Hello, I am just your average ordinary person. I may not be as well spoken as some of the other writers on this website, however, I am just as interested in keeping Arizona the conservative state it should be.

I had been a photographer for most of my adult life, when about a year and a half ago I was a stay-at-home dad working on a political science degree. After hearing me grumble at the morning paper and evening news daily, my wife Pamela suggested that since I had a year of school remaining and a year until our son was in school full-time, why not start a newspaper myself.

Six months later the first issue of The Arizona Conservative Times came out in the Gilbert area. Within a couple of months it was being delivered to conservative businesses and meetings valley wide. However, our lack of advertising sales forced us to hire on a marketing firm. Unfortunately, we hired the wrong one. Due to lack of research about the company, we inadvertently chose one that was owned by an ex-con who had spent years in prison for fraudulent schemes. Well, he made many promises, he took our money, he made more promises, he made even more promises, and eventually after not following through on any of them, we were forced to shut down.

A quick update on this person: he has been sitting in jail since the beginning of June facing a minimum of 13 years in prison. Five years for probation violations, (he was not to conduct business as part of his probation) and eight years for current fraud charges, of which The Arizona Conservative Times was included as one of his victims. I blame no one but myself for not researching this person better.

I have since moved on to a different career path, however, I still feel as strongly as ever about my conservative convictions. Dennis Durband, the respected editor of The Arizona Conservative online, has given me the opportunity to continue bringing conservatives and others news and thoughts they will not hear from any local news source. I will be sharing my “Observations From The Sidelines.”

A local newspaper recently ran a front-page story in which a high school student created “art” of a handless Christ being portrayed as a puppet being controlled by a sinister-looking puppeteer. I think that the most appalling thing about the picture created by Erika Vogt-Nilson is not the picture itself, or the fact it was not only considered acceptable by the public school system, but that it won an award. In the same system, the most minute reference to Christianity will land a student a suspension, the onslaught of the ACLU, and in some extreme cases the threat of jail.

It is quite evident that the “separation of church and state,” the most favorite cry of the liberal left, only applies when God is placed in a favorable light. What the Vogt –Nilsen story does is simply reaffirm that it is okay to violate the so-called “separation of church and state” if you are denigrating God.

In reality, there should be nothing wrong with this young woman’s so-called art. The state should not control her ability to create this “art.” However, students should also not be prevented from praying in school, reading their Bible in school and they should even be taught about religion in public school for that matter. As Alan Keyes, an expert on the subject, once wrote, “Federal and state governments, in matters of religion, are forbidden to coerce or prohibit individual choice and action.” For an excellent study on the First Amendment’s establishment clause, visit Alan Keyes’ website at www.renewamerica.us, click on “archives,” then “Alan Keyes archives,” then go to “columns” and see his August 26, 2003 column, “On the Establishment of Religion, What the Constitution Really Says.”

As a Christian, it amazes me, that although an estimated 80-plus percent of Americans are Christians, our lives and the lives and futures of our children are being dictated by the extreme “Christian-hating left.” Now I know the word hate is taboo in this politically correct world, especially when what is deemed as politically correct is decided by these same people, but how else could you describe the attack that has been waged against us.

Think about it, if you took what the media and the ACLU says about Christians and replaced it with any other group name it simply would not be tolerated. 

Christians tend to not want to rock the boat unless it is a big issue such as traditional marriage. However, what we fail to realize is that wars are often lost in the little battles.

It’s like the old boiling-a-frog analogy. To boil a frog, you place it in cold water -- not hot -- because he would immediately jump out. Then you slowly turn the heat up. By the time the frog realizes he’s being boiled it’s too late.

For some time now we have been sitting in a pot with the heat being slowly turned up. This last Christmas season the left threw us into an already boiling pot. We jumped out and fought back.

Let's not be frogs.

As Dr. Keyes said: "Our Founders were right: we're not going to keep the Constitution unless we remain a people who deserve it. And in the end, that depends not upon us, but upon our willingness to acknowledge and follow the will of God."

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