Creek Museum as your charity. Please visit http://smile.amazon.com/about/
ref=smi_ge_ul_lm_raas for more details about the program.
I think you all know how challenging these times are for small non-profits such as the Museum. For our part, we have directed considerable effort to increase our revenue and manage our expenses. For example, we have revamped our membership and business sponsorship programs, introduced online event ticket ordering, helped launch a regional museum partnership and now belong to AmazonSmile.
Here are just a few ways your donation will help us:
• New exhibit acquisition and
maintenance
• Stamp Mill operation and
maintenance
• Technology upgrades and
maintenance
• Event planning
• Operating expenses
I am very proud of the job that the Museum does in fulfilling its mission. And I am equally proud of the additional services we provide such as our educational programs (especially for kids), interesting and fun events (such as the Home Tour) and collaboration with other community organizations (such as Taste of Cave Creek, Wild West Days, Arizona Archaeological Society, Desert Foothills Land Trust, and Desert Foothills Library).
As you can see, we are much more than a Museum. We are an important and valuable community resource. And to those of you who are from out of town, we include you in our community through our monthly newsletter, emails, website and Facebook. I believe we are all united by our shared appreciation for the history of this area and the lifestyle it offers regardless of whether you live here full time or just visit.
In closing, I want to wish you the very best for the upcoming Holidays and ask if you won’t please do your part by including the Museum in your year-end donation plans and shopping at smile.amazon.com.
Thank you for all of your support!
Evelyn Johnson
Executive Director
Dear Zoephia,
I am so thrilled to hear about how amazing you have been with all your creative ideas for Pajama Program! We need you on our staff in NYC – when can you get here??!!
Your mom told us that you wrote a letter and spoke to the manager at Target who was happy about donating. That’s real initiative and motivation on your part! I know you are hoping to collect 300 items and it seems you are on the right track to reach your goal. All your ideas are gems, I bet!
You love to read I hear, so I can imagine that has inspired you to help. I bet you have special pajamas too and love to get into bed with a great book and dream fabulous dreams like I did when I was younger. Actually, my favorite thing to do when I get home from a long day at work is to put my pajamas on right away, grab a new book I just started, and spend a couple of hours in my special chair. My husband always has to remind me to eat or I would get lost in my newest story for hours!
Once in a while in this world we meet – or learn about – a special individual who touches our heart in a special way. Zoephia, you are this individual for me and even though we are separated by miles, I feel your heart is as big as the universe. You are an angel for the children we help and I am sure they can feel your love and comfort just like I can!
Thank you Zoephia, and I wish you Sweet Dreams always.
Genevieve Piturro
Founder, Executive Director
[Editor note: You may remember Miss Zoephia Peyton Decker-Knealing of Scottsdale as a contestant in the National American Miss pageant.]
What history teaches us … except in the schoolroom
The first harvest festival in New England was a dismal failure, because very few Pilgrims bothered to work, but rather were dependent upon others' toil. People were starving.
By the second harvest festival, there was food aplenty, as a result of Governor Bradford's prohibition of what we now know as socialism. Families had been issued their own plots of land to till and develop, and capitalism (free enterprise) was born.
Let us be thankful for the creation of the land of plenty.
J-P A. Maldonado
Email
That lost thought of “Thanks!”
I'm convinced you can never say Thanks enough, because people wanna know they're appreciated – it's in our DNA. Yet it seems that with the busyness of life the thought’s lost its polish, slipping our minds into the abyss.
I think it's a character flaw when someone never says thanks for anything, but there are people like that. For some it's never enough, never will be, that's flawed thought. They don't appreciate anything but self – they are what they are. The best advice I could give would be to pay attention more to the individuals and circumstances that encapsulate your life.
It's been said the first Thanksgiving feast was when the British colonists, we call them Pilgrims, celebrated days of Thanksgiving as part of their religion. But they were really days of prayer, not days of feasting. Our national holiday stems from a feast held in 1621 by the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians to celebrate the colony’s successful harvest.
President Lincoln was the first to proclaim a national day of Thanksgiving during the Civil War, on Thursday, November 26, 1863, that the nation could give thanks for the union. He did it in hope of soothing the national mood which was growing weary of war. He declared Thanksgiving again on November 23, 1864. In 1865, his successor, Andrew Johnson, declared Thanksgiving for December 7, 1865. Johnson was the first to give Government employees the day off, making it a legal holiday. It wasn't until 1941 that Congress passed a bill into law affixing the date of the fourth Thursday in November to be the official holiday.
Before the advent of processed food, or the General store, you had to hunt your meal or raise it. My family always has a garden every year and we have fruit trees, but it's always been a wonder to me how the vine and limb provides.
My wife and I make it a point to pray over every meal we consume, being thankful for something to eat. Next time you're in a restaurant take the time to look around to see who’s praying over their food. I'm sure you'll see it's only a miniscule amount, if any, giving thanks. As a child I knew hunger - I wish that on no one. The nonprofit we run hears the stories, sees the photos, and knows the anguish of those overseas. We’re such a spoiled bunch in America.
It's my contention everyday should be like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving need be day in and day out.
When our kids were still at home we had a tradition of sitting down at the table before eating the big meal on Thanksgiving Day. One by one we would go around the table and have each family member recite what they were thankful for that particular year. Of course the smallest child would give thanks for Barbies or toys. The teens would be thankful for something like Nintendo. My wife and I were usually thankful for work. (Feel free to implement the idea)
As your homework assignment, make a list of that which you’re most thankful for. Begin with pen and paper. In case of emergency, in which you can't think of a thing, grasp pen in hand, wad paper, unfold, and begin once more. If your mind is still blank therapy’s suggested.
Today I'm thankful for: Free speech – the ability to have this platform from which to touch others. I appreciate the newspaper editor who gave me my first shot at writing a column; she saw something in me others didn’t. My personal editor is my wife; I love her but get frustrated with the red ink at times. Lastly, I want you to know how much I appreciate you, the reader, for taking the time out of your busy days to ponder over that which pours from me.
Greg Allen
Founder of Builder of the Spirit
A less educated America
I’ve always understood that America was a Republic, a Nation of Laws, operating under the framework of the U.S. Constitution. When Obama won the first term election, speculation was that our Nation would unravel because of the singular actions of Obama. Unfortunately, for us concerned citizens, it is happening right now. Further, Obama is now officially the Sovereign ruler of his empire – the United States.
I am not a Constitutional scholar, but common sense suggests that the President, in some way crossed the line, and acted without Congressional legislation. Amnesty is a Congressional matter, not an Executive Action. While this action is very troubling, the bigger issue is the education level of those granted amnesty.
The President’s recent Executive Action not to deport five million or more Hispanic origin immigrants acerbates certain societal issues. The lack of education amongst this group is the most pervasive societal factor facing America, and it is not even politician or media discourse.
Based on a Pew study, Educational Attainment by Race and Ethnicity, 2012, Hispanic children are falling behind in educational attainment compared to other ethnic and race groups. Tallying amnesty immigrants into the statistics further accentuates the less educated America premise.
The Hispanic educational attainment percent of the race and ethnic population is a terrible narrative for America. The study reports that the Hispanic population standing of less than 9th grade education is 51%, and high school graduated is 13%. Translated, the numbers show Hispanic youth are less educated than the other race and ethnic groups in the study.
Granting amnesty is an argument that tugs on the heartstrings of many Americans. I get that. However, doing nothing to solve the illegal immigration influx only perpetuates amnesty, and a less educated America.
Enrique Torres
Scottsdale
What makes a strong lobbyist
Because of its power to influence public affairs, the press has long been known as “the Fourth Estate.” But I think the media may have been displaced. These days, it’s lobbyists who seem to carry the most clout in Washington.
Just before they left town this summer, members of the “do-nothing” Congress did get three things done: they passed a Veterans Administration reform package; they increased aid to Israel; and they kept highway construction projects around the country from losing funding. Why did these three measures find success when so many others did not? There’s a two-word answer: Powerful lobbyists.
Last year, some 12,000 active lobbyists spent $3.24 billion on trying to influence the federal government, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. I don’t know of any other country where lobbyists have those kinds of numbers, spend that kind of money, or get the kinds of results they’re able to achieve here – in Congress, in the executive branch and, increasingly, in statehouses around the country.
I don’t mean by this that they’re all-powerful. They don’t win every battle. But they do win most of them.
How do they do this? Good lobbyists don’t just provide large amounts of money for campaigns, they provide early money and expert help. Candidates remember that sort of thing.
Good lobbyists and their organizations also provide information in easily digestible form. They are sophisticated observers of public affairs who know whether, when, and how to approach government policy makers, along with the particular policy maker who can help them best. They understand that at heart, lobbying is about establishing relationships long before any particular issue affecting them comes up, so that when they go to talk about a bill, they’re going in to see a friend.
There are all kinds of approaches to members – the annual policy conferences to which members of Congress flock, the sponsored trips and meetings in out-of-the-way resorts where a lobbyist can get a few days of a member’s undivided attention. But the best lobbyists are also friendly, approachable people who know how to talk to members and policy-makers of both parties.
They are masters at making the system work for them. My guess is that their influence over policy surpasses the media’s clout, and they have now become the fourth branch of government.
Lee Hamilton
Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University
New U.S. Senate
When the newly-elected U.S. Senate takes over in the new year, I anticipate we will finally get a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act, which was introduced in the Senate months ago by Senator Graham. This bill would ban most abortions after 20-weeks due to the baby's ability to feel pain.
The democratically-controlled Senate kept this bill buried but the new GOP-controlled Senate will finally get the vote we pro-lifers wanted! The public will now see which Senators oppose a ban on the torture of the unborn. Just how bad will they look, especially those who called waterboarding terrorists an act of torture? Yes, to those who oppose simulating drownings of alleged terrorists, how can you turn around and oppose the torture and killing of those innocent babies in the womb? So let's keep a close eye on this bill's progress all the way up to President Obama's desk, where this former Nobel Peace Prize winner will get the credit or blame he deserves for his signature or veto!
Sincerely,
Michael Rachiele
Prairie Village, Kansas
Dear patriot,
It’s looking bad on Capitol Hill.
Too many Republicans are still balking at cutting off funding for Executive Amnesty. They claim that it’s too politically dangerous, and that doing so would risk "shutting down the government."
The fact is that Republicans did well this last election because Ted Cruz and his allies stood firm against Obamacare last year.
Now, the Congressional Republicans must stand firm against Executive Amnesty.
Please contribute whatever you can possibly afford to help fund our national grassroots Defund Executive Amnesty Campaign.
If Republicans refuse to fight and Obama’s illegal executive amnesty is allowed to stand, millions and millions of additional illegal aliens will come pouring across our border.
And Barack Obama will welcome them with open arms.
He will then issue more and more Executive Actions until Congress is rendered completely irrelevant.
This battle is not simply about immigration and open borders. It’s about standing up for our Constitution.
And right now, grassroots America needs to force Republicans to get into the fight!
Please make the best gift you can today. We are way, way short of what we need to launch this grassroots offensive and put the pressure on Congress.
We need to remind Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and all the Washington politicians who is really in charge.
"We the People" need to rally like never before to stop this executive amnesty disaster.
We need to swamp Congress with phone calls, emails, and faxes. We need to swarm their district offices. We need to hold protest rallies and media events.
And we need to do it now.
Barack Obama's open borders allies are organized and well-funded. They are pounding Congress right this very minute.
That’s why the politicians seem so willing to simply fund this Executive Amnesty order and then go home for the holidays.
They are terrified of Obama and his organization.
However, what they really need to fear is ordinary people like us.
My wonderful staff has put together an awesome national grassroots campaign.
It will work. IF we can fund it.
Congress isn’t going to do its job unless we make them. So please, stand with me one more time.
We can defeat Executive Amnesty. But we need to get moving.
Thank you in advance for all your help.
For Liberty,
Tea Party Patriots
National Support Team
GOP must use Gruber revelations to dismantle ObamaCare
ForAmerica President David Bozell released the following statement on the opportunity presented to Republicans by ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber's comments on the "stupidity" of American voters:
Dear Friend,
If the new Republican majority funds ObamaCare now, they're banking on the 'stupidity of the American' voter just as much as Mr. Gruber and the Democrats.
Make no mistake: Jonathan Gruber was the Democrats' go-to guy on ObamaCare. The MIT professor 'with impeccable credentials' was trotted out by Democrats many times during ObamaCare's creation. Try as it might, the White House will not be successful in distancing itself from him.
The new GOP majority is constitutionally mandated to be stewards of taxpayer funds, a concept completely lost on Democrats. With Gruber's true thoughts on ObamaCare finally exposed, how could the GOP entertain funding a program that was written in secret, built on a lie, whose passage was dependent upon – by admission of its creator– "the stupidity of the American voter" and which has failed miserably?
GOP leadership should be playing the Gruber clip on a loop inside the walls of the Capitol building and deliver for the American people what the American people have demanded of them: the complete and total dismantling of ObamaCare.
If the new Republican majority funds ObamaCare now, they're banking on the "stupidity of the American" voter just as much as Mr. Gruber and the Democrats.
David Bozell,
President, ForAmerica
P.S. ObamaCare must be repealed!
