Conservative Spotlight: Institute for Responsible Citizenship

For centuries, men of other races have tried to deprive black men of their manhood. Sometimes, members of an African tribe have tried to deprive men of another tribe of their manhood. Then, in the 1960s, just as it appeared that black men might achieve a rational equality under the law in America, the left accomplished what others could not: It destroyed the manhood of most black men in America.

"That's exactly right," said William Keyes, president of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship (IRC). "I don't know that the left was clever enough to plan it this way, but that has certainly been the effect." He said that black women are not faring nearly as badly as black men. Black men and boys have extraordinarily high rates of failing out of school, of going to prison, of engaging in crime, of dying young, and of not heading families as the illegitimacy rate among African-Americans hits 70%. Inner-city black communities are heavily dependent on outsiders for help. American blacks have long been vanguards of social change as these same problems continue their long-term growth among Americans of other races, and particularly among men and boys.

But IRC does not take comfort in the fact that, if trends continue, American whites will soon suffer from these problems in the same proportion as American blacks do now. Instead, it targets the most vulnerable population in our country and the one that most needs to step up and seize control of their lives, their families, and their communities: young minority men.

"The American ideal is under constant attack, and precious few citizens are willing to stand up and defend it," says IRC. "It is the purpose of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship to deal with this critical problem in our society by identifying young men who have the potential to become very successful in their chosen fields and prepare them to defend the American ideal. Each year, the institute will identify 12 of the most promising minority male college students in America and inspire and equip them to be defenders of liberty throughout their productive lives."

"We exclusively pursue high-achieving minority male students," said Keyes. "We arrange full-time, high-level internships. Our students don't make photocopies or run errands. It's a highly selective program." IRC offers eight-week internships that have students spend June and July in Washington, D.C., at places such as the Senate Budget Committee, the Senate Rules Committee, the Heritage Foundation, the Washington Legal Foundation, the Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, HHS, and the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. Only college sophomores are eligible to apply, and they must spend two summers in a row in the program. They are housed at one of America's most prestigious universities, Georgetown; take two academic courses; and have expenses paid plus a $2,500 stipend per summer. This past summer, the first in which IRC operated, the students met—all in one summer—with men such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Deputy Atty. Gen. Larry Thompson, economist and columnist Walter Williams, former Atty. Gen. Ed Meese, Sen. Don Nickles (R.-Okla.), and Rep. John Lewis (D.-Ga.). Students came from colleges such as Stanford, Williams, Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Florida A&M, and Cameron University (Okla.). IRC plans to have 12 new students a summer in the future but had ten for its first year. Nine of the ten were black and one was of Guamanian descent.

"There are more black men of college age in prison than in college," said Keyes. "It is especially critical to have black men who love their country and who understand what made this country great."

George Mason economics professor Thomas Rustici teaches the students economics, giving them "a solid grounding in free-market principles," said Keyes. "The political science course teaches constitutional principles, but especially focuses on the Founding." William B. Allen, political science professor at Michigan State and chairman of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission under President Reagan, teaches that course.

Conservative Sen. Nickles helped raise a good deal of the money for the program, said Keyes. "In our classes and all our other activities, we are constantly challenging the students with facts. After a while, they realize that government may not be their best friend after all."

Keyes said that grassroots efforts such as IRC are the way to turn minority communities around ideologically. "People seem to put too much hope in the Republican Party," he said. "The right fails on many important public policy issues because we don't have troops on the ground in minority communities. This program is our way of doing something about that."

IRC may be reached at 1227 25th St. N.W., Sixth Floor, Washington, D.C., 20037 (202-659-0581; fax: 202-659-0582; e-mail: William_A_Keyes@yahoo.com; website: www.i4rc.org).

The libertines/sexual anarchists will never ever understand that loose morals/social liberalism are not compatible with fiscal conservatism. They read some trashback diatribe by Aynarchy Rand and think they know more than the founders of the nation. They stomp for dope rights, drunk rights, smut rights, sodomite rights, prostitute rights, abortion rights and every form of wrong rights they can conjure up from an emanation of a penumbra. They demand separation of morality and government and cheer on a nation in decline.

Why I Believe A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy always followed by dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, and from dependency back into bondage." [The Decline of a Nation]

[W]e have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion....Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (Source: John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co. 1854), Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798.)

Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime & pure, [and] which denounces against the wicked eternal misery, and [which] insured to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments. (Source: Bernard C. Steiner, The Life and Correspondence of James McHenry (Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers, 1907), p. 475. In a letter from Charles Carroll to James McHenry of November 4, 1800.)

[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. Source: Benjamin Franklin, The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Jared Sparks, editor (Boston: Tappan, Whittemore and Mason, 1840), Vol. X, p. 297, April 17, 1787.

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of man and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connexions with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice?

And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who, that is a sincere friend to it, can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? (Source: George Washington, Address of George Washington, President of the United States . . . Preparatory to His Declination (Baltimore: George and Henry S. Keatinge), pp. 22-23. In his Farewell Address to the United States in 1796.)

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