The Story of the Creek Family Saga Series

  

The Story of the Creek Indian Family Saga Series

Now republished with different names

ONE STEP AWAY FROM FOREVER. BOOK ONE IN THE CREEK FAMILY SAGA

"One Step Away from Forever" is a lush plunge into a forgotten corner of American history—the brutal Indian wars at the beginning of the eighteenth century," says Janis Owens, author of My Brother Michael. "Star crossed lovers share the page with the larger than life figures of history, creating a vivid, detailed story that reflects the passion and brutality of the day and gives insight to the nation we have become."

Cade Kincaid and Lyssa Rendel meet as children traveling with a pack train into Creek country—both are of mixed blood. Ten years later Lyssa manipulates a wedding based on a childhood promise. The two must then survive the Fort Mims massacre and ensuing Creek War to reunite.

Savannah Jack, the cruelest and most frightening of all the villains of the age, captures Lyssa, Pushmataha’s adopted daughter. Lyssa valiantly draws Savannah Jack from the glade where children she has rescued and nursed back to health are secluded after the murderous Red Stick attack and vicious depredations were committed on the nearly 500 inhabitants of a one-acre stockade built around the once-gracious plantation home of Samuel Mims.

Cade knows Savannah Jack well. He was himself captured by this bloodthirsty Creek years ago when he was associated with William Augustus Bowles who sought to set himself up as the emperor of the Creek nation upon the death of Alexander McGillivray.

The compelling stories of individuals caught up in the seismic forces of conflicting cultures conveys a human drama of war weaving a tale the theme of which is as applicable today as it was 200 years ago when this pivotal event occurred August 30, 1813. The voices of these forgotten people cry out to have their lives remembered.

"One Step Away from Forever" is an astonishing accomplishment, a debut novel of historical importance that is not only a riveting page-turner but also beautifully written. Keep your eye on Sharman Ramsey, an exciting new voice in Southern fiction. —Cassandra King, author of The Same Sweet Girls

FIND ME IF YOU CAN. BOOK 2 IN THE CREEK FAMILY SAGA

Creek half-blood and survivor of the Creek Indian War, Joie Kincaid and the nemesis she rescued from certain death after the Massacre at Fort Mims are kidnapped from a tea room in London. Joie awakens with amnesia—after having been struck on the head—to find herself in the hold of a ship sailing to the pirate Gasparilla’s lair in Charlotte Harbour and bound to a man she finds strangely familiar.

To save himself and Joie, the preeminent scholar Godfrey Lewis Winkel is forced to take heroic action. As a story of passion unfolds between the two, Joie Kincaid must overcome a childhood of abuse and rejection to accept love she had never known. Together they weather the tempests of pirates, illness, the Seminole War, family vendetta, and a hurricane to find their way to each other and a love neither could have imagined.

Interwoven in this action-packed adventure is the long-forgotten tale of hope and betrayal at the Negro Fort, the plight of the Red Sticks after Horseshoe Bend, the greed of a pirate longing for a legacy, Andrew Jackson’s single-minded vision of a nation’s manifest destiny, and the British officers who seek to redeem a promise and forge an empire.

FIND ME IF YOU CAN continues the CREEK FAMILY SAGA  begun in ONE STEP AWAY FROM FOREVER, a story of love, war, and redemption set against the Creek Indian War.

THE CHASE IS ON. BOOK 3 IN THE CREEK FAMILY SAGA

With the introduction of the orphans rescued at Fort Mims in my novel, ONE STEP AWAY FROM FOREVER, I set out to craft a story for each of them. Inspired by the events at Angola, I realized that Andro’s story must also involve Angola. 

Discovering a twin who had been raised in slavery brought the poignancy of a family ripped apart to combine with the raid on Angola by the Coweta Indians. Add to that the horror of any mother to have a child ripped from one’s arms and you have a human tragedy that could not help but touch any heart.

The pirate, Gasparilla, they say is legend. If that is true, why is there a Gasparilla Island, a Captiva Island, a Sanibel Island? So, Gaspar finds a place in this novel and in my imagination. Black Caesar is mentioned as an authentic participant in Haiti and pirate in the Gulf of Mexico. Creatures in the Okefenokee Swamp. So the legends say.

The twins, Andro and Cato, separated at the Massacre at Fort Mims, surmount a separation that includes both class and distance to reunite with their mother. The raid sanctioned by Andrew Jackson on the Red Sticks and Seminoles that remained in Florida and to bring escaped slaves back to their owners. Slave traders and adventurers challenged the boys and Sabrina Stapleton with whom Cato was captured but they had the help of their Seminole friends to make it to Angola before it was destroyed.

 

The Creek Family Saga began with my discovery that my fourth great grandmother was Native American. Vashti Vann married Benjamin Jernigan. Jernigan just happened to be a friend of Andrew Jackson's. 

History of Conecuh: p. 50

"Fort Crawford, now in Escambia county, was one of the points earliest settled in Conecuh . It derived its name from an officer in Jackson's command. Benjamin Jernagan seems to have been the first to pitch his tent in this region. He settled within two and a half miles of where Fort Crawford subsequently stood, and on the west side of Burnt Corn Creek, within three-quarters of a mile of the present site of Brewton. This was in the latter part of 1816, or early 1817. Not more than two or three settlements had been made in the county at that time. Soon after Mr. Jernigan came here, he was jointed by James Thomson, Benjamin Brewton, R.J. Cook, Lofton and Loddy Cotten. At this time the fort was occupied by the Seventh Georgia Regiment . General Jackson was in the habit of visiting the home of Benjamin Jernigan--father of the venerable William Jernigan, now a resident of Pollard . Mr. Jernigan had removed with his family from Burnt Corn Springs for the purpose of herding cattle for Jackson's army. From the direction of Pensacola, Jackson sent the Jernigan family supplies by the Conecuh River, and many were the annoyances to which the boatmen were subjected by the Indians firing upon them from the thickets along the banks. The army quartered at this point received their supplies from Montgomery Hill, on the Alabama river. They were hauled in wagons across the Escambias to Fort Crawford, where for a time all the citizens of this section went to procure bred. The erection of the fort was commenced in 1817. Prior to this time only temporary earthworks had been thrown up. No Indian settlements were then near; but now and then prowling bands would pass through the country, ostensibly on hunting excursions. They usually encamped about the heads of streams,and built temporary shelters of pine and cypress bark. Sometimes they would linger at such points a week together, and then pass onward. In the winter of 1817, tracts of swampland were cleared of the trees and rank cane, which were burned in the following spring, and the soil planted in corn. Though unprotected by fences, these cleared spots yielded immense crops. The following year an effort was made to fence with the tall cane, but failed.

I wondered what life was like with my ancestor being the niece of Chief James Vann of the Cherokee, and the granddaughter of the Squirrel King of the Chickasaw, written of  in Edward Cashin's book, Guardians of the Valley. They moved into Creek country right after the Creek Indian War. What was life like for my ancestors who would have been considered half-breed? I needed to know how Native Americans lived in that area of the country--west Alabama near the Florida Border. In the process I read a book about an authentic family who straddled both worlds--FIVE DOLLARS A SCALP. Having done my research with no telling now many history books I gathered, it was time to turn this knowledge into historical fiction, a genre I had always loved, and make this era come alive for others. This is a Time Forgotten and a story discarded or what Paul Harvey would call "the rest of the story."

I wrote my first novel and friend and publicist, Kathie Bennett of Magic Time, said, "You can write." Who doesn't want to hear that? You write something and someone who knows something about writing gives you a bit of validation. But when I went to sell the books originally published as "Swimming with Serpents" and "In Pursuit," they did not sell. Why? 

Kathie said I wound up being a history teacher rather than "telling a story" as my friend, Cassandra King told me her husband, Pat Conroy, told her was the secret to a successful book. 

Time passed. My husband, an attorney, a "just the facts ma'am" kind of guy who never read my books, passed away. I took another look at my books and decided the bookseller in Pawley's Island was right when he said, "A female potential purchaser will pick up the book, see the snake on the cover, and put it quickly back on the shelf. The cover did not tell the story. 

More time passed and I decided to open an ETSY store just because I saw them on YouTube, my newest sedentary activity (two hip replacements and one knee replacement--another knee coming soon) and thought, you know, that might be fun. So I opened one and discovered CANVA and AI (Artificial Intelligence) and designed my own cover. I had to buy the books that university press had in their warehouse, but I got my rights back on my novels. Having already published the third in the series through CREATESPACE (KDP with Amazon) I had experience. 

Those books are now available on Amazon. 

But, in the process, I became the owner of around 300 (Swimming with Serpents) and 200 (In Pursuit). What to do with them? I graduated from Dothan High School and feel a loyalty to my schools. I also understand that there are students who actually have no books. Perhaps my alma mater might accept a gift to the students at Dothan High School-to maybe inspire? maybe inform?

Fictional characters interact with true historical people in true historical situations. Seldom told and as with The Chase Is On--hidden. Perhaps it is too painful. A Black History Story that needs to come out of the shadows. 

Also, the books may be considered PG (parental guidance, in some instances).  I have republished them as Teen and Young Adult. Having discussed this with a retired teacher of mine whose opinion I respect, Paulette Clardy, she thinks they are entirely appropriate and great history! Also, my own thirteen year old Granddaughter is taken with the story and her friends want to get the book as soon as possible. They will, of course, get the two books as soon as I can get them to them. 

Now, look at the covers. Which one tells a story? Lessons learned. 

Surviving The Flu

 

Surviving the Flu

I have just survived a bout with the flu. No special name other than debilitating. For days I eliminated fluids fast and furious (diarrhea and vomiting) and could not drink or eat. My bed was my refuge. 

I used my heating pad to help with the back pain. I discovered that my dogs large pee pads made the perfect sheet cover so I did not have to constantly change sheets. My oldest daughter who lives with me who also got sick recommended that I order a heated mattress pad cover and so I did, but it did not arrive until I was nearly well. 

However, upon recovery I did discover several things that I could eat and I want to share then with you. 

Through Walmart delivery, I ordered deli potato salad with mustard. Nibbling on the potatoes with that tangy bit of mustard taste, along with sips of ginger ale, helped give me strength to survive that miserable illness.  

When I got stronger and less inclined to faint from dehydration, I was ready to cook something. 

______________________

I have always enjoyed chicken and rice together.  But I have never done this:

1 gallon water 

3 cups of rice

1/2 Walmart delivered roasted chicken 

4 chicken boullion cubes

1/2 stick of butter

salt and pepper

Add rice to boiling water with butter and salt. Boil the rice in the water. Drop in bouillon cubes. Add chopped up chicken and continue to simmer. Add more water if the rice gets too dry. I do not cook anything precisely. You may like rice firmer than I do. But this makes a tasty come back to solid food. This makes a pretty good batch. Remember my daughter was sick as well. She really liked this!

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Don't forget adding fluids. When I made my Walmart order I ordered LOTS OF FLUIDS! For some reason apple juice and ginger ale hit the spot the best. Ginger has always been an herbal remedy for stomach issues. When I first got sick, I drank a Coke. It did not settle my stomach like it always had before. It led the way with initiating the vomiting. A day or two later, Ginger Ale really worked! I also ordered Gator Ade but I have never been able to keep Gator Ade down. However, my daughter, who soon came down with the flu as well, finds that to be the best remedy. It is what my sister, the cardiologist,  recommends as she goes into the litany of replacement stuff. 

The next recipe is so simple but delicious if you like mashed potatoes and English peas. When you make your delivery order to Walmart for the roasted chicken from the deli, also order some Bob Evans mashed potatoes and a couple of small cans of LeSeur English peas. 

You will need:

one bowl full of Bob Evans mashed potatoes

1 small can of LeSeur English peas

1/4 stick of butter 

salt and pepper

Pour the English peas on top of the mashed potatoes. Cut up the butter around the bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put in Microwave for 1 minute. Then stir. Put it back in microwave for 1 minute more. Stir once more. Then eat. Not all at once. But I find that delicious!

_______________________

Of course, everyone recommends Tylenol for fever and Phenergan suppositories, etc., but when one is nauseous and afflicted with diarrhea, keeping those in long enough to do any good is nearly impossible. 

I am told the flu in its many varieties is everywhere. It is survivable. 

A Tragedy of Modern Medicine

I want to share with you a tragedy of modern medicine. Yesterday Cecily and I attended the funeral of the 43 year old daughter of two of Joe's and my oldest friends, Robert and Judy Grimes. Kristi, a truly beautiful and loving special education teacher, died of ovarian cancer. 

Remember Gilda Radner? She also died of ovarian cancer in 1989.

Kristi, one with a high tolerance for pain, went to the doctor with pain in the abdomen. The doctor gave her antibiotics and told her to take tylenol for pain. An ultrasound or CAT scan at that time could have identified the real cause for the pain and perhaps saved her life. By the time they decided to find out the real cause for her pain, the tumor had grown huge. The surgeon burst the tumor while removing it and the cancer spread throughout her body. No chemotherapy worked because the cancer was the aggressive type and whatever chemo was administered slid off the cell. The pain was excruciating. No medications could stem the pain and yet she had a smile for everyone. Robert and Judy are skin and bones from their own very real pain and the constant care they gave their precious daughter. Finally Kristi asked to be taken to the hospital and its hospice care. There she queried all who came in to care for her if they knew the Lord and Savior she served so well all her brief life and soon would see face to face.

On our drive to Elba yesterday we drove through torrential rain and I was reminded of the song "Tears in Heaven."

Time can bring you down

Time can bend your knees

Time can break your heart

Have you begging please

Begging please

Beyond the door

There's peace, I'm sure

And I know there'll be no more

Tears in heaven

Judy told me Kristi awoke once to find her doctor there and said "I did not want to wake up here." So the words of this song I sang yesterday are truly meaningful.

My chains are gone

I've been set free

My God, my Savior has ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending love, Amazing grace

The Earth shall soon dissolve like snow

The sun forbear to shine

But God, Who called me here below

Will be forever mine

Will be forever mine

You are forever mine

The point of this post is to remind all my female friends of the necessity of taking charge of your health. My mother at 53 had a hysterectomy where they found a fibroid tumor that had become a sarcoma, a very aggressive cancer. It was "well encapsulated" meaning it did not burst. She lived to be 89. When I was 46, a fibroid tumor caused me to have excessive bleeding caused by a huge fibroid tumor. I had an emergency hysterectomy and told them to take ovaries and uterus. I did not want to take the chance that I would meet Gilda Radner's fate. When Cecily, my oldest daughter, was just a bit younger than Kristi she had a cancer scare and the doctors in PC wanted to do her surgery in two phases after bursting the tumor. Perhaps they wanted a smaller incision. She went to Birmingham and the cancer doctor did her surgery. Praise God she did not have cancer but she did have a total hysterectomy so as not to take the chance. My mother's three sisters had fibroid tumors and hysterectomies. We do not know if we have that gene that makes cancer a greater probability, but just looking at Mother's experience has led me to warn the women of our family to have their children early and do not be vain enough to care about the size of incision or negligent about letting the gynecologist know about the history of our family.

And I am telling you, my dear friends to be conscientious about your own health. You matter.

Sing it loud. Sing it proud!

 

I sometimes think I should have titled my blog "The Guilty Gaper" because that is exactly what I am. I am old enough now to claim it. I think Norman Rockwell painted this thinking of me.

 I love to sing. When I was a little girl, my mother thought I went up to my piano teacher's house (Mrs. Ina Harrison who played with Chautauqua. Her husband owned a pharmacy downtown.) to learn to play the piano. I learned one piece a year, but got her to play for me to sing the rest of the lesson. That was my joy. Then I would sing those songs to the trees in my front yard from the balcony of our home, pretending I was singing on the stage of an opera. 

On Sunday mornings before my mother took me to church at the old Presbyterian church downtown,  But first, I would climb to the top of the slide and sing made up songs of praise to God. My father and mother encouraged my singing. Back then there were booklets you could purchase at the IGA with the words of the songs on the radio. When we would travel, Daddy, who hated the radio, would turn it on for me to sing along. Mother's favorite was "When You Walk Through A Storm."

When I listened to Miss Essie Mae Smitherman sing "The Star Spangled Banner" at the football games where I stood on the field as an unexpected cheerleader, I aspired to become a teacher at Dothan High School and maybe one day do the same. There was something thrilling there in the dark watching the flag raise over the stadium hearing her clear, beautiful voice and our wonderful Dothan High School band play. 

I have many happy memories of singing. I sang "The Little Drummer Boy" at First Baptist and watched my little son, Drew, walk down the aisle with his little drum. My heart swelled and the words were hard to come as I watched God's gift to me walk down that aisle.

I sang "The Old Rugged Cross" at my grandmother's funeral. My grandfather, Pat Gillis, had sat listening to the Gospel Hour on the radio the Saturday before his death. He heard the words of that song and said to my grandmother who sat rocking her six month old baby next to him, "When I die, I want them to sing that song." The next weekend, the ropes broke on the truck in front of him as he was on his way to TR Miller Mill Company in Brewton, Alabama and he was crushed. That song meant something to the precious woman who raised my mother and her four siblings alone all those years that followed. As she died in the hospital, she lifted a hand, looked beyond those gathered beside her, and said, "Pat?" 

I sang "The King is Coming" at Joe's cousin Dick Moseley's funeral. 

My dear friend, Agatha Bennett in Panama City, requested that I sing "The Lord's Prayer" at her funeral. She was Presbyterian but the funeral was held at the Baptist Church because it was bigger and she and Julian were much loved and respected. The pianist of the church and I practiced a bit before the service. I do not think the others who sang, or spoke, really knew her and their delivery was staid and mechanical, But I knew her and I knew her faith. The song and the music gelled and it created a praise moment that still sings in my heart. One I knew she would have loved. Hands raised in praise and a true moment of worship occurred. But not everyone received it well to my consternation. 

And then, after attending church one Sunday with my father so he would not have to sit alone, the pastor's wife walked past me and said, "You sure sing loud." Yes, the Norman Rockwell picture reminds me of me singing in church. And yes, there have been times when small children turned to look. But, with her words, every doubt, every weakness, every inhibition I ever experienced returned. I must say her words took me back to Sunday school at that church when no one wanted to sit beside me. Until I was 12, my mother took me to the Presbyterian Church. Then Daddy decided we would all attend church in the denomination he had grown up in. I was a chubby little girl, the last to be picked for any sport. Truly a late bloomer. Two of the boys in that Sunday school class had been the boys who said to me one day in Junior High, "You are so fat, how do you get down that hall." Such wit. Both were chubby themselves. A mean bunch of children who considered themselves the elect. One died long ago. Someone said of AIDS.  And the other is going blind, I hear. And I guess the girls in that church thought fat was contagious. 

Lauren Daigle's song, You Say, expresses it best...

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough

Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up

Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low

Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know

Ooh-oh

You say I am loved when I can't feel a thing

You say I am strong when I think I am weak

And you say I am held when I am falling short

And when I don't belong, oh You say I am Yours

And I believe (I)

Oh, I believe (I)

What You say of me (I)

I believe

But, God gave me a mother who won a battle ribbon for her participation at the Battle of the Bulge. She told me to tell them "You don't buy my groceries, so don't worry about it!" Not a great comeback, but good enough for me. Much better than tears. She was the oldest of those children my grandmother raised after my grandfather died. She went to work keeping the books for a dime store and helped her mother as early as possible. Her gumption and big heart led her to sign up for the Army after borrowing money for nursing school and graduating. 

I found out later that some girls' mothers forbade them from being my friends. They called my mother coarse and vulgar. I called my mother loving, courageous and a wonderful example of stepping out of her comfort zone to do what she felt God called her to do. And yes, she could curse like a soldier and loved a good joke. She had an infectious laugh and people from all over town would call her to tell her the latest joke they heard. Yet, she washed my mouth out with soap if a curse word escaped. 

Mother once saved a horse destined for the glue factory and set him to work on our farm. When you rode that horse, he went hell for leather and you had to run him into a fence to stop him. Sometimes I think that is how I do things. I write and tell it true. I sing and I sing with every feeling I experience. That horse died when his heart burst while herding cattle. Not such a bad end. Dying while doing what you love. 

I loved my Joe and love my children and grandchildren with every fibre of my being. As someone once said, "You are only as happy as your unhappiest child."

I remember how hurtful children (and their parents) can be. And so now, when my precious gifted granddaughter tells me that her hands shook and she could barely speak in a spelling bee or that they had a singing contest and everyone ran away before she could begin singing, I get her to sing this Lauren Daigle song for me and tell her...What you have is a gift from God. Those who try to rob you of your gift are not speaking from God's heart. We know from where their crippling words of doubt and destruction come. I get taken back to those early painful years and remember. And I tell her the lessons my mother taught me. 

Sing it loud and sing it proud. Sing it from your heart and articulate every word so that people will hear the words and not just the music. Music speaks to our very soul.

I think of the arrogance of that woman who meant to shut me up and I want to ask her if she has ever heard of the church of Laodicea. 

The History of America's Children Being Groomed: How We Got to Sodom and Gomorrah

 America's children are in real trouble. 

While some may have thought the domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers, had turned over a new leaf when he got his PHD in education at Columbia, the truth is Ayers still works on dismantling America from the inside, and, through Barach Obama he set up a framework to do so. 

For those who are not well-versed on 60s politics, Ayers was a leader of the Weathermen, the most radical of all 1960s revolutionaries.  Among other things, the Weathermen bombed the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol and sprung Timothy Leary from jail. His wife, Bernadine Dohrn, was on the FBI's list of most wanted criminals.

As Ayers puts it, “There’s a lot in white Americans that we do have to fight, and beat out of them and beat out of ourselves,” Ayers said in a speech. “We have to be willing to fight white privilege, racism, male supremacy–in order to build a revolutionary movement.”

Ironically, Bill Ayers is allowed to speak on college campuses, unlike conservative speakers. His T-shirt reads: “America is like a melting pot: The people at the bottom get burned and the scum floats to the top.”

He is formerly Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). He works in the university’s elementary teacher education program. His specialty is school improvement. He has written one book on early childhood education and another about teaching. He publishes regularly in scholarly journals. Each year he trains dozens of would-be teachers for private, public, and parochial schools. And he was the director of the Chicago Annenberg Project which Barach Obama chaired from 1991-1995. As Ayers sees it, teachers and students are victims of an oppressive schooling system that “manages and controls” instead of “opening possibilities.”

At the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, “the brainchild of Bill Ayers,” they funneled more that $100 million to radical groups which used the funds to promote radical education. This initiative was also promoted by Arne Duncan, who became Secretary of Education. Also as board members of the Woods Fund, Ayers and Obama channeled money to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and the Midwest Academy: Organizing for Social Change.

In 2003, Barach Obama supported Illinois Senate Bill 99, which despite his denials and false claims by the mainstream media was not a bill to protect children from sexual predators. On the contrary, it was a sweeping, comprehensive sex-education bill that lowered the age of instruction from sixth grade to kindergarten. It gutted an abstinence emphasis and prohibited "bias" based on "sexual orientation." The term "sexual predator" is nowhere in the bill. 

 

In 2007, a group from the American Educational Research Association (AERA), including Ayers, demanded major accrediting organization for schools, colleges, and departments of education include categories of "social justice, sexual orientation and gender identity" in its standards. Ayers and colleagues called their effort "Call to Action: A RED Campaign for Social Justice and Queer Lives." Formerly vice president for curriculum of the AERA, Ayers was the spokesman on behalf of the effort and called on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) to include these categories.

Would all schools in the U.S., under the muscle of an Obama administration, be forced to drill youth in the talking points of "gay" sex and gender–switching, calling it "justice"? Would Ayers' idea that America is an oppressive regime with way too much heterosexuality become a core tenet of your child's value system?

Ayers wrote an endorsement on the book, Queering Elementary Schools: Advancing the Dialogue about Sexualities and Schooling for which Kevin Jennings, founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian &Straight Education Network), wrote the foreword. Ayers recommended Jennings to be Assistant Deputy Secretary of Education for the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools. According to the GLSEN website, the National Association of School Psychologists, the Learning First Alliance, the National Education Association, the Council for Exceptional Children, Social Workers Association of America and the American Federation of Teachers are their longtime partners in the education world. They say the purpose of GLSEN is to transform America's K-12 schools into an "affirming environment".

Please take note: The Alabama Psychological Association (aPA) was established in 1950 and is a state affiliate of the American Psychological Association.  So when the Alabama legislature passed the Numeracy Act and included putting psychologists in every school, you might wonder why.

 A transcript from a 1997 speech shows Kevin Jennings, Office of Safe Schools chief in the U.S. Department of Education,  expressing his admiration for Harry Hay, who was one of the nation's first homosexual activists who launched the Mattachine Society in 1948, founded the Radical Faeries and was a longtime advocate for the North American Man-Boy Love Association, NAMBLA. 

“One of the people that's always inspired me is Harry Hay,” the transcript shows Jennings saying, “who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America. 

 “Hay was a prominent American gay rights activist, communist, pro-pedophilia activist (NAMBLA), and … founder of the Mattachine Society, the first sustained gay rights group in the United States as well as the Radical Faeries, a loosely-affiliated gay spiritual movement.” Among these, NAMBLA is the infamous North American Man/Boy Love Association. (Wikipedia)

Harry left Communist Party of the USA and in 1950 joined a group of homosexual communists in forming the so-called Mattachine Society, the pioneering organization of gay communists. From there, Hay did remarkable work in spreading both gay-rights propaganda and communist propaganda and forging the two under a mighty left-wing rainbow umbrella that would revolutionize what we now called the wider “LGBTQ” movement. (Actually, writers at People’s World, flagship publication of Communist Party USA, have now started using the term “LGBTQIA.”)

“Well, [in] 1993,” Jennings continued, “Harry Hay marched with a million people in Washington, who thought he had a good idea 40 years before.

Bob Hamer writes about a SEXUAL PREDATOR’S STRATEGY: GROOMING. He states:  "For the persuasion sexual predator, “grooming” is the vehicle used to manipulate and seduce the vulnerable child. I didn’t learn about grooming in a college classroom or from a textbook. I learned it from the pedophiles themselves." Read more below. 

Is this part of multicultural education? Are our children supposed to celebrate this? 

And now we come to one of the most radical of all agents of change: the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, that has been promoting this agenda for years under the guise of "Conflict Resolution" and "Teaching Tolerance." 

Dr. Tommy Bice, former gay Superintendent for the state of Alabama, is a board member of the Magic City Acceptance Academy (grades 6 through 12), one of Alabama's first charter schools. They state on their website:

 "...educational pedagogy and curriculum design that best meets our needs as a community of learners will be rooted in Constructivism. The basic tenet of Constructivism is that learners, simply put, construct learning through a variety of experiences. Learners construct knowledge rather than simply sit and take in information. As people experience problems and situations they reflect on what they experience and they create or build their own representations and incorporate new information into their pre-existing knowledge (schemas).

The essential components in constructivist theory are to elicit prior knowledge, create cognitive dissonance, and apply the knowledge with feedback and reflection on learning. These components are best utilized in project-based, cooperative, learning activities that reflect elements with meaning to, or are relevant to the students’ lives and community." 

There is nothing innocent about the phrase "create cognitive dissonance." Cognitive dissonance is a state of confusion brought about by conflicting beliefs. There are a number of different situations that can create cognitive dissonance, such as "Forced Compliance." 

"Sometimes you might find yourself engaging in behaviors that are opposed to your own beliefs due to external expectations, often for work, school, or a social situation. This might involve going along with something due to peer pressure..," according to the verywellmind website. So, are kindergarteners strong enough to withstand the peer pressure and proselytizing of an agenda "contrary to the fixed beliefs of their parents?"  And how is this Constitutional? 

"Constructivist" equals "cognitive dissonance"

Alabama scores dead last nationally on math scores.  We have two Auburn College of Education professors, Gary Martin and Marilyn Strutchens, who have been awarded nearly $600,000 to establish professional learning communities in mathematics. Strutchens served on the board of directors of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. 

 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics encourage the move away from the traditional emphasis on computational skills like multiplication tables and algorithms—a teaching method that university mathematicians still favor but that many K–12 math teachers dismiss as “drill and kill.” Teachers (particularly liberal and left-leaning teachers) instead use a “constructivist” or “discovery-based” pedagogy, sometimes called “fuzzy math.” Here students learn mathematical concepts by trying to solve real-life problems, like social justice lessons on how military budgets for the war in Iraq deny poor Americans their fair share of resources as an advance beyond problems about baseball statistics, shopping, or building.

Remember "Constructivist" equals cognitive dissonance.  And when you see "social justice" you might as well think about the Bill Ayers and all he supports and why he promotes "constructivist" education and the creation of cognitive dissonance. 

Martin and Strutchens have been on nearly every state math committee in Alabama; in fact, Dr. Strutchens chaired the committee in 2019. 

With math teachers more concerned with social justice lessons than actually teaching math we fear that Queer Mathematics will soon be in our schools if it isn't already. 

"For the last decade or so, largely working beneath public or parental notice, a well-organized movement has sought to revolutionize the curricula and culture of the nation’s public schools. Its aim: to stamp out “hegemonic heterosexuality”—the traditional view that heterosexuality is the norm—in favor of a new ethos that does not just tolerate homosexuality but instead actively endorses experimenting with it, as well as with a polymorphous range of bisexuality, transgenderism, and transsexuality. The educational establishment has enthusiastically signed on. What this portends for the future of the public schools and the psychic health of the nation’s children is deeply worrisome." writes Marjorie King. 

 

 

https://gellerreport.com/2022/08/queer-mathematics-in-public-schools.html/

 And now we discover a leftist organization called "The Queer Mathematics Teacher" is seeking to embed gender theory in K-12 math classes. Brandie Waid, the director of The Queer Mathematics Teacher, laid out a plan for incorporating gender theory into math classes in a blog post on the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotion Learning (CASEL) website. CASEL is sponsored by the Allstate Foundation. 

Once again we find Bill Ayers. Linda Darling-Hammond is a radical left-wing educator and close colleague of William “Bill” Ayers. Hammond was Professor Bill Ayers’ choice for secretary of education during the first Obama administration. Hammond served as an education adviser and transition team leader in 2008. Hammond serves on the board of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the godfather of SEL in the U.S., and co-chaired the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional and Academic Learning. 

"Schools should be focused on teaching children core curriculum and not on asking intrusive questions that have nothing to do with core subjects," Parents Defending Education President Nicole Neilly told Fox News Digital. "Injecting Social Emotional Learning into math class not only distracts from teaching students the basics, but it also undermines the program's purpose - because higher self-esteem is a direct result of subject mastery."

Contrary to what parents want in their children's math education, the Queer Mathematics Teacher site states, "The ability to consider sexuality irrelevant in the mathematics context is a heteronormatively privileged position." They note that some areas of their expertise include "queer pedagogy," "teaching mathematics for social justice," "Fostering Students' Growth Mindset (While Advocating for Systemic Change," and "Humanizing Mathematics Education for LGBTQ+ Students."

Brandie Waid, the left-wing activist promoting the Queer Mathematics Teacher, even goes so far as to suggest that activist educators should teach critical race theory and gender theory, even if it means breaking the law. Waid writes, “I implore my colleagues to ask: How can we work within (or outside) the confines of these laws to center Transformative SEL and student thriving in our teaching?” 

 So, not only do we find Bill Ayers' agenda, we find that the National Education Association, and therefore its affiliate, the Alabama Education Association, supports-- I would say-- even promotes this sexualization of children.  

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION C-12 

Student Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Gender Expression

    "The National Education Association believes that all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, should be afforded equal opportunity and guaranteed a safe and inclusive environment within the public education system. The Association also believes a safe and inclusive environment ensures that all transgender students have access to the bathroom or locker of their choice and protects them from breaches of confidentiality. The Association believes that LGBTQ students have the right to privacy and confidentiality regarding their sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Further, educators must respect these students and their choice of whether or not to reveal their orientation, identity, or expression. 

    The Association further believes that, for students who are struggling with their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, every school district and educational institution should provide counseling services and programs--staffed by trained personnel--that deal with high suicide and dropout rates and the high incidence of teen prostitution. The Association further believes that therapies designed to alter a student's orientation or identity are harmful to the emotional development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and questioning (LGBTQ+) students. Therefore, students should have access to gender affirming health care. 

The Association believes that all transgender students should be able to use the bathroom or locker room of their choice."

What do they mean when they say students should have access to gender affirming health care? Do parents get to be involved in this "gender affirming" health care? Do these people support the mutilation of small children whom they have confused (gender dysphoria) with their "lessons" (cognitive dissonance)? Are they coming at innocent children during a time of their natural development when they prefer playing with children of their own sex and confuse them into thinking this is a "trans" issue? They admit, no they boast, that they  intentionally use constructivist methodology to create cognitive dissonance in children. 

Jane Robbins, attorney, researcher, and author in Atlanta, GA., writes in "The Cracks in the Edifice of Transgender Totalitarianism, "The epidemic of supposed gender dysphoria among children and adolescents—“transgenderism”—has often been described as a cult. The designation is in some ways apt. Though lacking a charismatic leader usually found in such movements, other expert descriptions of cults certainly apply: “designed to destabilize an individual’s sense of self by undermining his or her basic consciousness, reality awareness, beliefs and worldview, [and] emotional control.” Cults also lead the target to believe that “anxiety, uncertainty, and self-doubt can be reduced by adopting the concepts put forth by the group.” The promise is a “new identity” that will solve all problems, even as it separates one from family and previous life."

And so you can see the effects of creating cognitive dissonance through Constructivist methodology.

A program established under the Alabama Accountability Act of 2013 establishes a tax-credit scholarship that students assigned to "failing" schools can use to attend any "non-failing" public or private school in the state. A "failing" school in this case has a broad definition: It includes any school getting a D or F grade on the state's accountability system; any school in the lowest 10 percent of scores on the state's standardized assessment in reading and math; any school labeled as "consistently low-performing: by the state education department in a state application for a federal School Improvement Grant; or any school otherwise deemed as "failing" by the state superintendent. 

The tax credit is equal to 80 percent of the state's per-pupil cost of attending a public school, or the actual cost of attending a non-failing public school. For parents applying for tax credits, the legislation creates a new Failing Schools Income Tax Credit Account to distribute the funds. The law also allows for scholarship-granting organizations to receive donations from both private individuals and corporations, and in turn provide the funds for parents to use in the school choice program. The donation cap for individuals is $7500 annually, and corporations may receive a tax credit of 50 percent of their total donations. The law also institutes a statewide cap on tax credits of $24 million annually. 

When one considers the failure of our schools to teach our children reading and math, and the massive intrusion into parents right with psychological manipulation of small children contrary to the attitudes and beliefs of their parents, perhaps parents could consider this when claiming "tax credits" or "vouchers" to take their children from the schools violating their trust to the school of their choice. 

Accreditation remains a problem as the entities promoting this agenda control credentialing of teachers. The only way to really eliminate the progression of this agenda is to bypass credentialing by giving the money to the parent who can choose schools who hire teachers with degrees outside of education and to attend schools that adhere to curriculum that is knowledge based. Like Saxon Math and reading programs using Systematic Intensive Direct and Early Phonics education. 

Parents need to be aware that the "award winning" books available to their child sometimes contain graphic information on sex that may not fit their idea of appropriate. Those who determine those awards have themselves accepted an agenda that may not fit that of the child's parents. These books are available through the Media Center at Dothan Preparatory school, grades 6 through 9. There is no parental group to oversee physical books chosen for the library like there once was. 

This is your child's media center. 

As Ayers puts it, “There’s a lot in white Americans that we do have to fight, and beat out of them and beat out of ourselves,” Ayers said in a speech. “We have to be willing to fight white privilege, racism, male supremacy–in order to build a revolutionary movement.”

Maybe it's time to protect our children and fight back!

TIPS ON HIP AND KNEE REPLACEMENT SURVIVAL

TIPS ON HIP AND KNEE REPLACEMENT SURVIVAL

 

 

 Nearly five weeks out from the total right knee replacement, I am finally able to sit at my desk without too much pain. I have now had two hip replacements and a right knee replacement and I can say with great assurance that the knee replacement is pretty much the greatest pain I have ever experienced, including having babies which was formerly my top register for pain.  As my granddaughter told me, I am pretty much a bionic woman now. So, let me share some things that just might help should you ever venture forth with these surgeries. 

1.     DIAL SOAP Bathing and washing hands with Dial soap helps kill the bacteria that might cause problems later with the surgery and its healing. 

2.     BUY CLOROX LAUNDRY SANITIZER and LYSOL to go in with your laundry detergent when you wash your sheets and clothes you will wear beginning with the Hibilens regime five days before surgery. 

3.     PRESS AND SEAL OR SARAN WRAP. Make sure you have someone close to you with you for the first two weeks because when you bathe, someone will have to wrap the incision to keep the incision dry and stay close by to make sure you do not pass out because you have lost a lot of blood. 

4.     BIDET  I ordered the $39 version on Amazon recommended by my friend. I wish I had known earlier that you could make your toilet into a bidet. I had the plumber come and install it. This would have been so helpful when I had the hip replacement because it hurt so badly to turn and reach behind me. Do not think this is a female thing. One setting is for one’s aft and one is for one’s fore. 

5.     FRAME FOR A BEDSIDE TOILET. You can take the bowl out of the bedside toilet and place the frame over the authentic toilet to give you a higher elevation when you go to the toilet and the pain of bending your knee is diminished. Also the rails on the sides help with getting up and down.  Just don’t use the bidet then as the water will squirt all over if you do. 

6.     ELEVATED TOILET An elevated toilet with rails beside it and rails in the shower are near necessities for those of us with hip and knee issues. 

7.      BED RAIL A friend recommended getting one that projects pretty far under the mattress so you have something to pull on to help you turn over and get in and out of bed. 

8.     HIP AND KNEE REPLACEMENT KIT. When I had my hip replacement at the Hughston Clinic in Columbus/Phoenix City, I was given what I call THE SURVIVAL PACK-- 6 Piece Hip And Knee Replacement Kit - Surgery Recovery Set - Handicap Aid, Leg Loop Lifter, Reacher Grabber, Long Handle Shoe Horn, Shower Loofah Scrubber, Sock Assist, Dressing Stick (6 Pieces). Apparently this isn’t standard equipment. I did not get that in Panama City at Bay Medical when I had my left hip replacement nor was it suggested when I got my knee replacement. I saw it in the gift shop in Mobile but it was not mentioned to my brother when he had his hip replacement. Fortunately, I was able to bring my equipment to share with him until I needed it again.  (You can order this from Amazon as well.) 

9.     PAIN MEDICATION Take it. Have someone with you to help you remember what and when you are to take it. Just don't take it longer than you need it. 

10.   STOOL SOFTENERS There is no sick like the constipation you will have after taking the opioids necessary after these extremely painful surgeries. Keep an extra garbage can beside your toilet because it may be necessary should you also get nauseated.

11.  INFINITE POSITION LIFT RECLINER CHAIR WITH MASSAGE AND HEATING I finally bit the bullet and ordered mine from ASJMREYE online and it arrived right before my surgery. It has been wonderful. 

12. ALEXA My daughter set up multiple ALEXAs throughout the house so that if I needed her all I had to do was say "Alexa Announce" and then give the command and the word reached my daughter upstairs. 

 

Throughout this experience I have been reminded that “no man is an island.” One week after my knee replacement, the pain was so bad I thought I should have just let them shoot me instead. I went to my text messages where a group of my friends had become my encouragers. It is amazing what a friend can do in lifting pain. I decided I would live and hopefully be a better person. Friends called. Friends prayed for me. Friends brought food and sent flowers. They set for me a wonderful example. I am blessed. 

 

Hopefully some of these suggestions will be helpful. God bless you my friend.