Dr. Richard Ryskamp - Candidate for the University of Michigan Board of Regents
The University of Michigan was founded with noble purposes in mind, and we the citizens of Michigan can take pride in many of its achievements. But U of M is increasingly being used as a tool to accomplish the exact opposite of its original purpose. It has been hijacked and is being used in a culture war against the foundations of American society.
This is of great concern because, U of M, through its 40,000 impressionable students and $5 billion budget, it has a major impact on Michigan and our future. As a Michigan taxpayer you have a right to say what goes on there because your $300 million in annual tax subsidies help keep it going.
And you do have a say in what goes on there. U of M is governed by an eight-member Board of Regents elected by the citizens of Michigan. On November 4, 2008, two of the seats on the Board are up for election. To fill these seats, the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan, a Constitution Party affiliate, is fielding two candidates, Joe Sanger and myself. We pledge you to serve on the Board to work to “take back” the U of M back from those who have hijacked it.
Education's Intended Purpose: Preserving Our Culture's Foundation
Our state educational institutions are established in Division 8 of the State of Michigan Constitution. The introduction to this division of the Constitution states:
Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.
Our state constitution is telling us that the intended purpose of U of M and all our state educational institutions is the preservation of three assets vital to good government and human happiness. These three assets are 1) religion, 2) morality and 3) knowledge.
The order in which these three vital assets are mention is not a coincidence. The accumulation and dissemination of knowledge might seem to be the most obvious education-related vital asset, but it is mentioned last. Morality is mentioned before knowledge because without morality, knowledge is useless or dangerous. And religion is mentioned first because it is the worldview that forms the basis of morality and gives a context for all knowledge.
The religion that is referred to in the constitution is not just any worldview. This is apparent in the Preamble of the Constitution.
“We, the people of the State of Michigan, grateful to Almighty God for the blessings of freedom, and earnestly desiring to secure these blessings undiminished to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this constitution.”
The worldview that serves as the first vital asset necessary for the health of our society is a worldview based upon gratitude to Almighty God, the God described in the Bible. It is historical fact that biblical Christianity, while never the religion of everyone in the nation, supplied the worldview of our founding fathers and the moral consensus that has held our nation together. On this foundation our nation has enjoyed a unique environment of freedom, prosperity and strength in which other religions and worldviews have been able to flourish.
Destroying Our Culture's Foundation
While the Constitution indicates that the intended purpose of education is the preservation of the our nation's foundation of (biblical) religion and morality, the general climate in public educational institutions nowadays is one of hostility toward that foundation.
There is no evidence that at U of M the hostility toward our nation's foundation is any different than at most other schools. To the contrary, there is abundant evidence through public records that U of M is very hostile toward it. Examples are given on the “Issues” page of this website. Perhaps the most notable example is its promotion of sodomy and homosexuality through courses such as “How to Be Gay”, and through its offering a “Graduate Certificate in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual and Queer Studies.”
As members of the general public we do not have access to the content of classroom instruction at U of M. But let no one doubt that students at U of M are being bathed in indoctrination hostile to our nation's foundation.
Indeed, U of M seems to believe that its mission is to undermine that foundation. In reading the current mission statement of U of M one reads about “creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge”, but there is no mention of religion or morality, other than possibly the cryptic phrase “developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present”. Based on U of M's record, by “challenge the present” the mission statement means “dismantle the vestiges of America's foundation of religion and morality.”
What to Do
Michigan taxpayers must do two things to remedy this situation:
First, we must elect responsible state legislators who will cut or eliminate taxpayer funding of those education institutions that pursue agendas contrary to the Michigan constitution.
Second, we must elect responsible university regents who will work to re-direct the state universities away from their current anti-constitutional agendas, working to get the public universities out of the business of assaulting our cultural foundations.
We urge you to entrust us with your vote on Election Day.
Constitution Party of Michigan - www.ConstitutionPartyMI.net