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The TJEd Times – Volume 2, Issue 1

The TJEd Times

July 3, 2008

A Publication of The Thomas Jefferson Education Consortium

Welcome to the latest edition of the TJEd Times, even if it is six months late. We’re back with a passion and looking to make up for lost time. ¡Viva la Educación!

In This Issue

Message from the Editors

Wow! The year is half over, and we finally got our first issue out. Sorry about that. Sometimes life happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Of course, other times you forget to do a six month “no” for a couple of years, and you bury yourself so deep that you can’t figure out which way is up. Around here it’s been a little of both, but we’re slowly digging our way out, and we thought Independence Day was the perfect excuse/incentive to get the newsletter out. It’s a little shorter than usual this time, but we wanted to make sure you knew we’re still alive and thinking of you.

As with every issue of the TJEd Times, we have a free gift for you as our way of bribing you to stay subscribed to our newsletter. We’ll get to that in a minute. We’d also like to announce our first ever contest. We’re giving away 5 patriotic DVDs, and you enter to win by joining the discussion in our forums. The details are below.

Happy Independence Day! May God grant us the strength and will to preserve and restore the hard-won freedoms our founders gave us.

Russell & Rachel Keppner

The Thomas Jefferson Education Consortium

Calendar of Events

God Save the Flag

By Oliver Wendell Holmes

Washed in the blood of the brave and the blooming,
Snatched from the altars of insolent foes,
Burning with star-fires, but never consuming,
Flash its broad ribbons of lily and rose.

Vainly the prophets of Baal would rend it,
Vainly his worshippers pray for its fall;
Thousands have died for it, millions defend it,
Emblem of justice and mercy to all;

Justice that reddens the sky with her terrors,
Mercy that comes with her white-handed train,
Soothing all passions, redeeming all errors,
Sheathing the sabre and breaking the chain.

Borne on the deluge of all usurpations,
Drifted our Ark o’er the desolate seas,
Bearing the rainbow of hope to the nations,
Torn from the storm-cloud and flung to the breeze!

God bless the Flag and its loyal defenders,
While its broad folds o’er the battle-field wave,
Till the dim star-wreath rekindle its splendors,
Washed from its stains in the blood of the brave!

TJEd.org Updates

Each issue we highlight one of the conversations on the discussion forums at TJEd.org. This time we’re using the forums for a slightly different purpose—a contest. The contest ends on Sunday at midnight, so hurry on over and post.

rkeppner wrote:

In celebration of U.S. Independence Day, we are giving away 5 copies of the educational DVD A More Perfect Union: America Becomes a Nation. This movie was produced by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, and is the dramatized recreation of the Constitutional Convention of 1787. To enter the contest, post your favorite Independence Day family tradition by clicking the Add new comment after this post. We’ll select our favorite 5 from the entries, and send them each the DVD. Sorry, we can only ship to U.S. addresses. Yes, we love all you TJEders in other countries, especially Canada, but we’re on a shoestring budget for this contest. We’ll be awarding points for creativity, style, and believability, so use your best grammar, but don’t make it up. To be considered, entries must be posted in direct response to this message, not further down the thread. The contest officially ends at midnight July 6, mountain standard time, so get your post in before that. Good luck!

Read this post and its responses here.

Our Free Gift to You

Every month we like to show our subscribers how much we appreciate them by offering a small token of our affection. It’s just our way of giving back and encouraging you to keep reading the TJEd Times. We hope you enjoy it.

Our gift to you this issue is a downloadable mp3 audio file of an address given by Dr. Shannon Brooks, CEO of George Wythe College. Last October, Dr. Brooks addressed our TJEd group, here in Arizona, on Legacy and Philanthropy. We found it inspiring, and we think you will too.

Download Audio

There is one minor catch, though—you need a password to download your gift. Normally the password is “hidden” in the expanded versions of the issue’s articles, so that you have to actually click through to TJEd.org to find what you’re looking for. However, this time we’ll take it easy on you.

Here’s the clue to this issue’s password. On the 4th of July we celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence. What year was the Declaration of Independence signed? To download your gift, you’ll need the answer to that question.

We never rent or sell subscriber lists to any third party. Your privacy is very important to us! To subscribe to this newsletter, click here.

Copyright © 2008 Thomas Jefferson Education Consortium. All Rights Reserved.