About Me

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Joyce Swann has been a Christian since childhood and a prayer warrior for over forty years. She became nationally-known in the 1990’s because of her work homeschooling her ten children from the first grade through masters’ degrees before their seventeenth birthdays. She has been featured on Paul Harvey’s weekly radio program, CBN, and the 1990’s CBS series, “How’d They Do That?” She has been interviewed by “Woman’s World”, “The National Enquirer”, and numerous regional newspapers. The story of the Swann family has also been featured in the “National Review” and several books about homeschooling success stories. Joyce is the author or co-author of five novels, including “The Fourth Kingdom”, which was selected as a finalist in the Christianity Today 2011 fiction of the year awards and “The Warrior” which, since its release in 2012, has had over 50,000 Kindle downloads and hundreds of glowing reviews. She was a popular columnist for “Practical Homeschooling” for nearly decade and she has retold her own story of homeschooling her ten children in “Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother”. “The Warrior” is her first solo novel.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Liberty Made in America

Last week I wrote about the Liberty Bell and how different aspects of its history are symbolic of Liberty itself. In that blog I mentioned that the Liberty Bell was cast in England at Whitechapel Foundry near London and delivered to Philadelphia on September 1, 1752, while we were still an English Colony, subject to English rule.
 
The Bell, which was inscribed with Leviticus 25:10, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof,” was to be installed in the State House (now Independence Hall) Steeple to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges. The first time it was rung, however, a large crack appeared, rendering it unringable. The damage was sufficient so that the Bell was given to John Pass and John Stowe, two Philadelphia foundry workers, to melt it down and recast it. This was absolutely necessary because the Bell that would eventually become a symbol of American Liberty needed to be made in America.
 
Twenty-four years later we declared our independence from England while engaged in a war that appeared to the world to be both unwise and unwinnable, and the Bell pealed loudly to call the citizenry together for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. This Bell that had originated in England had proven to be unsuitable for service in America and had been forged anew on American soil so that it could “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” We proclaimed a new kind of Liberty, without a monarchy, with elected officials answerable to the people who elected them. It was not, and is not, a perfect system, but it was and is the best system the world has ever known. It was Liberty made in America for Americans.
 
Liberty can neither be imported nor exported. We may serve as a model for other countries who want Liberty, but we cannot win their Liberty for them. When we have committed ourselves to bring democracy to other nations, the results have not been good. Usually we have succeeded in helping them exchange one group of despots for another—Cuba, Afghanistan, Iraq.
 
George W. Bush said that “Liberty is God’s gift to humanity”. While I believe that is true, I also believe that, like God’s other gifts to humanity, people must want Liberty before they can receive it. It is not enough for us to want Liberty for others; they must want it for themselves. We cannot simply go into other countries and dole out Liberty as if it were a giant Care Package. Liberty is fragile. It must be won by those who are willing to pay any price to secure it, and then it must be protected.
 
Every generation is called on to defend Liberty, and every free nation must value it enough so that they nurture it and protect it and pass it on to the next generation. The Liberty that we enjoy today was bought with a great price, and it has been secured by each generation with American blood and American treasure. Our Liberty was made in America, and the Bell that proclaimed that Liberty on July 8, 1776, was also made in America. Liberty was certainly God’s gift to America, but in order to secure it, Americans had to accept it, proclaim it, and defend it. If the day ever comes when we fail to value and defend it, Liberty will be lost.

Download Joyce Swann's Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother Free on Kindle now through August 6th.


Joyce Swann is the author of Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act. For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Fractured Liberty

With the exception of the Stars and Stripes, for Americans nothing symbolizes Liberty more than the Liberty Bell. Yet, in examining its history we find that, like Liberty itself, the Bell has frequently been the source of controversy.
In 1751 the Bell was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Assembly to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of William Penn’s 1701 Charter of Privileges—Pennsylvania’s original Constitution. The Charter was remarkable in that it contained views on religious freedom, Native American rights, and the idea that citizens should be included in making the laws.
No one knows when the first crack appeared on the Bell, but the final wide crack that rendered it unusable occurred on Washington’s Birthday in 1846 when it was rung to commemorate the occasion. The Philadelphia Public Ledger published an account of the incident in its February 26, 1846, issue in which it stated, “It gave out clear notes and loud, and appeared to be in excellent condition until noon, when it received a sort of compound fracture in a zig-zag direction through one of its sides which put it completely out of tune and left it a mere wreck of what it was.”
Although the Bell was never rung again, it became a symbol of the anti-slavery movement, and after the Civil War it traveled across the country to bring unity to a divided nation. A replica of the Bell toured the country in 1915 to promote women’s suffrage.
The Bell was produced by Whitechapel Foundry where it was inscribed with Leviticus 25:10, “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”  It arrived in Philadelphia on September 1, 1752 but was not rung until March 10, 1753. It was cracked by a stroke of the clapper when it was hung to try the sound.
John Pass and John Stow, two Philadelphia foundry workers, were given the cracked Bell to be melted down and recast. They added copper to the molten metal to make the new Bell less brittle, and the new Bell was placed in the belfry on March 29, 1753. When the Bell was rung, however, the consensus was that too much copper had been added and the resulting tone was not acceptable.
Pass and Stowe were ordered to break up the Bell once again and recast it. Finally, in June of 1753 the final Bell was placed in the Statehouse Steeple. Isaac Norris, one of the members of the Assembly who had originally commissioned the Bell, was still not pleased and ordered a new bell from England. Upon its arrival, however, the new bell was deemed to sound no better than the Pass and Stow Bell, and the Pass and Stow Bell remained in the Statehouse.
Prior to 1846 the Bell was rung frequently to call the Assembly together and to summon people for special announcements. Perhaps the most notable of those occasions was on July 8, 1776 when the Bell tolled to call the citizens for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
Ironically, this same Bell that has served as a symbol of freedom for many American causes has also been a source of irritation for others.  In 1772 a petition was sent to the assembly stating that the people in the vicinity of the State House were “incommoded and distressed by the constant ringing of the great Bell in the steeple.”
A few weeks before the British occupied Philadelphia in October of 1777, the Bell was removed and hidden in the floorboards of the Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to keep it from being seized by the British and melted down to be used for cannon.
The story of the Liberty Bell is the story of Liberty itself:
 Liberty has always been guarded by the Church, and in countries where the Church ceases to value Liberty, Liberty is soon lost.
Liberty is a sweet sound in the ears of some, but to others it is an affront. To those who do not value freedom, Liberty is the sound of great distress, and they will always petition against it.
Liberty is never perfect. It has flaws, and it requires special care to keep it intact. It must be protected and cherished, but it must never be discarded. Its value is incalculable; it is a thousand times better than the next best thing.
Liberty unites and heals. Those who love Liberty will always come together—even after they have gone through the most difficult times. When Liberty moves across the nation, the result is a united citizenry.
Liberty calls to people everywhere. It declares independence; it summons its citizens to war; it brings people together to make good laws and reject oppressive legislation; it advocates for the oppressed.
Liberty is a gift from God. He admonishes us to “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” It is our duty to hold onto it, and defend it, and value it. When we do, the sound of Liberty rings throughout this land and brings hope to the whole world.

Read Joyce Swann's Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother Free on Kindle through August 6th.

Joyce Swann is the author of Looking Backward: My Twenty-Five Years as a Homeschooling Mother  co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net

 


Thursday, July 18, 2013

How You Made Your Child Unemployable

Most parents believe that they have an obligation to teach their children to obey the law, follow the rules, and work hard. They assure them that if they do these things they will be able to get a good job and move up in the world. However, we are now living in the Obama Administration where people wear hats on their feet and hamburgers eat people and where all the rules have changed.
This week one of my daughters was applying for some jobs posted on-line. She has a master’s degree and years of excellent work experience, but the job market has slim pickings, so after she applied for the more desirable positions, she looked at the postings for Macy’s.
After she completed Macy’s on-line application, a screen appeared with a Tax Information Survey that the applicants are also required to complete.  The questions on this survey are as follows:
  1. Are you receiving food stamps and/or receiving benefits from the SNAP Program?
  2.  Are you receiving Social Security Supplemental Income Benefits—NOT survivor’s benefits.
  3. Have you been released from prison in the last year?
At first glance these questions appear to be a vetting process for weeding out employees who might not be a good fit for the numerous corporations, including Walmart, Lowes, and Home Depot, who use this survey as part of their application process. In fact, it is nothing of the kind.
The Tax Information Survey is designed to determine whether an applicant is in a category to allow the employer to receive a tax break from the federal government as an incentive for hiring him/her. Since the benefits to the employer are significant—that is if you don’t consider the possible downsides of hiring convicted criminals and the chronically unemployed—it is pretty much a given that if you are not on welfare or an ex-con, you do not qualify. After exploring this situation further, I actually discovered that one major corporation in El Paso has a loss mitigation department made up entirely of ex-cons and parolees.
Am I the only one who finds this new way of screening potential employees outrageous? I never thought that I would live to see the day when having been released from prison during the last year was a pre-requisite for employment. But, all of that aside, what is the real issue involved here?
It seems to me that the Obama Administration does everything possible to punish American citizens who struggle to support their families and work long hours so that their children can have better futures. The hardworking, honest people who built this country with their blood, sweat, and tears have been thrown to the curb in favor of those who have broken and continue to break all the rules.
It is time for us to get serious about our elected officials. Next year we will have an opportunity to elect men and women to both houses of congress who still believe in the American Dream, who still believe that honesty and hard work are virtues, and who still believe that in order to have a great America we much encourage our children to become great Americans.

Joyce Swann is co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net
 

Friday, July 12, 2013

The Right Crisis

“We are on the verge of a global transformation, all we need is the right major crisis...” David Rockefeller, Club of Rome executive member and proponent of Agenda 21.
As David and his liberal elitist cronies, who want to take over the world and reduce the rest of us to lives of squalor, have discovered it is hard to create “the right crisis” in a country where we have the best minds, the best educational opportunities, the best housing, the best medical care, the most abundant food supply, and the most generous people on earth. Therefore, in order to have “the right major crisis” in the United States it must be created through a sustained program of propaganda that promotes phony science, falsified statistics, and the baseless threat of an unavoidable global catastrophe. Using these tactics, that group of elites who aspire to control the world are focusing their efforts on reducing the United States to a third world economy and a third world military power by instituting policies that will take away our food, our energy, our housing, our medical care, our jobs, our higher educational opportunities and our armed forces under the guise of “protecting” us from the horrors that are sure to come if we do not comply with the restrictions they choose to impose.
If those who are promoting these ideas actually believed they were true, they might be excused as being merely stupid and, therefore, dangerous if allowed to remain in positions of power. However, we have ample proof that those who have devoted themselves to promoting  Agenda 21 by creating the false threat of global warming, a.k.a. climate change, do not believe a word of it. They have simply invented the notion that, as Barack Obama said in a speech in South Africa a few days ago , if people in third world countries “have big houses, air conditioning and cars, the world will boil over.”
The great irony is, of course, that while telling the world—including the United States—that we are a bunch of hogs for wanting to drive our SUVs, eat as much as we want and be cool in the summer and warm in the winter, he lives in a 53,000 square foot mansion courtesy of the taxpayers and flies off in a private jet furnished by the American people to spend 100 million dollars on his South African vacation.      
For anyone who has difficulty believing that a body of educated, respected, prominent individuals would conspire to lie to the entire world in order to create “the right crisis” I have included a few of their comments concerning climate change:
“Coal makes us sick. Oil makes us sick. It’s global warming. It’s ruining our country. It’s ruining the world.” Harry Reid, U.S. Senate majority leader.    
“The data doesn’t matter. We’re not basing our recommendations on the data. We’re basing them on the climate models.” Professor Chris Folland, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
“I believe it is appropriate to have an ‘over representation’ of the facts on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience.” Al Gore, former Vice President of the U. S. and unsuccessful presidential candidate.
“It doesn’t matter what is true, it only matters what people believe is true.” Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace
“The only way to get our society to truly change is to frighten people with the possibility of a catastrophe.” Emeritus professor Daniel Botkin
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” Maurice Strong, founder of the UN Environment Programme
“My three main goals would be to  reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, [since the earth’s present population is approximately 7 billion people, that would mean killing off about 6 billion, 900 million people] destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with it’s full complement of species, returning throughout the world.” Dave Foreman, co-founder of Earth First
And, finally, this quote from Stephen Schneider, Stanford Professor of Climatology:  “We need to get some broad based support, to capture the public’s imagination…So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts…Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”
Apparently, those who espouse global warming and warn us that if we continue to eat and breathe at our current rates, we will eventually set the world on fire, did not take into consideration the American Spirit—that indefinable quality that made this country great. They did not consider that we are an optimistic people who refuse to retreat in times of danger. They have forgotten the Minutemen and Valley Forge and George Washington crossing the Delaware—or, perhaps, they are just victims of their own revisionist history that says we have never been a strong, committed people.
Whatever their thinking may be, they have very much underestimated the American people. When they set out to create “the right crisis” to bring about the subjugation of the American people, they also created the perfect storm for patriotic Americans to stand up and say, “You will not take our country! You will not take our freedom! You will not take our way of life!”
Through the assault on Liberty that we have witnessed in this new millennium, we have recognized that we can no longer be complacent. Americans who were never politically involved are voting and attending political meetings. We are becoming informed and speaking out in defense of Liberty. We are signing on-line petitions and contacting our elected officials to let them know what we expect of them. And we are sending a message that any elected official who fails to protect our freedoms will be unemployed when the next election cycle comes around.
Apparently, the one-worlders thought that if they could scare us we would surrender and fall in line behind them.  They were wrong! All Americans alive today were born into freedom, and we are not about to allow a few elitists to rob us of our birthright as United States citizens. They set out to scare us; instead, they awakened us.
We have always had to fight to stay free. We fought two wars with Britain on American soil. We fought in Europe and Asia to remain a free nation. We have always believed that we have a way of life that is worth fighting for—worth defending.  We did not flinch when some of the world’s greatest military powers had real guns pointed at our heads. We will not flinch when a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals with their pseudo-science point their fingers at our heads and threaten us with destruction.
Freedom is not dead. We will find candidates who will turn back legislation meant to enslave us. We will write, and talk, and read, until we have uncovered every evil plan that they would set into motion. And then, we will go to the ballot box and throw out all who work to overthrow our system of government.
When the Agenda 21 proponents set out to create “the right major crisis”, they never imagined that they were creating the right crisis to wake up every freedom-loving American and band us together into a force for liberty that they cannot stand against. 

Read Joyce's novel, The Chosen, free on Kindle through Sunday July 14th. 

Joyce Swann is co-author of The Chosen, a dystopian novel about the battle of one U.S. family to restore the Constitution and stop the indefinite detention provisions of the National Defense Authorization Act.  For more information, visit her website at http://www.frontier2000.net