Agenda 21 and Common Core Dominates a Meeting With a Congressman's Staff

By Douglas V. Gibbs

On March 13, 2014, I attended the first of what will be a series of meetings with the staff of Congressman Ken Calvert in Corona, California.  There were four of us in attendance, each with our own primary issues, but united in conservatism.  I was the only representative from a city other than Corona in Calvert's district.  Corona is the largest city in the 42nd District, and the central hub of whatever the district has been since Congressman Calvert has been in office over the last twenty years.  My city, Murrieta, is a new addition to his district, and the second largest city in the district.  I spoke with the staff regarding concerns including Murrieta, neighboring Menifee, and the few parts of Temecula that are in the district.

I arrived about fifteen minutes early, and two of the other three from our group were talking on the edge of the walkway at the entrance of the building.  We talked lightly about what we expected, where we wanted to go with this meeting, and our roles in this opportunity.  When the fourth member of our group arrived, we went upstairs to the second floor of the building Calvert's office is in.  We were greeted warmly, offered water, and led to the conference room where our meeting was to be conducted.

JoLyn and Jason were attentive, took notes, and offered interesting insights that helped in clarifying the Congressman's positions on issues.  The highlights of our discussion were as follows:

Don Dix is the head of the Corona Chapter for ACT! for America and the dangers of Political Islam is his primary concern.  We were assured that Congressman Ken Calvert is very involved with the national security aspect of this issue, and added his name to House Resolution 36.  House Resolution 36 establishes a select committee to investigate and report on the attack on the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

An event on 9/11/2014 in Washington D.C. being put on by patriots, many of which are TEA Party affiliated, will be attended by Don Dix, and he invited Congressman Calvert to attend.  I said nothing, but I always cringe when politicians insert themselves into TEA Party functions.  The TEA Party was not created for the politicians, and it must not be used as a tool for their political ambitions. . . especially by republicans struggling with their conservative identity as Ken Calvert has been in the last decade.

Mort Stevenson is a member of the John Birch Society, and the first topic he raised was Agenda 21, or "Sustainable Development."  Through this insidious program instituted by the United Nations, but a treaty never ratified by the United States Senate, local jurisdictions have been implementing policies geared towards the eventual herding of people away from rural areas and into high-density population centers.  The excuse is that human habitation in rural areas threatens the sustainability of the planet, and people should be moved to areas away from wildlife reserves created in order to save the fragile eco-system of the planet.  In reality, the "stack em' and pack 'em" philosophy is a type of societal control.  When humans are clustered in tightly packed hives they are easier to control, and manipulate.  One problem the designers of this philosophy has is that the population is too large to properly contain in this manner, so policies of population control (and  eventually selective population eradication) must also be implemented.

Agenda 21 uses the big hearts of people in relation to environmental issues to achieve its incremental goals.  The State of California has set a goal of how much land should be set aside, and counties and municipalities are expected to abide by the goal by setting aside their portion through a process called "blue lining."  If a piece of property falls within any of the conservation zones, the property cannot be developed further, and only a portion may be used in other cases.  Some properties cannot be developed at all.

In the case of Calvary Chapel Murrieta, the church purchased 118 acres of property in order to build a larger campus than what the fairly large church and its schools already sits on.  The property is located at Whitewood and Clinton Keith, and the church purchased the property in 2003 with the goal of expanding its campus there.  The church planned to use 95 acres of the property for a sanctuary, school, chapel, administrative offices, and so forth.

In 2006, the church was told they could use none of the land, for it was a part of the Western Riverside County Conservation Authority’s (WRCCA) Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan (MSHCP). In 2009, a new analysis of the site led city leaders to say 89 acres could be a significant enough contribution toward the conservation effort, leaving the church 29 acres on which to build.  The land cannot be used, and now, with the conservation tag it has, the land is likely not to be able to be sold to a private buyer.  This makes the land useless to the church, and puts them in a position where they cannot sell it, though they must continue to pay property taxes on it.

The conservation plan being perpetrated against Calvary Chapel has also been used against landowners in an area of Murrieta called "Los Alamos Hills," where some of the property owners have had the property in their family for over 100 years.  These residents are also being told, for conservation reasons, that they cannot use most of their property, which also makes their property unlikely to be able to be sold.

The cities are jumping on board the sustainability agenda because they have bought into the propaganda, and because the federal and state overlords have promised to ease conservation restrictions on development in cities in Riverside County that are willing to set apart areas and corridors for native species to traverse through and survive in. In return for complying with Agenda 21, cities are told there will be less red tape, and therefore lower costs, in relation to getting infrastructure and development projects approved.  Also, by complying with the conservation plan, cities receive additional State and federal money for transportation projects, and benefits from regional transportation projects.

In short, the higher powers are using extortion to ensure the cities participate in this unconstitutional land grab, as well as using strings attached to contracts made with agencies, and private companies and organizations, to coerce the cities into "voluntary" compliance.

Unable to force people out of their land through the federal government, because the constitutional concept of imminent domain requires just compensation, the statists have moved to making property ownership difficult, and ultimately impossible.  Owning land you can do nothing with, while still paying taxes on it, makes being a property owner a losing proposition, as intended.  The abolition of property rights, and doing so through the excuse of "public purpose," by the way, is also a part of the Ten Planks of Communism.

The supporters of sustainable development, and those that have fallen prey to the propaganda, argue that it is good to want to keep the planet sustainable (as if this is really the goal), and that these policies will protect cities like Murrieta from being invaded by 11 million people from coming in and making the Temecula Valley another Los Angeles.  However, the devil is in the details, as they say, and when it comes to implementation, it stomps all over property rights that the government has no business interfering with.

In the case Calvary Chapel Murrieta, the church is still in the midst of a time-consuming lawsuit against the MSHCP, City of Murrieta, and the Riverside Conservation Authority.

Mort also brought into the conversation the issue of Common Core, a centralized standard being implemented one school district at a time.  Though the federal government is behind its implementation, that fact is denied, claiming it is voluntary, and up to each school district on whether to implement it.  46 States have bought into it, though some are now opting out.

JoLyn stated, after listening to a presentation about Common Core in her school district, that she saw good things associated with the plan, including higher standards for math and reading.  As with Agenda 21, the devil is in the details, and this includes the manner in which math and reading are taught.  Classical Literature is also being faded out, as "informational texts" are being added.  Also included in Common Core is revisionist history, which includes massive positive teachings about Islamic barbarity, while falsely negative information about Christian and Jewish influences on history, and a deconstructionist viewpoint on the founding of this nation.  The Constitution is misrepresented, as well.  In one case, I was shown in a Common Core approved text book where it said in an inaccurate, and misleading, description of the 2nd Amendment, "The people have a right to keep and bear arms in a state militia."

As I explained in the meeting, these issues are deceptive by design.  Darkness always presents itself as an angel of light.  Of course, on the surface, the perception is that each of these insidious policies are a good thing.  If the progressives presented their ideas in a manner consistent with what was really intended, they would never win another election.  The idea is to implement their dark policies incrementally, so that the populace does not realize they are being engineered to move in a dark direction.

Those behind Common Core also realize that in America the schools are not supposed to be controlled by the federal government, even though that is the eventual goal of the policy.  So, they are using the back door to implement the program, by appealing to the school districts independently, until they have nearly the entire country on board.  Then, when it is deemed necessary, the centralized standard will be declared a nationwide phenomenon, and the federal government will be asked to step in to administer it.

The goal is the continual dumbing down of America.  If you are uninformed, and taught what to think (rather than how to think), your individualism becomes more controllable.  The idea is to eventually move society in a direction where the people won't think for themselves, but will do, and believe, what is fed to them by the ruling elite.  An example of how Common Core is working to accomplish this is the decision to fade out teaching cursive.  We are being told it is not necessary to teach cursive anymore, because it is not used in society.  Technology has moved us beyond any need for handwriting, because now we use keyboards for everything.  However, the reason for abandoning teaching handwriting is more insidious than that.  Studies have proven that learning cursive assists in the development of the brain, and not teaching cursive hampers that development.  And, of course, a less developed brain will provide the powers that be with a less developed individual that is more willing to be a part of the collective, and less willing to think for one's self.

From Psychology Today:

"Yet scientists are discovering that learning cursive is an important tool for cognitive development, particularly in training the brain to learn “functional specialization,” that is capacity for optimal efficiency. In the case of learning cursive writing, the brain develops functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of brain become co-activated during learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice.

"There is spill-over benefit for thinking skills used in reading and writing. To write legible cursive, fine motor control is needed over the fingers. Students have to pay attention and think about what and how they are doing it. They have to practice. Brain imaging studies show that cursive activates areas of the brain that do not participate in keyboarding."

During the meeting there was also brief conversations about Obamacare, and how the law is destroying small business.  How can we have an economic recovery without the participation of a thriving small business sector?

I added that I was disappointed in Congressman Calvert's activities regarding Obamacare.  A couple years ago, when I had a chance to speak with Calvert, I asked him about Obamacare, and the GOP's strategy regarding stopping it.  He indicated the plan was to defund Obamacare, a power solely held by the House of Representatives.  I told his staffers at this meeting that Calvert's actions contradicted that statement to me, with Calvert's criticisms of Ted Cruz, and voting recently to increase the debt limit.  JoLyn hailed Calvert's participation in the government shutdown, but I saw his role as a "go along to get along" in order to make sure nobody labeled him as a RINO.

Don Dix indicated that one of his frustrations is that the Republican Party has no ground game.  While still getting emails from Obama's Organizing for America, we never get anything from our members of Congress, or the party itself.  They just go to work, and do the bare minimum.  Therefore, we feel the obligation of creating a grassroots ground game, and in return we are criticized, and attacked for it, accused of trying to hijack the GOP, or worse.  Don then brought up what happened in Colorado, where four liberal millionaires used money to flip that State.  He then brought up the book, The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and why Republicans everywhere should care, and stated we can learn from what the Left is doing.

Mort then discussed the book, "How to Kill 11 Million People."  Hitler's policies were similar to the Democrat Party's agenda.  Most people will say, "other than the genocide."  I disagree.  The genocide perpetrated against the unborn, in the terms of numbers, exceeds what the Nazis did.

I discussed my book, "25 Myths of the United States Constitution," offering a copy to the Congressman.  If our representatives acted in accordance with the Constitution, as they pledge an oath to do, the problems would go away, and our budget would be balanced.  But the problem is, the original intent has been forgotten, largely because of statists monkeying with the language, and convincing the American people of myths that are in direct opposition of what was originally intended.

Finally, the discussion wrapped up, with a mention of Representative Calvert being named Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies - which means he has a huge influence on how money gets spent.

We plan to meet again in about a month.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary