Vacation Liberty School     

You are probably all familiar with vacation bible schools.  The Saginaw Tea Party is sponsoring a Vacation Liberty School this year, to educate, enlighten, and excite our youth about the beliefs, fundamentals, and principles on which this country was founded.  During this five day, 2½ hour program, your child will journey back to the founding of our nation and learn about the impact faith had on both the founding fathers and the foundation of our nation.  Each day has a theme: Liberty, Faith, Hope Charity and Sustaining Liberty.

The program aims to instill in them a sense of pride in faith and our nation.  This will be accomplished through presentations, games, and by participation in fun activities that demonstrate principles.  We want our youth to thoroughly enjoy the time they spend at Vacation Liberty School.  We also want them to have an experience that instills in them understanding, appreciation, excitement and enthusiasm for the liberty we enjoy in America!  We attempt to do this by having the youth discover the principles of liberty for themselves by experiencing situations, both consistent and contrary, with those principles.

The Vacation Liberty School will be presented for youth ages 10 years to 14 years on Monday, July 11 through Friday, July 15, from 6:00pm to 8:30pm at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 5335 Brockway St. in Saginaw.  Attendance is FREE (although donations would be welcomed.)  Preregistration is encouraged!  You may register at Vacation Liberty School or by calling Heather at 989-274-5279 or Gloria at 989-790-5017.

There is no inclusion of political parties nor any doctrinal definition of faith.  All materials are based on documented historical information.  The organizers also welcome adults interested in volunteering time to help with the school. 

The original Emancipation Proclamation will be available for viewing in Henry Ford Museum for a limited time in June, on loan from the National Archives.  As divisive as it was courageous, Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, issued as the nation was consumed in an unthinkably violent civil war, declared that "all persons held as slaves within any State... shall be then, thenceforward and forever free."

The original document will only be available to the public for a limited time beginning the evening of Monday, June 20th. Following a short opening ceremony, the document will be on display around-the-clock, straight through early Wednesday morning, June 22nd, when it will return to Washington DC.  This event and Museum admission is free to the public from 6:00pm, June 20th through 6:00am, June 22nd.  Regular Museum admission and a $5 parking fee shall apply to those who arrive prior to closing, 5:00pm on Monday, June 20th or after the viewing is over on June 22nd.  More details are available from the Henry Ford Museum. 

Lawsuits, Exemptions, and Exceptions Are Not Health Care Reform   

One more reason to keep reminding our legislators in Washington that they need to repeal the health care law: it's not working!  The Obama Administration has made a "back-door" admission that the law is unworkable, announcing that it has granted more than 1,300 waivers  from various portions of the law.  Health plans insuring over 3 million Americans have already been granted special exemptions, even though the most onerous provisions of the law do not begin until 2014.  Ironically, the Health and Human Services' website describes the waivers as "Helping Americans Keep The Coverage They Have", an admission by the Obama Administration that the only sure way for Americans to keep what they have and like is to waive the law.
 
Organizations from the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trust, The Girl Scouts (of Nassau County), Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, to the Aspen Ski Company and Captain Elliot's Party Boats have sought and received permission to ignore various mandates imposed by the Democrats' health care law.  Over 330 union plans have also received special exemptions.
 
In addition, the Obama Administration granted waivers to the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Nevada from the Medical Loss ratio (MLR) requirements.  Thirty states (in red below) are either seeking a waiver, have received a waiver or are suing the federal government to get out from under the budget-busting and job-crushing mandates in the law. Lawsuits, exemptions, and exceptions are not health care reform.  When 30 states are taking steps to prevent the implementation of the Democrats' health care law in their state, that is a pretty strong indicator that the health care law is not working and that we need to repeal it, start over, and craft workable solutions that will actually increase affordability and access - for all Americans.

(reprinted from Congressman Dave Camp's news page at the House Ways And Means Committee)