The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report.
Welcome. Welcome, Ed Martin here on the Pro America Report today. Opening the show, I asked my friend Hal Shurtleff, who’s been on before in the last couple of months about singing his own praises, if I can say, or the successes of his fight for the Constitution, he is a founder and the operator of Camp Constitution. If you go to campconstitution.net you can find out all more, more, all about it and more about it there. Of course, I always do this to you, Hal, that one of my favorite people, the the late Sam Blumenfeld, is amazing. Amazing figure in American life and he had the his archive is at your website campconstitution.net. So Hal, first of all, welcome back to the program. I’m opening the show talking to you because. What people need to know is it’s not too early to think about your summer. And we’ve gotta keep doing what I tell people, which is sink your roots down into the basics, the Constitution, the Bible. And you know the main things and really get familiar. So tell me, Camp Constitution’s already coming around. It’s July 16th through July 21st this summer. Tell everybody about it more. Tell them what to, what it’s about. Tell them why it’s important and just give them a little pitch, please.
HS: Well, it’s our 15th annual week long family camp and we have people for, whole families, unencumbered minors and unaccompanied adults. And they get a chance to hear some incredible instructors on very important topics concerning our nation, our nation’s history, our godly heritage, threats against the Constitution. We also have one of the world’s top atmospheric scientists, Professor Willie Soon. And he teaches about the misinformation about climate change and all these other things that people are being scared about, scared of death. And not just learn about these things, but what can you do to take active measures against this, in other words, we’re trying to organ, We’re not just educating people, but we’re creating activists. So they go back home and they make a difference in their community. We’ve seen that. We’ve seen examples of some of our staff and campers do things of this nature, whether it’s fighting the Article V Convention or defeating a plastic bag ban in their town and things of this nature.
EM: Well, and I saw today, we’re talking with Hal Shurtleff again and and go to campconstitution.net to find out more. You announced that, I mean some great people are there, always teaching and you’re one of them. But Vince Everett Ellison, people see him a lot. He’s gonna be a an instructor there. He’s gonna spend time. Now how, this’s a little bit of a funny question. I’m asking a question I don’t know the answer and I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but you’ve been doing this for years because you know you have to. We have to get ourselves and our children educated in the Constitution. Having said that, are are we losing ground?
HS: Well, we. We may be losing ground in some places, but gaining ground in others. For example, look at the Second Amendment issue. We are winning on that issue. I think it was. I don’t know how many 10, 15 years ago only Vermont had what they call they call now Constitution carry. I think there are over 20 states that have Constitution carry, even though the left has been making a lot of noise with the the climate change, I think. And in the words of Professor Richard Lindzen of MIT, retired now, he said. We have two things on our side. We have the truth, and we have nature itself. You know, most of the country this year experienced some of the coldest weather ever, you know, record-breaking cold and I think it sort of puts to rest some of that nonsense. And so I don’t think most Americans are buying into it.
So I think we’re gaining ground in some places. I think the place we’re losing a lot of ground is the culture war. But again, I think that it’s a lot of smoke and mirrors. I don’t think most people are buying into it. It just appears to be that way, although a big threat is in our government schools. With this not only promoting socialism. But they’re also promoting this crazy transgenderism, and that’s a real, even in rural areas, you see how it’s dividing families, as a one of fact, there’s a friend of mine whose family, his daughter decides that she’s now a boy and and how the state officials basically took her. And the parents can’t see her. She, and she’s going to be an adult in about 6 months, and then they toss her out and then she goes back. She could end up going back home. But there’s so much confusion. And of course it’s big money. The left has lots of money invested in destroying our youth. That’s why it’s so important, not just to make it, to try to come to our camp. I mean, we’re just basically a small entity, but our our influence goes well beyond I think our our let’s say, our circle and our initial circle because we have that Blumenfeld archive and we actually have hundreds of thousands of people. Around the world, mainly in the United States, have been downloading the Alpha Phonics. They’re now teaching their children, in some cases teaching themselves how to read properly. And that’s that’s the first start and then of course you have to have the spiritual foundation and we do have to realize that we’re in a spiritual war that you know we we see the physical manifestation. You know, every time you pick up the, well, nobody picks up newspapers anymore, do they? Put on the TV or —
EM: They they don’t even put. They don’t pick up their mouse anymore. You don’t pick up a mouse. You you put your finger on the the pad.
HS: That’s right.
EM: But Hal, Hal Shurtleff is our guest. He’s the founder, and he operates Camp Constitution, campconstitution.net. To be clear, folks, it’s up in New Hampshire at at a Christian camp, there’s a campsite. It’s a, you know, it’s a a regular camp, lots of families will go, July 16th to 21st. If your early bird sign up is 250 bucks for the week. After May 1st, it’s $300.00 per week and again you’ll get lots of, it’s. It’s a little bit of a both and, right, they’ll be teaching, but it’s also presence. And I remember John Ashcroft of of, of all people, the former attorney general and all was telling me once he liked to go to to at law school campuses and teach the course. And live there for a while, be together. He said he’d stay for a few weeks instead of like, come in once a month for six months, cause he liked to be present and and something about imparting their the knowledge that way. By the way, Hal, in a few minutes I’m gonna talk to another guest. He and his wife have written a book called She Is She, about how you don’t be confused by this gender identity. You know this, this need, this drive to get everybody that’s having a bad part of their childhood to think it’s gender dysphoria. Right, I, I joked with him getting ready for that interview. Everybody, when you’re young, it’s the definition of being young. You get frightened and scared and worried.
HS: Right. Confused, yeah.
EM: You need to be reassured in all the ways that we know in history. Mom and Dad, if possible. Family if possible, friends if possible, but ultimately God and and and and an understanding of what faith is. So anyway it is. It’s confusing and we’ll talk with them all.
Hey, let me I know —
HS: I know a lot of your listeners maybe in other side of the country. We’ll be happy to pick up anybody in airports and drop them back off and trains, train stations and everywhere, anywhere else.
EM: Thank you for saying that. I was going to say that people do come in from all over and and sometimes they come in for they, you know, they go on a college tour. They’re looking at colleges or they’re going to visit relatives or whatever, and there’s a lot. So, Hal, what is the single biggest impediment to teaching about our Constitution and what by that, I mean, what are what are people most confused about? Is it the? Is it the – over the years the left’s ability to say the Constitution is a a living, breathing document that somehow it’s it’s supposed to change with the weather or with the the, the mood. What is it you find that you gotta kinda sort of now with maybe this moment in history and the culture to say that you’re missing something.
HS: Well, there’s two things. One, you said. The first thing that is some type of living, breathing document that it changes according to morals and attitudes. Well, that’s not true. And the second one is, yes, that it’s some type of outdated relic written in a agrarian society by dead white European males, etc.
But we tell people that the US Constitution was brilliant. These men were far farsighted. They were inspired by, I think, I’m not saying that the Constitution itself is equated to the Bible. But it, God definitely had a hand in that. There’s no doubt in my mind because it just it was so brilliant. I mean, trial by jury. Just look at the things that they did with this Constitution and in fact. Because we have more people today, we have more technology. That’s a reason for more decentralized government, not a stronger, more powerful government. So our founders were brilliant and they did allow it to be amended and there were some places where it had to be amended. You know, we had to get rid of slavery. We didn’t need an income tax, however, that was a bad thing.
EM: That was that was one. That one. Is that right?
HS: And they also set up a Patent Office, they said, yeah, we’re going to, people are going to invent stuff. So we gotta protect invent. So the founders were aware of that. So they were far seeing.
EM: Yeah, it’s a it is, you know, Hal Shurtleff. Thank you. I’m out of time. But I wanted to make sure to get you on. I was texting you earlier. You know that that there’s so much, Phyllis, the late Phyllis Schlafly used to say, you know, clearly, Providence, God had a hand in the Constitution and when people say let let’s let’s have another constitutional convention to say look around and say, I’m not sure that we’re quite ready for God to do what he did in that case again, and and and —
HS: That’s correct.
EM: And so it’s extraordinary. So thanks, Hal. As always, campconstitution.net go check it out again up in New Hampshire, July 16th and 21st. Really good. Hal’s really good. And it’s a a great program with lots of great speakers. I will put it all up on social media so you see it and that’s what you need to know today. We’ll be right back. We got a lot more on the show. Ed Martin. Here on the Pro America Report, back in a moment.
