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Monday, October 7, 2024 - 06:40 PM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Ted AdamsThe Anderson County Constitution Meet Up Group met at Ryan’s in Anderson on September 17, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. A fantastic group of energetic, freedom-loving constitutionalists turned out for what proved to be an exciting and thought-provoking evening.

Pastor Tony Romo kicked off the evening at 7:00 p.m. with a welcome and asked each attendee to introduce themselves and briefly share their political involvement. Two of the attendees traveled to be part of the “Tea-Party” in Washington, D. C., one on a bus and the other on his motorcycle. Another individual was involved in the Ron Paul campaign. Some attendees are fairly new to the political scene while others have been freedom fighters for many years. Several of the people at the meeting are members of the Constitution Party.

Pastor Romo introduced Mr. Ted Adams and Mrs. Bonnie Adams, who have been involved in the battle for Constitutional freedom for many years. Mr. Adams gave a brief history of his involvement in the Constitution Party. Mr. Adams has run for office several times under the banner of the Constitution Party, with Mrs. Adams by his side supporting him and the cause of freedom. Mr. Adams told the group it takes a message, and organization and money to run a campaign. Mr. Adams ended his short speech by saying: the key to the success of the Constitution Party changing the political climate of the United States of America is “changing policy and the way to change policy is in the voting booth.”

Mr. Adams introduced the keynote speaker of the evening: Mr. Bob Dill of The Times Examiner newspaper.

Bob DillMr. Adams and Mr. Dill have been friends for many years. Mr Dill started his newspaper sixteen years ago in Greenville, South Carolina. Dill is a graduate of Clemson University. He served his country in the United States Army for more than sixteen years and retired with the permanent grade of Colonel.

Dill recognized that it was Constitution Day in the United States of America, and it is the duty of every American citizen to uphold The United States Constitution as the supreme law of the land. He also disclosed the fact that he did not know much about history prior to his military service. The Army sent him to Oklahoma State University for graduate school. He was required to have 15 credit hours of history to graduate. Therefore, most of his knowledge of history and government was acquired in the military and from self-study after retirement.

Mr. Dill said he took a solemn oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He went on to say that a lot of people forget their oath or totally ignore it. Many ignore the “domestic” enemy part of the oath. That is our major problem today. We have allowed domestic enemies of the Constitution to gain too much power without a significant challenge.

It has been a number of years since Dill took the oath, nonetheless, he took his oath seriously, and said he is still obligated to protect and defend the Constitution to this day. He noted that the Constitution is being ignored and abused by a majority of our elected officials. Some have forgotten or never knew that our form of government is not a democracy, it is a constitutional republic.

Dill said he is not sure that the top leadership of the Republican Party will ever become as conservative as we would like it to be. However, he said we need to be more diligent in pointing out candidates and elected officials who do not uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Dill discussed some of the amendments in the Bill of Rights. Some states are taking steps to protect their freedoms under the Tenth Amendment. South Carolina has not passed a bill to do that to date. Dill is concerned that if we do not get control of our government soon and insist that our elected and appointed leaders comply with the Constitution that we will lose our God given freedom that many of our ancestors have fought and died to preserve and may not be able to regain what is lost without Divine intervention.

There has been speculation that the current government leaders do not intend to give up power should they lose in the next election and may be capable of creating insurrection in order to declare Martial Law and maintain power, Dill said. That would be catastrophic for the current and future generations of Americans and should be avoided at all costs.

Dill shared a couple of stories from his youth, including the lesson in “free enterprise” he received from his father as an eighth grader the first time he asked for a dollar. He has a down-home style that is both captivating and soothing. His words have a calm, authoritative style. He moved the group to tears a couple of times, and then he would punctuate that moment by bringing laughter from the group. Observing the group, it was evident that the listeners were drawn to the speaker and were edified.

The Anderson County Constitution Party Meet-Up group meets at Ryan’s in Anderson on the third Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m.