Text from a recent speech. Reprinted from the Spring 2013 issue of MinuteMom Magazine.
I was somewhat surprised and very humbled to receive a call to speak to [your group.] My first thought was “what on earth could I possibly have to share that would be of value to these women?” The amazing sisterhood you have already accomplishes so much. All of you vote and exercise all of your First Amendment rights, including freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Many of you have a concealed carry permit, you are involved in politics locally, statewide and nationally. I have much to learn from you.
It did occur to me that one of the reasons I was asked to speak is simply because I dared to begin something new. Today I would like to share what I have learned about the power of beginning, the power of learning and the power of sharing . These powers are somewhat linked and are not linier steps but much like a circle or a group hug of powers.
All of us remember where we were the morning of September 11, 2001. I was laying on the couch on full bed rest while expecting my twin daughters. My oldest son, then three, finished watching a video tape with his one-year-old brother. The tape went to automatic rewind allowing me to catch just a glimpse of the Today show. It was just at that that horrifying moment that Katie Couric announced that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center.
While I will not relive the rest of that terrifying day with you, the one question that kept coming to my mind was “what can I do about what is happening to my country and my world? I am just a mom.” And a Mother I definitely was. By year’s end I was the proud mother of four children all under four years of age, experiencing all of the complications that come with strollers, car seats and children who simply cannot communicate their needs with words.
I spent much of the following years concentrating on raising my family, but trying to keep up with political and social events that were going on in the world around me. This was somewhat of a challenge. Just going to vote was an obstacle—one election I can’t tell you who or what I voted for, or what the issues were—but I can give you details on juggling children while voting. Toting babies in a double stroller while trying to keep two little boys holding onto the stroller long enough for me to cast my vote, was a feat in and of itself. Why didn’t anyone tell me I could have voted absentee?
My best friend and I often discussed what we could do. At the time, she had eight children with the eldest in the Air Force Academy. She offered knowledge and wisdom, which she shared with me. Together we searched, pondered, and prayed for something we could do to help make this country a better place for our children.
Part of the answer started to come four years ago when on March 12, 2009, “The 9-12 Project,” was launched. Neither of us joined the group, but we were intrigued by its premise to help America feel the way we felt the day after the attacks of September 11th, when patriotism and kinship abounded. The Project is based upon nine principles and twelve values:
The 9 Principles
- America Is Good.
- I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
- I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
- The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
- If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
- I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
- I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
- It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
- The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.
The 12 Values
Honesty, Reverence, Hope, Thrift. Humility, Charity, Sincerity, Moderation, Hard Work, Courage, Personal Responsibility, Gratitude
That fall on September 12th, rallies were held around the country including one in Washington D.C. and Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area. That particular day turned out to be one of those rainy, stormy days that we have in Texas. I felt that taking my children into Fort Worth would be more of a headache than it was worth and instead watched on television as multitudes gathered across the nation. The following week then Fox News Television personality Glenn Beck hosted a show focusing on the mothers of the 9-12 movement. That show changed my life.
Honesty, Reverence, Hope, Thrift. Humility, Charity, Sincerity, Moderation, Hard Work, Courage, Personal Responsibility, Gratitude
That fall on September 12th, rallies were held around the country including one in Washington D.C. and Dallas/Ft. Worth Texas area. That particular day turned out to be one of those rainy, stormy days that we have in Texas. I felt that taking my children into Fort Worth would be more of a headache than it was worth and instead watched on television as multitudes gathered across the nation. The following week then Fox News Television personality Glenn Beck hosted a show focusing on the mothers of the 9-12 movement. That show changed my life.
Beginning
In my case beginning started with sharing, through the power of sharing. Nancy, a mother from Long Island, shared how she felt that she was the only conservative on the entire island and then at a certain political rally ran into the mother of one of her children’s friends. Soon they had started a small group which they jokingly called “a sisterhood of Mommy patriots” I wanted to join that sisterhood. A quick Internet search showed that no such Internet group existed, it had been limited to just Nancy and her few friends. Second, I was impacted by what I now recognize as the power of beginning. Dr. Frank Luntz, the notated political strategist and pollster was also on that show. During the final thoughts section Dr. Luntz said, “If you begin everything with ‘as a mom…‘ You win.” It took me a year to recognize that the brilliance of his statement wasn’t necessarily beginning with “as a mom” as much as it might have been just to begin.
One of my favorite quotes by William Hutchinson Murray, is based on an extremely free translation of Goethe’s Foust and is often mis-attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Regardless of whom actually made this statement of principles, it is true, ‘when you begin there is something magic that happens’.
The morning after this particular television show I called my best friend and said “I have a crazy idea. I think I know how to set up a membership based website where moms can get together and share information about politics and education etc. We can create an online sisterhood. I need you to stop me!” Being a great best friend she said, “I will be the first member.” So later that day, I used my knowledge from being a graphic artist and opened the website As a Mom…a Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots, at AsAMom.org, thus launching myself into a previously unknown area of nonprofit activism. For the next five days things went swimmingly with 18 members. My friend and I felt we had done something of value. Then I got this silly idea to call Glenn Beck’s radio show. And this is where the magic happened. At exactly one week from its launch date we had over 35,000 members, thanks to a few minutes on the radio show and subsequent appearance on his television show by a very wide-eyed and naïve me. That magical beginning has brought over 82,000 moms and moms-at-heart together. Many of which have begun magical things on their own.
Sharing
One of the earliest stated purposes of As a Mom... was to bring mothers together to share—because we all know something, we all have a piece. Someone may be a retired teacher who knows which textbooks are accurate, another may be experienced with the United Nations, understanding how global politics are affecting us here in the USA. And yet another may be what she considers just, “a stay-at-home mom” who has magnificent research and reasoning skills. It is as if we are each a piece to a magnificent puzzle. Each one of us has been given a particular piece to share to help save our country. No one person can or should do it all.
Learning
This is where the third power, the power of learning from others, starts. This wonderful synergistic power creates a whole of knowledge more than anyone of us could obtain on our own.
Indulge me for a moment while I share bits and pieces of what I have learned from others.
We have all had the privilege reading KrisAnne Hall’s articles and perhaps reading her books and blog. I have learned more from her in just a few hours about connections with the Constitution than any other class or reading on the subject.
This is where the third power, the power of learning from others, starts. This wonderful synergistic power creates a whole of knowledge more than anyone of us could obtain on our own.
Indulge me for a moment while I share bits and pieces of what I have learned from others.
We have all had the privilege reading KrisAnne Hall’s articles and perhaps reading her books and blog. I have learned more from her in just a few hours about connections with the Constitution than any other class or reading on the subject.
I learned about organizing from a woman named Kimberly Fletcher who started Homemakers for America as her reaction to attacks of 2001. She really is the person who should’ve been on the Glenn Beck Show as she knew what she was doing, and had been doing it for a long time. She could’ve been extremely annoyed with me as a new upstart, yet she freely shared information with me that I needed to know in order to start a nonprofit 501c4 and various ins and outs of hosting online communities.
A Mom-at-heart from Colorado named Jeff has a photo collection of his young daughter with the whose-who of American politicians. He is extremely active in his political party. He has spent several hours explaining nuances and differences between various states election processes to me, and has shared his understanding of the political process with thousands of moms and moms-at-heart. Enabling them to become more knowledgeable participants in their local and precinct politics.
Sharon Slater, a mother of seven from Arizona, has had an incredible journey, which somewhat accidentally led her to do incredible work this past decade within the United Nations to promote family and family values with a group she founded: Family Watch International. Sharon’s books, writings, and conversations have given me more understanding into the Defense of Marriage Act, education and how things at the United Nations affect me. She has also opened my eyes to what the United States is doing to change things, not always for the better, in the global community.
Sharon Slater, a mother of seven from Arizona, has had an incredible journey, which somewhat accidentally led her to do incredible work this past decade within the United Nations to promote family and family values with a group she founded: Family Watch International. Sharon’s books, writings, and conversations have given me more understanding into the Defense of Marriage Act, education and how things at the United Nations affect me. She has also opened my eyes to what the United States is doing to change things, not always for the better, in the global community.
In education, I have learned from several past teachers, and homeschoolers, mothers and grandmothers about how politics has made political pawns of our children through Common Core Curriculum, which has been adopted by 45 states (not Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia) and through other programs such as C-scope which is in 85% of Texas schools. This controversial curriculum has even caught the attention of our state Attorney General.
Due to the economy, what is known as “prepping” has become an extremely popular topic. I have been blessed to learn from many about such things as canning, home storage, gardening, and other skills that my great-grandmothers and grandmothers knew at a very young age, but through the years have become lost to many of us.
I can claim no great knowledge on any of the above subjects, but I have learned through the power of others’ willingness to share. This is what makes a sisterhood. This is what makes women unique. From the beginning of time we have shared and passed on our knowledge to others. This is the bond that makes a sisterhood of patriots.
Though some have tried to attribute the idea of As A Mom… to me, this idea is not new and is something our colonial Foremothers knew.
Our Foremothers began meeting in organized political groups as early as 1681. In 1707 a physician in Charleston South Carolina reported “that women of the town are turned politicians also have a club where they meet weekly among themselves.” Meetings occurred in many cities of women’s political groups. These meetings often incorporated the daily tasks that the women needed to do such as, sewing, knitting or spinning. In 1748, long before the American Revolution, the “Boston Society for Promoting of Industry and Frugality” sponsored a political rally on the Boston Common where the women brought their spinning wheels and spun spools of flax for a full day. This was in retaliation to English cloth imports and the knowledge that a boycott of English goods could disrupt the English economy which largely relied on the time of their cloth manufacture. As early as 1766 patriot women began calling themselves the “daughters of liberty.” It was these daughters of liberty that held some of the first “tea parties” concocting their own brews of native plants to replace the British tea. In January 1770, five hundred thirty-eight Bostonian women signed an agreement vowing not to drink tea so long as it was taxed. This and other women’s movements probably had more impact on the actual purchasing and use of tea by the early colonists then the famed “Boston tea party” that occurred in December 1773 almost four years later.
Today women across the country act as MinuteMoms where they wield cell phones instead of bayonets and begin by doing something. Whether you begin as “as a mom,” or “as a dad,” “as a grandparent,” “aunt,” “uncle,“ or “citizen of the United States...” the most important part is to begin. Until each of us start, we cannot win, because it doesn’t matter what we wish, unless we begin. Whether you begin with the local school board, your state senator, congressman or even the White House- in order to win the battle for our nation’s future we must begin.
Beginning is power. Once you begin, learn more. Once you have learned, share it and encourage others to begin.
Boldness has genius, power and magic.
Be bold. Begin it NOW! ˜
Lori Parker is the Chairman and Co-founder of As a Mom... A Sisterhood of Mommy Patriots.A mother of four, she has a passion for saving this country for her children. She believes that every one can make something happen for the better if they just begin.
