A783
Number four, national achievement. Great building programs began in Rome. A vast network of roads united the empire. Magnificent palaces, public buildings and coliseums were constructed.
Number five, there was an infiltration of a lie. As Roman families prospered, it became fashionable to hire educated Greeks to care for the children. Greek philosophies, with its humanistic and garish base, was soon passed on to the Roman families.
Women demanded more rights, and which women deserve rights. And let me tell you something about my woman, she runs the house. In order to accommodate them, new marriage contracts were designed including open marriages or marriages to more than one woman.
Big government, by the time the first century A.D. the father had lost his legal authority. It was delegated to the village then to the city then to the state and finally to the empire. In Rome, citizens complained about how their shortages slowed the rents, congested traffic, polluted air, crime in the streets, and the high cost of living. Unemployment was a perennial problem. To solve it the government created a multitude of civil service jobs including building inspectors, health inspectors and tax collectors.
And number seven, the decline of Rome through its persecution. The problem of big government only multiplied. Meanwhile, a flourishing New Testament church was established in the Roman empire with the preaching of the Apostle Paul and others. The final act of the Roman empire was to bring great persecution to these Christians.
Rome was quite tolerant of all other religions, but Christianity was bad, and they were persecuted, burned and thrown to the lions. By the end of this era the Christians had conquered Rome.
As we see in this we're dealing with some of the same problems. We're giving our kids over to other people to teach when they need to be taught at home. We're actually giving them over to babysitters. They need to be taught by their mothers and their fathers, and if they're taught by their mothers and fathers, they will respect everyone around them.
I can give you a great example. Balzo, who is a friend of mine over here, we've been ministers of kids down in Milwaukee, some kids that were gang leaders that are working with us now, that have totally changed their lives. And it's interesting to me, Balzo asked me a few years ago, he said, you know, I want to get my life back with God, but how do I go about that, what do I need to start doing?
I said, Balzo, what you're doing with these children, moving them into your home and allowing them to live with you, you're doing a whole lot more than many churches are doing, because people won't pull kids like this off the street into their homes.
Because Balzo has befriended them -- he has a young man right now that's 18 years old that held up his fifth grade class when he was 11 years ago. This kid is living with Balzo now. He's totally changed his life. He's working now, and the thing that's interesting about him, I spent a night with Balzo one night and I saw a Valentine's Day card and this kid had given Balzo a Valentine's Day card, and he told Balzo how much he appreciated him, how much he appreciated him giving himself to him and he said in this letter you are now my Dad.
We went over to visit the Children's Hospital down in Milwaukee. The last young lady we visited had been shot in the belly by some thieves with a double-barrel shotgun. She asked us to pray for her. I told Balzo, you've got to befriend her. Don't leave her. Go and see her. He went to see her.
One week I went down and we went over to see her. The girl has still got buckshot in the belly, but she sat between me and Balzo and laid in Balzo's arm and said, you're my daddy. Other kids have responded to him as saying -- he has a young lady that's mad at him right now because he's not giving her the attention that he used to, because she feels that Balzo is her dad.
Children want fathers. The mothers have been raising our children and been doing a good job in many respects, but it's hard for a mother to raise a child when they don't have the resources to do it and they're the only ones there. I have nothing at all -- my mother was a single parent for awhile, but the thing is that kids want authority in their life and they want a man that will be simple to them and caring to them.
The last verse in the Old Testament says that in the last days that God will return the hearts of the father's back to the children and the children's back to their fathers. Men, we have lost touch with reality. We've lost touch with responsibility. We've lost touch with our own children, and we've lost touch with what's going on around us.
Our children are dying. They're dying. They're dying from being shot on the streets. They're dying through abortion. And let me tell you, I'm not a republican nor am I a democrat. And some people will say, well, if you're for abortion, you must be a republican. I'm neither one.
We talk about the rights of women. And if a man and a woman are going to lay down and get pregnant, then they need to be faced with responsibility. We can't just keep killing off children because it's just a fashionable thing to get rid of them when we don't want them. If a woman or a man don't lay down and do it, there will be no pregnancy. It's sin.
Fornication is a sin, and what we're saying to children is it's all right to sin, and if you sin, you can get rid of the baby if you want to. You don't have to be responsible. We have to teach responsibility to our children.
I hate watching these talk shows on TV, when a 13 year old girl is sitting on television and she's pregnant and the question is asked by the television host, how come you didn't use a condom. When are we going to start telling our children and training our children to wait until they get married? When are the leaders going to start doing that?
When Magic Johnson contracted the HIV virus, the day that he announced it condom sales went up 400 percent. We're telling our kids it's all right to have sex but make sure you protect yourself. They're not protecting themselves. What they're doing is hurting themselves. They're killing themselves, while we're sitting back watching and making decisions on their lives and on the things that they have to deal with.
A784
We can't continue to sit in our offices. We can't continue to sit back and watch. I believe that as people, as politicians and as leaders there has to be something that's done. We can not just visit the communities when we want to be voted in. We have to get the feel of what the people need. We have to talk to them. We have to go to them and allow them to come to us and get the feel of what they need and fulfill that need.
There are a lot of very intelligent people that's living in these oppressed communities. They know what they need. They know what they want. They know what they're seeking for. But we think that because they're not educated and because they didn't go to college, that they don't know the needs of the community.
Even though I'm black man, when I went into these streets I realized that I was out of touch. I was out of touch with my own people, and if we don't go and talk to them and try to understand what they're going through, they will continue to die.
But more importantly, I end with this. I think Wisconsin has a unique opportunity. I want to become a resident here because I've been treated better here in this state than anywhere else that I've been.
The reason I want to become a resident here is because of the two people that are sitting behind me and some of the others that I've met, because you've treated me and my wife -- you didn't treat us like we were dust. You treated us with respect. We felt like we had some solutions to some problems.
We don't have all the solutions. I'm not going to sit up here and tell you I know everything, because I don't. I'm still learning. But I'm up here because I think that there's a unique opportunity up here. The way that this state and most of the people that have received me, having been a minister, they wouldn't have received me that way in San Francisco and Dallas. That's why I'm up here, because the people have received me in that way. I believe that God is about to do something great here. And I believe this state can....
I think the State of Wisconsin has to say, and we're going to give the rule to God and we're going to allow him to run this state and we're going to seek his counsel and try to understand him and what he wants us to do.
I know we have a separation of church and state and things of that nature, and it was kind of called at us not to get involved in what we call religious aspects. I would assure you of one thing. I'm not a religious man. I am a man that's seeking a purpose and I'm a man that's seeking the will of God. That doesn't make me religious.
I want a relationship so I can express that same relationship and that role that I've been given to others. People often ask me, what do you think about Michael Irvin and what he did down in Dallas. Well, I answer it simply in this way. Michael Irvin is experiencing some of the similar things that I experienced. I didn't do some of the things that he did, but I tell you what, I was a consistent liar, and that's just as bad as what he did. I did things in my life that I'm not too proud of, so how can I judge Michael Irvin and what he's going through.
We're a very judgmental nation. We need to be a nation that's a caring nation, an understanding nation, a compassionate nation. And I promise you, if we give it over and seek God's purpose for what he wants to do in this state, I promise you if our leaders do that, then we'll see a change.
Throughout history wicked leaders are the cause of fallen nations. People often ask me, well, what do you think about the president's situation. Well, if I see what's exactly going on, then I can give my opinion. If it's what everybody is saying what's going on, I put it this way.
Our nation is saying the economy is good, we don't care about what he does. I do. I care about what he does and what you do. And the reason I do is because this, the Bible says that the man that falls into the ways of the adulterer, he lacks common sense. If our leaders don't have any common sense, we're in trouble. This nation is in trouble.
If we're constantly involved in wicked things and we're trying to tell people that they need to do right, our nation is in trouble and people will not listen. If there's two institutions that people don't trust, that there has to be a trust factor built, it's the government and it's the church. Most people don't trust ministers.
So we have a problem. We have to establish leadership, and people need to know that their leadership is seeking God and seeking his understanding and they will attack sin just as much as they will attack any other problems. I believe if Wisconsin does that, if you leaders to do, I promise you that within the next 10 years you will see a change in the areas of Milwaukee, you will see a change in our kids' attitude, our kids in trouble.
If you just heard, yesterday a 13 year old and an 11 year old down in Jonesboro, Arkansas hit the fire alarm and when the kids came out, they sprayed them down with machine guns. We've got a problem. And we will say, oh, that's their parents. No, that's us. That's what they see every day, and we've got to give them something positive and good to see.
And I will make you a promise, that if you as leaders will get down on your knees and seek God's counsel and respond to that counsel, I promise you in the next 10 years that this state will be able to be a part of a catapulting righteousness to our nation. In the process of doing that this state will be an example of that. And that's why I'm here, because I believe that there are people here that want to do that.
I will be a resident. I love this state. I've come to fall in love with it. I'm from Tennessee, but I love this state, probably more than I love my own state. And that's why I'm up here, because of people like yourselves and people that I've been introduced to and talked to. And for you to give me the opportunity to do this now, no other state would have, not even my own state.
And I just thank God that you allowed me to talk to you. I told Carol that I said, I hope that when I leave out of here I leave with more than two friends after I get through talking, and I think that I will. Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
A785
If you can bear with me one more second, there's something I would like to read right quick. The reason the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl two years ago is because of our synergy, because of our commitment to one another.
There were guys that had different opinions about things, but there is one thing. When we lined up on the field we had a goal in mind. I'm not a quarterback. I'm a defensive end. So I never try to step in Brett Favre's shoes, because Brett Favre can do his job a lot better than I can at quarterback -- he can at quarterback than I could at quarterback.
So I want to read you something about the team concept, and this is why I pray to God that republicans and democrats here will come together and work for the good of man.
The team concept is frequently expressed in the buzz word you've certainly heard many times, synergy. Perhaps, however, you have never read the definition of the word. It's a powerful word, and I think it's important we understand what it means.
It comes from the Greek synergos. Synergy means, it means working together, from sun, s-u-n, which means in the Greek together and from ergo which means work. Synergy means the interaction of two or more individuals or forces which enable their combined power to exceed the sum of their individual power.
If ever a demonstration of the principal of synergy was once demonstrated it was in a horse pulling contest at a county fair. The first place horse in the contest was able to move his sled weighing 4,500 pounds. The other horse was able to pull 4,000 pounds. In theory that meant that the two horses hitched together ought to be able to move a maximum of 8,500 pounds.
To test the theory the owners of the two horses hitched the animals together and loaded the sleds. To the amazement of everyone who saw it, the two horses were able to pull 12,000 pounds, 3,500 more pounds than the sum of their weight of the individual efforts.
Synergy is the power of teamwork to combine individual strength, to compensate for individual shortcomings, to magnify individual efforts so that the more and greater feats can be accomplished.
Yankee outfielder Casey Stengel said, no pitcher would be worth a darn without a catcher who can handle the fast ball. Legendary Yankee slugger Lou Gehrig said, who was portrayed by Gary Cooper in the Parade of Yankees, you don't get the breaks unless you play with the team instead of against it. Fran Tarkenton, former quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings said quarterbacks don't win or lose games, teams do. Joe Paterno, head coach of the Penn State, when a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.
Ladies and gentlemen, we won the Super Bowl because I was not jealous of Brett Favre. I did not have an agenda against him. He didn't have an agenda against me. LeRoy Butler didn't have an agenda.
One thing that I realize is that Brett Favre is the man. Brett Favre is the guy that's going to take us and move us into the direction that we need to go. And when we found out, when we realized that as a team, when everybody realized who the man was to make a fall, when we lost it wasn't Brett Favre. It wasn't me. It was all of us.
People said the defense didn't play well today, the offense did. Well, the offense knows this, that if the defense didn't play well, it's the team's loss. The same vice versa with the offense or the special teams. When the team loses, everybody loses and everybody feels the same pain of the loss.
That's why we encourage you and say to you, republicans and democrats in the State of Wisconsin, that there's a team aspect. There needs to be synergy.
And I promise you if there's synergy, there will be a change with the problems that are occurring in this state and around the country.
Thank you."
