By Oregon State Senator, Dennis Linthicum
August 19, 2023
In February 1788, before the ratification of the Constitution, Thomas Cogswell, a Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Court, penned an address to members of New-Hampshire’s legislature. He was highlighting constitutional issues and provided some keen insight for us today.
First, “Be as zealous to ward off public evil as others are to bring it on,” because as Cogswell encourages his readers, “with diligence, you have a fair chance to prevent it for ages yet to come.”
This is a relevant for Oregon today as many unsound policies got passed by slim margins in the Democrat majority. I supported the denial of quorum effort by Republicans in the Senate to stop these same bills. In particular, the so-called reproductive health and gender-altering fiasco (HB 2002) and the unconstitutional anti-gun bill (HB 2005).
Through compromise Republicans did win some important victories. One important detail was beating back the assault against parental rights. Specifically, the original bill had a legal requirement that said, no healthcare service provider was allowed to inform any parent about the medical care their child was receiving. This effectively made all parents ne’er-do-wells and enemies of the state.
The black-brush narrative against Moms and Dads is entirely unwarranted and should have never been forwarded as a valid criticism against every parent and legal guardian in the state. There was never any legitimate reason to put all healthcare providers, administrators, or nurses under this mandatory gag-order and hide information from parents. HB 2002 should have been totally smashed and unseamed, from beginning to end.
Republicans successfully frayed the edges of this legislation but the ideological fabric of the bill continues to drape feel-good language over the brutal realities of surgical and chemical attempts to alter a child’s biological sex. The bill creates ghastly opportunities for medical service providers to game the system by sweeping young and purposefully confused youth into the transgender movement.
The Democrats and their Planned Parenthood partners have put out the welcome mat for sex-traffickers in Oregon. Portland is already the number one city for trafficking on the West coast. Gender confusion will get promoted by advancing this formidable precedent for Oregon as a transgender tourist destination. The no-cost patina and tax-payer funding of this scheme will draw countless youth into the mix by teasing young, naïve, immature and confused children into the promise of these questionable life altering procedures.
Planned Parenthood’s radical promotion of pre-teen sexual expression, exploration and potential grooming was successfully slowed by 
Republicans. However, it is still highly energized by money and the wholly inappropriate goal of sexualizing our youngest children and grandchildren.
Government schools struggle to teach reading, writing and arithmetic because the self-exploration and masturbation curriculum is far more tantalizing than any multiplication table. This collective impropriety is wreaking havoc at every level of governance. Government actors through political malfeasance are killing our culture.
A recent Medscape paper by Sun, et., al., noted the dropping age of gender dysphoria available in public data. “If gender dysphoria was an organic psychiatric illness, it would have steady epidemiological parameters. The enormous campaign for transgender acceptance, hypersexuality, and pornography introduced into schools appears to be working. As the data show, gender dysphoria is still largely a post-pubertal issue, however, the curves are reaching down to the pre-pubertal age groups.”
The current legislative session may be over but our call is to raise up an army of Moms, Dads, Grandparents, and families to join with me for the long-term battle against vulgarity, perversion and corruption. Fortitude and diligence will be needed for our success as we stand for the “wholesomeness” of our culture. We didn’t reach this point of cultural degradation overnight and the road before us will be filled with difficulties and opposition.
Cogswell has more to say,
“I had rather trust my purse in the hands of a sharper, than my liberties in the hands of any set of men, unless they are secured with restraints stronger than their temptations to destroy [liberty]; for the former by industry may be replenished; but liberty once lost, is scarce ever recovered.”
Cogswell is simply stating the obvious, men and women are corruptible and our liberties are at stake. Cogswell advises us to protect our liberties from the sharpers, wheedlers, and political grifters by not falling for their false promises, lies, and underhanded dealings. Our constitutions, laws, rules, statutes and regulations are in place to protect our lives, liberty, property and our own just pursuits. Yet, these very laws and constitutions can be twisted by the ambitious to further their own agenda to the neglect of the public good.
We have been chosen for this time to be engaged; to debate, deliberate, and decide some of Oregon’s most important matters. These matters will determine the path of our own prosperity and the freedoms that we win or lose.
Today’s effort will be for tomorrow’s children, families, Moms, and Dads who are yet to come. We know that strong, independent family units are the most important part of American freedom. Statistically, a properly functioning and stable family unit is the single most significant predictor for the health, prosperity and success of the next generation.
Our American heroes sacrificed their lives and fortunes in the enormous battles of history. Although President Biden recently mocked patriots, stating they would need “F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons” to fight against the bureaucratic state, this is not where our battles will take place. Instead, our battle will be waged within the sound, fury and turmoil of an ideological war all the way down to the local school board.
This battle is now at every Oregonians doorstep.
We have a duty to tell a different story. Our duty is to tell the Truth.
We cannot allow ourselves to lose hope because now is the time for drawing better men and women into our fold. Now is the time to articulate the beauty and dignity found in our Constitutional principles – religious freedom, parental rights, freedom of thought and speech, self-protection and the right to self-governance using the Hippocratic motto, “First, do no harm”.
Join with me in commemorating our nation’s Declaration of Independence, by committing yourself to freedom with their same degree of fervor.
© 2023 Dennis Linthicum – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Dennis Linthicum: d4linthicum@gmail.com
