Blog Updates

For various reasons I will be taking a blogging hiatus for the rest of this semester. I need to focus on other things over the next few months. Over this time another young conservative activist, Grace Tate, has agreed to blog on this site. Grace Tate is a long time member of Generation Joshua and pro-life activist from the Hampton Roads area. She created and helps run a Generation Joshua club named TACT in her area that gives young people an opportunity to get involved in conservative politics on a local level. Thank you Grace for being willing to come on board.

Recent Washington Times Article about Homeschoolers in Politics

In the June 15th edition of the Washington Times on page A17 an article was published about homeschoolers in politics that talked about Generation Joshua. The article is republished below.

Home-schoolers take plunge into politics

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

At 17, home-schooler Tyler Fehrman was the youngest paid member of the John McCain presidential campaign. In the last five years, he's worked on 18 political campaigns in five states. Now, at 18, he is running for an at-large seat on the Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Council.

"My dream for some day is to be the governor of Ohio," he said. "But you gotta start somewhere and take it one stage at a time."

Mr. Fehrman, who finished his schooling in May and plans to attend Mount Vernon Nazarene University this fall, represents the forefront of a growing trend: home-schoolers who are actively involved in politics in their communities.

"I think it's definitely a growing trend," Mr. Fehrman said. "Here in Ohio we have a network of about 200 home-schooled students who are avidly active in politics all the time."

Mr. Fehrman's circle runs even larger. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, said evidence shows that both home-schooling parents and their children are more civically involved than the general populace. His 2004 study of more than 7,000 home-schooled adults showed that home-schoolers were more likely to vote, volunteer for political campaigns, participate in boycotts or write letters to the editor.

Although there is no way to confirm the numbers, Mr. Ray estimates that growing numbers of students -- about 2 million -- are now learning at home.

Home-school political activism manifests itself in such groups as Christian youth organization Generation Joshua, designed to educate students in civics. Founded in 2004 as an offshoot of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, the organization now has about 6,000 student members nationwide, an estimated 70 percent of whom are home-educated.

Although Generation Joshua itself is nonpartisan, members often actively campaign for political candidates.

"We consider our mission to be to give the young people the training, knowledge and inspiration to get involved. And then they go and work on the campaigns," said the director of Generation Joshua, William Estrada, also a lawyer and home-school graduate.

Mr. Estrada recognizes political activism as a growing trend in home schooling, but said it was not necessarily new. Both he and Mr. Ray pointed out that many states still outlawed home education at the birth of the modern home-school movement in the 1980s. This forced home-schooling parents to petition state and local government for the freedom to teach their children.

Mr. Ray said the nature of home schooling also draws parents who are firm in their beliefs.

"Just by choosing home education, they're, in a sense, activists. It's not unusual for them to get involved," he said.

He also noted that although home-schoolers' beliefs are important to them, those beliefs are not necessarily uniform -- home-schoolers could not be characterized as liberal or conservative. The most common thread, Mr. Ray said, was a "classical liberal perspective," a government-hands-off attitude.

Mr. Fehrman, who calls himself a Reagan conservative, said home schooling not only gave him the flexibility to be heavily involved in campaigns, but also gave his parents the ability to instill in him a strong biblical worldview.

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Oberlander, a home-schooler in Lovettsville, Va., and a member of Generation Joshua, said his parents raised him to care about politics and the right to vote.

He has helped register voters and made calls for political candidates.

On Election Day last year, Mr. Oberlander stood on a street corner with a group of Generation Joshua students, waving McCain signs.

A car drove up to the stoplight. The driver signaled for Mr. Oberlander and his friend to come over.

"Hey, where are all the Obama kids?" the driver asked from his rolled-down window.

Mr. Oberlander's friend replied: "They probably slept in."

Miss California Defends Traditional Marriage

Miss California Stands for Marriage and her Faith

Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was the runner-up Miss America. However, the internet buzz has all been about her stand against gay marriage, and her support of traditional marriage between one man and one woman.

Here's some of what Focus on the Family wrote about the story. Read the full story here.

Miss California Sets Her Eyes on the Real Prize

At the Miss USA pageant, Carrie Prejean may have lost the crown but she won plenty of respect. Miss California, who was the odds-on favorite to capture this year's title, faced her biggest test this past weekend--answering a question from the judges about same-sex "marriage." To Fox News, the first runner-up said yesterday, "Out of all the topics I studied up on, I dreaded that one... If I had any other question, I know I would have won," she said. 

Perez Hilton, an open homosexual who served as a pageant judge, pressed Prejean, asking if every state should legalize homosexual marriage. After a brief pause, Miss California responded in the same way that more than four million of her state's voters did during last November's election. "...I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be..." 

Even though Carrie believes her answer "did cost me my crown," she told Access Hollywood, "I wouldn't have had it any other way... I see the audience would've wanted me to be more politically correct. But I was raised... that you can never compromise your beliefs and opinions for anything."

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Later, Miss Prejean told Foxnews that she believed that God was testing her faith. You can read her inspiring interview here.

This young lady has stood her ground despite all the furor and anti-marriage attacks. It is good to see that there are still people out there who are willing to take a stand for what is right, even when it costs them.

This is a repost of an article by Will Estrada from the GenJ Blog.

Campaigning for Jim Tedisco

This week I am campaigning in New York 20 in the special election for Jim Tedisco. I am here with a team of over 40 Generation Joshua students, working on grassroots GOTV work helping win the election for the GOP. The race is very close, and it is all about turnout, however today we knocked on more doors than the campaign thought it would be possible for us to hit, and they are expanding their GOTV work. Between GenJ, Huck PAC, other people from around the state, and the hard work of local New Yorkers, I think we stand a very good chance of winning this race. If we can win we will show the country that the bailout, and President Obama are not universal favorites, and add one more seat to the House Republican Caucus. If for some reason we do lose, it will be because of the highly negative adds produced and aired by the NRCC.

Special Elections Round II

Tonight Louisiana residents will go to the polls (again) for the final vote on who will represent Louisiana's 4th congressional district.

The race is between Republican John Fleming (who has a really amazing website btw), and Democrat Paul Carmouche. Sean Oxendine makes the case on The Next Right that this race is an even more important bell weather than the Saxby Chambliss senate race as it is comparable to the string of special elections the GOP lost last spring. Most polls have this race in a dead heat, and while this race is not getting the national attention the Saxby Chambliss senate race recieved, Generation Joshua does have a team of young homeschoolers working on the race. We'll see what happens, and I will post tonight to let y'all know what happens.

Hopefully the GOP can keep winning these special elections.

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Another race to watch tonight is Louisiana's 2nd congressional district. This race is between Republican Joseph Cao, and incumbent congressman William Jefferson. In the general election in November, there was a lot of talk about possibly defeating John Murtha. It appears that tonight there is a chance to defeat William Jefferson.

This is not a bell weather race by any means as it is a solidly Democratic congressional district, defeating William Jefferson would be amazing. It would show that Republicans can win in solidly Democrat congressional districts, and it would demonstrate once again that the people of Louisiana will not tolerate corruption.

Check back in tonight for election results.

Now I know what to say...

First of all a big thank you to for your advice.

Here goes...

Introvert/Extrovert: The unanimous consensus is that I'm an extrovert, and y'all are definitely right. I'm not the center of attention of a crowd like some I know, but sheesh if you campaign as much as I do you have to be an extrovert. Shortly after the whole "n" word story broke about George Allen, I was at a black heritage festival passing out lit for the senator, and debaters are definitely extroverts. If you're shy when you start debating, a lot of that will go away as you continue.

Pessimist/Optimist: I consider myself an optimistic realistic. Whenever I look at the future I see a very dire situation, but I am confident that the Christian youth in this country, led by God, will reclaim our land. Here is another example... Last fall I knew we were in for a difficult midterm election, everyone knew that, but at about 7 or 8 on election night I told evedyah that I was looking forward to the red wave that was about to sweep over the country. I see things for what they are, but I refuse to resign myself to an evil future so I call myself an optimistic realist.

Favorite color: I don't really have a favorite color, although I have favorite color combinations. Two of them would be blue and orange (mets.com) and blue and gold (generationjoshua.org)

Taste in music: Country, especially the patriotic country, a little classical, and some contemporary christian. I love Michael Card, and Steve Green. I also like Relient K, and two of Casting Crowns songs, "And if we are His Body" and "What if His People Prayed?" really are excellent.

Organized/disorganized: Let's leave it at this, I'm disorganized.

Passive/aggressive: I'm aggressive, not in a mean intimidating way (I hope), but I like to get things done. I'll let y'all know about something I did in a later post.

Fashion: I like to dress up when called for, but I love decdent casual. Nice jeans and a warm fleece are awesome in the winter. And a pair of shorts and a nice shirt fit me just fine in summer. Now the accusation was raised that I look nerdy on political campaigns. Why not if it helps you stay relaxed, and win?


Learning style: slow but steady wins the race. Right? Well... not quite I like to learn and I'm not to certain about the answer to this one, but I definitely enjoy learning in groups with thoughtful discussions.

Enjoy... Thanks for commenting, and I love my friends.