A Truly Patriotic Speech

Dear Fellow Patriots,

I would like to share this speech by Texas House Rep. David Simpson. It is a speech our Founders might have said. It is refreshing and full of common sense. I took the below video and summary of the speech from Rep. Simpson’s website. I highly recommend you to listen to the whole speech on YouTube. Enjoy!

U-Tube link: http://youtu.be/ZQdp0sBrtwE

Link of David Simpson’s blog: http://davidsimpson.com/blog/?postid=79

Jun 30, 2011 @ 06:19:55

Text of the speech in pdf.

Personal Privilege Speech

Delivered June 29, 2011 – Sine Die

Texas House of Representatives

Mr. Speaker and Members, I offered to give this speech last night to save this body time after it was explained that it would be extremely doubtful that the Anti-Groping bill would get passed out of this House and sent to the Governor. However, now that this legislation can go no farther, I believe it important to leave an honest assessment of what has occurred on the Record.

I want to set everyone at ease. The goal of this speech is to speak the truth in love. I want to begin with a quotation from Winston Churchill. He said 70 years ago:

Never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

This is not the last of the effort to stop unreasonable searches of our person. I am not giving up, and even if I did, I do not think the people are going to allow the violating of their rights to persist.

Providence and the People brought me to the legislature. My race started without me. I was sought out by the people when they wanted a representative who would not only represent their values, but endeavor to keep the oath to the Constitution of the US and of this state — which as Jefferson once said are like chains that bind down elected officials to keep them from mischief.

I came to do what is right for the people — the people of my district and the people of the state of Texas. I did not come for special interests. I have sought to do what former Speaker Pete Laney told me early in the session:

“Do what’s right; explain it; and you will be okay.” He also said, “Don’t do anything you don’t want your wife or your mother to know about.”

Today, ladies and gentlemen, our greatest enemy is not terrorists that may lurk and destroy from time to time; our greatest enemy is ourselves. It is the seeds of anarchy and tyranny that reside in each of our own hearts that if given opportunity and left unchecked, like weeds, will overtake and destroy the garden of the rule of law. We must restrain ourselves from using the law for ourselves or our team rather than for the general welfare of our citizens.

What I am getting at is the idea that it is wrong to cheat, unless of course you are cheating for yourself or for the team.

We all no doubt were aware that when we came to these grand halls that there also would be within them duplicity and deceit. The challenge though is not to succumb to it; not to go along to get along in order to be re-elected; not to be  complicit with its corruption.

To apply this to the legislature let me give you several examples: In one sense this first example is insignificant, but in another it is symptomatic and indicative of why the people do not trust politicians.

Now all of us freshmen have learned that we do not have to hurry to the chamber, because it is likely time will stand still. I had never seen a legislative clock before so this amazed me as a freshmen. It stands still every morning until the Speaker calls the House to order. Sometimes it’s a few minutes and sometimes it is a great while. Why is that?

It is because the House rules dictate that the Speaker shall take the chair on each calendar dayprecisely at the hour to which the house adjourned or recessed at its last sitting and shallimmediately call the members to order. So because of this special legislative clock the Journal records that we all come to order precisely at the appointed time.

We appear to be keeping the rules by stopping the clock. However, in order to appear to keep the rule, we bear false witness and break the 9th Commandment. Which is more important?

I am not only fed up with the TSA and its humiliation of travelers. I am also fed up with phonies— especially phony  politicians who seek to take credit for legislation that they are at the same time seeking to kill.

As a second illustration, the most disappointing day of the session for me was when I heard the ruling from the Parliamentarian and Speaker concerning the local and consent rule restricting the placement of items on the calendar which involve the expenditure of state funds. A bill that grows government by 14 full time equivalents was purported to not expend state funds. At that moment I thought I was in DC.

You could, by this ruling and the Legislative Budget Board’s statement of “no fiscal impact” because the cost is covered by fees, place the whole budget on the local and consent calendar, because it has to be balanced and bring in as much as we spend.

Closely aligned with this is our rhetoric about our “conservative budget.” Now I whole-heartedly support not raising taxes and shrinking the size and scope of civil government. But let’s tell the truth about the budget.

Methinks we boast too much! Some are touting that we have not raised taxes and have not used the rainy day fund. But let’s be honest about it. Is deferring $4 billion to the next biennium conservative? Is using tax speedups conservative? On a normalized basis we actually increased the budget.

How can it be right to preserve approximately $1/2 billion of handouts to special interests including commercials for Fortune 500 companies; and decrease the funding on a per capita basis for students?

When I supported the abolishment of the Emerging Technology Fund I was scolded and told that if I wanted to come back that I better keep taking pork back to my district. Well, the majority in my district do not want handouts. They want us to enforce the rules on a level playing field, punish the wrongdoer and get out of the way of individual freedom and responsibility.

As long as there is tyranny, we must never cease to oppose it — first in ourselves; then our own state government; and finally our federal government. Let’s tell the truth about the budget, about the bills on the local and consent calendar, about the funding of commercials instead of our teachers and students.

Laws should be difficult to pass. I am not dismayed at the failure of this bill to become law. I am grateful to have gotten to know many of you as I have knelt beside your desk to talk to you about the need for protecting the dignity of individuals as they travel. I think most of you are thoroughly convinced that this tyranny needs to stop.

Let me pause here to say, you know my heart on this matter. Tyranny is not a political issue. It is unfortunate this legislation has been used as political fodder by anybody to attack the Obama Administration. The Patriot Act (which I don’t think is very patriotic) and the TSA with its policies were initiated by the Bush Administration and without restraint they are likely to be in place in any administration that follows.

Now I would like to talk about a story simple enough for children to understand. It is the story of The Emperor’s New Clothes Our “Emperors” in Texas still have clothes. However, I think they may be going through a body scan. Politics has a lot in common with fairy tales. In both arenas, you have to suspend your rational faculties in order to comprehend what is going on. What is portrayed and what is actually happening are often very different.

On Friday, after calling the Texas House of Representatives to order, declaring a quorum, and making a few brief announcements, the House was adjourned—without opportunity to lay before the House its scheduled business, specifically the legislation (HB 41) recently added by the Governor to the call for the special session that prohibits the intrusive touching of persons seeking access to public buildings and transportation. This is the same legislation requested by the Lt. Governor, the State Republican Executive Committee, and a deluge of grassroots activists to be added to the call. A nearly identical bill (HB 1937) was passed unanimously through the House during the regular session. The bill has had over 100 coauthors in the House; it was passed out of committee, and was placed again on the House Calendar by the leadership team the Speaker has chosen.

What is the objection of some? They object to the words used in the legislation to describe the private parts of the body. Specifically, the legislation prohibits the touching of the anus, the sexual organ, the breasts or the buttocks of an individual as part of a screening search without probable cause.

There is a specific reason those words are in the legislation. They happen to be those sensitive and private body parts of a traveler that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents are routinely groping, and sometimes in retaliation for simply opting out of a virtual naked body scan. The bill could prohibit the touching of your nose, or ear or kneecap, and those would be easier body parts to discuss in public, but it wouldn’t solve the problem.

I fear the emperors in our state government, at least at times, are people who would rather allow despicable behavior to continue than speak out loud the necessary words to describe it.

In the name of security, travelers are being required to submit to a virtual naked strip by use of a scanner. Should one oppose the scanner based on modesty or for health reasons, then the result is a humiliating groping hand search which includes touching (and sometimes hitting or hard pressing) of the most private parts of an individual’s body.

But will it stop here? The TSA claims in public records to have the authority to require a strip searchas a condition of travel. In fulfillment of that belief,  this last week the TSA forced a 95-year-old cancer stricken woman to remove her diaper in an extensive and extremely intrusive search.

Fifteen years ago, would you have believed that allowing a government agent to put their hand inside your underwear would ever be a condition of travel? If we do not stop now, what will our children be required to endure?

A delicate matter? Yes, certainly. But is it better to define what is indecent government behavior and to prohibit it by legislation, or to be “discreet” and allow the official oppression of travelers to continue?

Rarely in the history of this legislature has the State’s leadership so masterfully worked against the will of its members and the people they represent. Leadership managed to arrange it so that every member could cast a vote in support of a bill which they ensured would not pass. No doubt, this deception will confound many Texans.

But, the people of Texas should not be confused.  The explanation is simple and clear. The defeat of this bill can only be laid at the feet of the leadership of this state.

However, this is a victory speech.  The people in support of this bill have succeeded in shining the light on those who collaborate with the growing tyranny of our federal government.

I am grateful to my colleagues, my constituents, and the people all over this state and even the nation that Providence has used to bring this bill this far. It’s defeat only propels the liberty movement in this state. The people now know that it is possible to fight back.  In this sense, there was a great victory at Goliad and the Alamo. In this sense, there is a great victory today.

May God help us to restore the Texas that Sam Houston fought for and governed — a Texas that will not submit to any tyranny, come from what source it may. Not to the tyranny of  an out-of-control Republican or Democrat federal bureaucracy such as the TSA;  and not to the subtle or overt violations of the rules of morality in its own state government. We need a Texas that will lead by example.

May God grant us another San Jacinto, first in our own hearts and families, then in our state and nation.

Paid for by David Simpson Campaign  |  P.O. Box 5100, Longview, TX 75608  |  June Roberts, Treasurer

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