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Pay Like a Miser – Live Like a King!
Are you tired of feeling like you’re missing out on the Good Life?
Are you letting your Net Worth determine your Self Worth?
Are you always coming up short – just when it’s YOUR turn to get something good?
Then, it’s time you met . . .
The Thrifty Millionaire!
Welcome to the First Issue of The Thrifty Millionaire -- the first newsletter that will show you how to mine the gold that is all around you!
Unlike other newsletters that promise to give you free stuff, or save you money, there are no offers to complete, no courses to buy, no obligations of any kind.
More. . .
You have the opportunity
TODAY
to change the world!
Dear Friend,
It is rare that a person holds the fate of the world in his or her hands, but today, with this letter, that is exactly what you are doing. When you are finished reading, the decision you reach could well be the deciding factor: will the world flourish because our youth understand the importance of our nation’s history (and with it, the history of the world), or will the world we know cease to exist because the history our youth experienced was simply a series of names and dates, quickly memorized, tested, then forgotten?
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
--Benjamin Franklin
My name is Watson Robinson, and I am a history teacher at Barnett Junior High School and a former Marine Gunnery Sergeant. I have seen firsthand the influence our modern culture has had on our youth. The demeaning and demoralizing television shows, films and music that reduce the human spirit to instinctive base reactions to stimuli. A popular culture that lowers personal standards and character to the lowest common denominator. Lack of leadership from public and private role models. When I see the epidemic proportions it’s reached, it’s enough to make a grown man cry.
There’s only one hope that can bring the country back around. Education. But not just sitting in classrooms getting their heads filled with facts and figures. With the advent of video games, movies on demand, and so counter-educational input available, these kids need something significant, imperative and personal. Our children need to know that there is a higher ground, a historical basis for what is true and good and right about our great country, that there exists proof that humanity can stand for courageous and noble causes.
“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”
--Diogenes Laertius
It is for this reason that I began an initiative to bring a small, but influential group of my best students – the brightest hope for a better tomorrow – to see in person the processes, the places, the documents that will give them the true experience of American Freedom; its cost and its inestimable value. I plan to bring them to our Nation’s Capitol, Washington, D.C., during Spring Break, 2009 to see for themselves the important documents men and women like me, and maybe like you, have put their lives on the line for; the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. I want to show them the memorials to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Places like the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington Cemetery with its Eternal Flame, and the Vietnam Memorial. They will walk the sacred ground of the battlefields at Antietam and Gettysburg, and feel awe in the knowledge that the people and events they have read about in Texas school books actually lived and breathed and made a difference in the field or the building where they stand.
“What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print.”
--Isadora Duncan
To do this, I will need your help. As you might imagine, an undertaking of this kind is expensive. The funds for this trip are not available from the public school system, because this trip is the first of its kind for the Arlington ISD. As a pilot program, we are on our own. This year, we must prove the worth of this very worthy undertaking. Only then will the powers that be consider pledging school funds for further trips in the future.
“The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people.”
--Claiborne Pell (1918 - )
My students may not all be financially blessed enough to cover the costs. Indeed, some of them are from single parent households that are just scraping by. But, if you could see the look of joy on Pia’s face when she comes into class holding yet another extra credit report, talking about how she’s counting on her vast community service hours and intense study to get her into and through high school, and on to a military academy, or the excitement of J.G. when he gets into a political debate in the mock elections and proves his point with a combination of skill and solid knowledge of his facts, you’d know – these kids deserve to go. And YOU deserve to have great kids like these – the movers and shakers of their generation -- in charge of the future of this great country!
“What do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times? I venture to suggest that what we mean is a sense of national responsibility... a patriotism which is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime.”
--Adlai E. Stevenson
1900-1965, American Lawyer, Politician
The program we are using to bring the kids to Washington, D.C. is a regionally and nationally accredited program through the Smithsonian Institution and EF Education, which will require each child to complete coursework that will give them high school history credit. The children will be protected under 24-hour security, with tour personnel trained in object-based learning (the most effective kind), insurance and secure IDs (no student name, address or phone number). EF Education has 40 years of experience conducting student travel tours. We chose this program based on the safety, educational reputation and the high satisfaction ratings they have shown in the past. It will be an unforgettable experience that will change their lives forever.
“Information's pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.”
--Clarence Day
The cost per child is roughly $1600, and includes the full-time services of a tour director throughout the program, round-trip airfare, bus transportation while on tour, accommodations in quality hotels, breakfasts and dinners, comprehensive sightseeing tours and excursions led by expert local guides, entry fees to all events and historical sites, overnight security at hotels for each night, backpack and luggage tag, travel journal, special ID badge, medical and accident coverage, family Smithsonian membership, which includes a 10% discount at the Smithsonian museum and at smithsonianstore.com, and a subscription to Smithsonian magazine.
We are asking you to give what you feel you can. Whether you can sponsor the cost of one child’s trip, or just make a small donation, we need you. We need corporate sponsors and private sponsors. We are willing to help you help us by supplying you with donation jars for your place of employment or worship, or clickable links for your webpage, social networking site (i.e. Facebook, My Space, etc.), e-mail or blog. We are open to your ideas for raising funds, too. We also need you to ask others – at your workplace, your church, your service organization or wherever you know other people – to think of the future, and invest in our country.
Our children are our greatest national asset, and our greatest hope. Please support these dedicated students, so they will be able to understand and embrace their National Heritage, and proudly carry the torch of freedom for generations to come!
“Only the educated are free.”
--Epictetus (55 AD - 135 AD), Discourses
With Humble Thanks,
Watson Robinson
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For your convenience, please mail checks and money orders to:
Barnett Junior High School History Trip Fund, 2101 E. Sublett Rd., Arlington, TX 76018
Attn: Mr. Robinson
Or submit payment online at PayPal: [email protected].
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at: (682) 867-5000
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