December 17, 2009
[Publisher's Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, I am pleased to present this column from Brian Rooney. - Flash]
BEFORE YOU READ THIS COLUMN FROM BRIAN ROONEY, WE STRONGLY URGE YOU TO TAKE A MOMENT AND READ THIS BLOG POST FROM FR'S JASON ROE ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
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In 1998, I joined the U.S. Marine Corps and was stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego for my last four years active duty. I was newly married, and w e bought our first home ever in North Park. In 2006, my wife, Tiffany, and I, had our first child at Naval Hospital Balboa in San Diego; soon thereafter I left active duty and moved to Michigan.I moved to Michigan because of the Mount Soledad Cross Memorial in La Jolla, California. When I was living in North Park I would see the Cross while driving to and from Miramar. It was mine and my wife’s favorite spot to go look over beautiful Southern California. As a Marine, it had even more special significance as a war memorial.
The Cross had been standing since 1913 (as a war memorial since 1954) and had come under assault from the ACLU. The inspiration I received from the Cross inspired contempt in an atheist bent on its removal. At least three separate times San Diegans voted to keep the Cross where it was – by overwhelming majorities. But one activist federal judge agreed with the ACLU and ordered the Cross removed. The Thomas More Law Center stepped in to preserve the Cross and Congressman Duncan Hunter introduced a bill to transfer the land the cross sits on to federal property – out of the reach of atheist activists. Hunter’s legislation passed and the Senate voted 99-0 to transfer the land (for those counting, yes, this included Barbara Boxer and Diane Fienstein). The Cross was saved, and although there is still ongoing litigation, the law is on our side and I expect it to stay.
I wanted to be involved in this type of Constitutional litigation, so I sent a resume to the Thomas More Law Center. For the past three years, I have been working on Constitutional cases in Michigan, but I have traveled back to Camp Pendleton often.
Michigan faces many of the same problems California does: A bloated state government, an unfriendly business environment, and people leaving the state because of high taxes and a lack of jobs. We both have some of the greatest higher education institutions in the country, and educate our children there, but then lose them to states that have better opportunity.
I decided to run for Congress when it became clear my current Congressman, Mark Schauer, had no interest in representing his center-right constituency. His interest has been to vote party line, while many parts of my district have 20% unemployment. In fact, Michigan has lost close to half a million jobs since Rep. Schauer took office. The stimulus bill did not work, and the “cap and trade” bill he championed will kill more jobs. Rep. Schauer claimed to write large parts of the Health Care Bill that was passed with his vote in the House. These votes were too much for me to sit back and take any longer.
As a Marine I was always taught to leave a place better than you found it. I owe a country more prosperous and free than the one I inherited to my children. Rep. Schauer doesn’t believe Michigan, California, or America can be great again – I do. I can beat Mark Schauer based upon the principles I learned from a great Governor from California, President Ronald Reagan. As new Republican leadership emerges to get our party back to our core values—Reagan values—we will start winning elections again, and that is why I am going to win in Michigan.
I hope you will keep an eye on my effort to help us elect a common-sense conservative majority to the United States Congress and I hope that you will consider supporting my candidacy.
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Brian Rooney is a candidate for Congress in Michigan's 7th District. You can contact him, or find out more about his candidacy, here.
