Why Are Better Marriage Rates Essential to Improved Birth Rates?

 Families grow stronger as they can “build” upon prior generations. Whether it is faith or wealth, parents can strengthen the next generation by what they say or do, and strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations.

Babies are necessary to build families. Any time that a couple decides not to have children, they are decreasing the size of their family for all future generations. If a couple has two children and one of the two children does not marry and have children, the posterity for that family is cut in half. If the pattern continues in future generations, it will not take long for the family to disappear. Family continuance is one reason that birthrate matters.

Another reason birthrate matters is national security. As the birthrate drops, there are fewer individuals willing to defend the country. A third reason birthrate matters is care for older generations. If there are no younger generations, who cares for the elderly? There are other reasons, but all of them deserve study and better understanding.

The important thing to take from this essay is that the birth rate continues to fall in the United States, and this is not a good thing. In her article published in The Daily Signal, Rachel Sheffield

explained “The Real Reason America’s Birth Rate Keeps Falling.” 

Birth rates in the U.S. continue to fall, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. birth rates have been steadily declining for more than a decade now, and the total fertility rate (the number of births a woman is projected to have over her lifetime) has continued to hit new lows for several years.

The preliminary data released this month from the CDC suggest the downward trend in fertility continued in 2025. The birth rate dropped from 53.8 births per 1,000 women in 2024 to 53.1 in 2025, and the total number of births declined by 22,534.

Some media outlets and scholars say the drop in birth rates is good news, and that it is driven by declining teen births as well as by women in their 20s delaying relationships and motherhood until they are more financially and emotionally prepared. They argue births will be made up for down the road.

The reality is not so rosy, though. Teen births did decline, but the overall drop in the birth rate is driven mostly by a declining share of Americans marrying and forming families at all. Declining births among women in their 20s are not being made up for later on either, as marriage is delayed ever further into the life course.

Examining the change in birth rates by age:

·       Birth rates among teenage young women dropped, particularly among older teens (ages 18-19).

·       The largest decreases in birth rates were among women in their 20s.

·       Birth rates among women age 30 and over increased, or in some cases remained steady (among women ages 45-54).

Yes, it is true that teen birth rates fell, which is good news, particularly when we are talking about minor-aged teens. But teen births are too small a share of total births these days to move the needle of the overall birth rate much at all. This is especially the case if you look only at births to minor-aged teen women, the group we should be most concerned about.

Teen births peaked in the early 1990s, after rising for several years. Since then, they have declined drastically, a positive and remarkable reversal. Today, teen births are a small fraction of U.S. births.

In fact, if we had only seen the declines in teen births while the birth rates among other women had remained stable (no decreases among women in their 20s and not even increases among women ages 30 and above), the overall birth rate would have remained nearly stable.

What is happening is that an ever-increasing share of people are failing to marry and have children when they are in their prime childbearing years. With every passing year, the age of marriage increases, fewer people are marrying, and that leads to fewer children being born. Delayed marriage reduces the likelihood of ever marrying. Researchers project that roughly one-third of Gen Z will not have married by age 45 and may never marry at all.

Married couples are much more likely to have children. The average number of children born to married couples has been steady for about three decades, although with some dip in the last few years. The drop in the birth rate is primarily driven by a decline in marriage rates.

While there has been a bump in births among women ages 30 and older – indicating that some of the decline in births to young women are delayed births rather than births foregone – the increase in births among women 30 and older are not enough to make up for the declines in births among younger women.

There are more consequences to declining marriage than fewer births, too.

Marriage is a good in itself. Marriage is one of the strongest factors associated with adult happiness and is also connected with increased household income, better health, and greater psychological well-being for adults.

Children raised in married-parent families also do better on these outcomes, as well as several others: greater educational attainment, lower delinquency rates, reduced likelihood of abuse.

While there are some silver linings in the new birth rate data then, including declining teen births, the underlying story is much bleaker. It’s a story of declining marriage and family formation. This comes at great cost – including a shrinking future generation.

 

Why Is America Destroying Iran?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the principle to “Know Your Enemy.” This principle involves discernment, which helps us to see past the smiles that do not reach the eyes and the agreeing words. It means more than “Trust but Verify.” It means to truly know your enemy: know the culture, know the national history, know the personal history, and know the patterns and records.

The United States has a pattern of being split down the middle on whether the US should be fighting a war in Iran. One half remembers the history of the past 47 years, and the other half does not. Being a child in 1979 or being born after that date is not an excuse. Here is information that all Americans should understand. This division emboldens our enemies.

Suzanne Downing produces a daily newsletter for Alaskans titled the “Alaska Story – where the conversation happens.” In a recent newsletter, she recounted the history of the US-Iran issue and stated that Iran hopes that Americans do not have a long memory about the terrorist regime. 

The trouble with public memory is that it resets itself every few years when a new crisis arrives, a new slogan takes over the airwaves, a new generation of commentators discovers the same old regime and speaks about it as though history began last Tuesday.

Iran benefits from that amnesia. The clerical regime in Tehran has spent decades cultivating proxies, arming terror networks, directing covert attacks, and leaving behind a trail of dead Americans, dead Jews, dead dissidents, and dead civilians across multiple continents.

Yet every so often, the conversation circles back to whether Iran can be trusted, whether it only wants security, whether the West has somehow misunderstood its intentions. The record says otherwise.

For at least three decades, Iran has been identified by the United States as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. It reflects a long pattern tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, which have financed, trained, armed, and directed groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Shiite militias in Iraq, and the Houthis. Tehran prefers the language of “resistance.” The graves of Americans tell a more truthful story….

A partial list of Iran-sponsored terrorism, as provided by the State Department [follows]:

·       November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran -- taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff.

·       April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.

·       October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel – including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel – in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.

·       March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut, ultimately killing him the following year.

·       September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 innocent people – including two American service members – in a car bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut.

·       December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 enroute to Pakistan, diverting it to Tehran—where they brutally tortured and killed two American officials.

·       June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist hijacked TWA Flight 847 on its way from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver before shooting him point blank in the head and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.

·       July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

·       April 1995: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists killed eight people – including one American citizen – in a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.

·       August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.

·       February 1996: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up another bus in Jerusalem, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans.

·       March 1996: A suicide bomber linked to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups killed 20 people – including two Americans – in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv shopping center.

·       May 1996: Iran-backed terrorists killed an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounded another American citizen in the West Bank.

·       June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

·       September 1997: Iran-backed Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing an American-Israel dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens.

·       August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people – including a dozen American citizens.

·       August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.

·       January 2002: An Iran-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist killed an American-Israeli dual citizen in the West Bank.

·       July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

·       June 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people – including an American citizen – on a bus in Jerusalem.

·       August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.

·       October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza.

·       Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq – “roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”

·       August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War – the only American to die in the conflict.

·       January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers and entering the Provincial Joint Coordination Center.

·       March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.

·       July 2014: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed two American citizens serving in the IDF.

·       October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

·       December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.

·       January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.

·       September 2020: U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranian regime was considering a plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.

·       February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.

·       July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

·       September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.

·       November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.

·       March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in a strike on a coalition base in Syria.

·       October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7^th massacre.

·       December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.

·       January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.

·       Between October 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.

·       November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.

·       June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.

As one can see from this “partial list of Iran-sponsored terrorism,” Iran has been at war with the United States since 1979 when the regime first took Americans hostage. Since then, Iran-backed militias killed at least 996 Americans (plus hundreds of other people) and wounded hundreds of Americans (plus other people). Iran wants “Death to America” and has killed hundreds of Americans. It is past time that the United States fought back against an enemy that has been at war with us for 47 years! I am grateful that we have a President willing to take the war to Iran before they get a nuclear weapon!

What Else Is Hidden in Burn Bags and Secret Rooms?

Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and “Deep State” or “swamp” are real. Ancient Americans such groups “secret combinations.” Many people hate President Donald Trump so much that they will oppos anything that he does. Other people thought TDS was just a figment of imagination, but it has proven to be real. It comes to different levels of severity. A mild case may simply be judgmental about Trump’s morality – two divorces, three wives, filthy mouth.

More severe levels affect the thinking: Whatever Trump says or does is wrong and must be opposed. Some people have such bad cases of TDS that they hope that Iran wins the war because they do not want Trump to succeed.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been instrumental in uncovering records proving that there is TDS. In his article published at The Daily Signal, Pedro Rodriguez explained that Gabbard declassified and released documents on Monday that “she says show that officials within the Intelligence Community mishandled and politicized a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.” 

According to Gabbard, the newly released records allege that what she described as “deep state actors” collaborated with then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to advance what she called a “false narrative” surrounding the whistleblower complaint.

In a statement accompanying the release, Gabbard accused Schiff and Pelosi of withholding transcripts of closed-door congressional testimony from former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson – records she said would have undercut claims of Trump-Russia collusion dating back to 2017.

Gabbard said those transcripts were kept from the House Judiciary Committee until March 24, 2026, when they were released following a forced vote led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rich Crawford.

The declassified documents, Gabbard said, show that Atkinson departed from standard inspector general investigative procedures and relied on what she characterized as politicized and manufactured narratives when handling the whistleblower complaint tied to Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

According to the records, Atkinson’s preliminary inquiry involved interviews with only four individuals: the whistleblower, a friend of the whistleblower who assisted in authoring the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia and weas an associate of former FBI agent Peter Strzok, and two character references who lacked firsthand knowledge of the Trump-Zelenskyy call.

The documents further state that the whistleblower acknowledged having no direct, firsthand knowledge of the call. One quoted statement attributed to the whistleblower reads, “I do not have direct knowledge of private comments or communications by the President.”

Gabbard said the records show that no formal or complete investigation was conducted before the complaint was transmitted to Congress. Despite lacking firsthand evidence, she alleged that Atkinson moved forward in a way that exceeded his statutory authority and “weaponized” the whistleblower process.

By disregarding guidance from the Department of Justice and relying on secondhand information, Gabbard said Atkinson facilitated the complaint’s transmission to Congress, its referral to the FBI, and its eventual leak to the media.

Gabbard argued that Schiff and Pelosi then used the secondhand allegations to drive media coverage and lay the groundwork for Trump’s impeachment by the House in December 2019. “The politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress (is an egregious example) of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community,” Gabbard said.

“Exposing these tactics and showing how they undermine the fabric of our democratic republic furthers the critical cause of transparency and accountability and will help prevent future abuse of power,” she continued.

  

Can Improved Fencing Make Ranching Country More Friendly?

Tonight, I found an article that interested me and that takes my mind off the war in Iran, politics, and other such subjects that keep pounding like drums in my ears. This article has to do with ranchers, stock, fences, finances, conservatists, and numerous other topics.

Technology is helping ranchers and conservationists to work together rather than be antagonists. According to an article by Kevin Lind in the Deseret News, ranchers across the West are adopting technology to help control their animals. 

Most people know that dog owners use collars and virtual fencing to control their dogs. Now ranchers have an upgraded and much more useful version of that used with dogs. Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars for fencing that is destroyed with the next elk herd or moose moving through the area, ranchers can use virtual fencing to keep their animals in an area, while allowing wildlife to move freely through the area. Lind reported, “Ranchers are using virtual fences to cut costs and use every inch of available acreage.”

Instead of wood, steel and barbed wire, all ranchers need are a hearty collar, some transceivers and a digital connection. It’s a tool one purveyor called an “unlimited fencing budget.” …

Rather than having to build miles and miles of expensive barriers that neither stock nor wildlife can get through, they manufacture variations of a collar that is affixed around a cow’s or sheep’s neck that carries a transceiver connected to a cloud-based software system. The collars emit light, sound, vibrations and – when necessary – a small shock.

Ranchers and the technology companies don’t love the comparison [with fences used for dogs] ….

In this case, however, the stock’s exact location is tracked and compared to the predetermined boundaries of a virtual fence. As the animal gets closer, it gets warned on the side of the boundary – the stimulus is delivered on either the right or left side of the collar – by sound, then vibration and, if ignored, shock.

The digital software part of the platform, however, really leaves that dog collar analogy in the dust. While it does many things, the platform’s most important function is to create virtual, uncrossable boundaries that ranchers can then set from the comfort of their own home, truck or horseback.

Almost like a video game, ranchers can design, change and move pasture boundaries with a few clicks of their finger in a user-friendly app. So long as they have a phone or tablet handy with a healthy wifi or cell signal, they can determine where to – and where not to – graze their herd.

The flexibility means that, depending on where there is healthier grass or more water, ranchers can move their “fences.” If there’s a particular parcel with great grass that cows don’t often frequent, they can ensure that the cows settle there. If there’s an overgrazed parcel, they can close it off. If they want to keep their cattle next to but not in their neighbors’ unfences silage patch, they can.

Virtual fencing is not cheap, necessarily, but some ranchers are penciling it out and finding the costs – considering fence maintenance, material, feed and time – are in the new technology’s favor.

The implications are not just exciting for ranchers, either. Conservationists and wildlife advocates also like the technology.

With 620,000 miles of fence criss-crossing the West on public and private land, there’s the potential to remove barriers that kill a large number of ungulates every year and disrupt the ecosystems reliant on those large mammals’ migrations. On public lands, cattle wearing collars can be corralled to help repair riparian areas, kept away from camping sites or used for various other regenerative efforts.

For the first time, virtual fencing allows livestock managers to manage only the animals in their keep, said Travis Brammer, the director of conservation for the Property and Environment Research Center, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on making conservation voluntary and economically sound….

Who Is Joe Tuia’ana?

My VIP for this week is Joe Tuia’ana who had his own mental health crisis when a dear friend died, but he saved another man from jumping off a bridge. Then he organized a support group for that one man. Lois M. Collins reported the incident in her article published at the Deseret News. 

Like many young boys, Joe acted the part of Superman by wearing a Superman pajama shirt and using a towel pinned around his neck as a cape. On January 29, 2022, he became a real-life hero. Even though he was struggling with his mental health, he was trying to be a good single dad to his three daughters. One day he was driving his youngest daughter to play basketball. He noticed a car parked wrong and impeding traffic. He squeezed past the car and glanced in the rearview mirror.

At the bottom, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the driver “kind of ninja jump over the protective fence.” The 20-something man was staring down at the highway below. By then, his kids were screaming frantically and Joe thought, “You’ve got to be kidding. I just don’t have any energy to put toward anyone but me, me, me,” he later said, before what he describes as a “come to Jesus moment.”

He went back, telling his oldest daughter … to call the police and [the two younger girls] to chill. Then he began to walk across the bridge.

He wanted to throw up. He was sweating profusely and having a panic attack. Two things were clear to him: He was not a superhero. And half Samoan and half Italian, he knew his size – 6-foot-3, 315 pounds – was intimidating. He was afraid he’d scare the guy.

“Please, please Lord,” Joe prayed, “let this man know he’s loved.” By then, he was close enough to see how sad the man looked and felt tears pouring down his own face….

Not sure what else to do, Joe threw his arms open wide, like a giant bear hug. Yelling over the roar of cars speeding by below, he approached, repeating over and over, “I love you, bro.” When he got close enough, he grabbed the guy and hauled him back over the barrier, where they sank to the pavement, arms around each other, both sobbing and trembling…. Joe just kept whispering in his ear, “I love you, bro.” …

After he’d been treated for the acute phase of his crisis, Aron [the young man] reached out to Joe, who’d given his number to a first responder to give to him. Joe was anxious to help him, but an online search for long-term suicide prevention resources tailored to men didn’t yield much.

So Joe created a support group just for Aron. He contacted a few men he knew, like a buddy from his fantasy football league, and cobbled together a group of six or seven guys willing to show up for a struggling stranger.

Nothing fancy. Not mental health per se. Just guys willing to share their own stories and listen to his. They all found it therapeutic.

The next time they met, a few of the guys had told other guys, so the group was a little larger. And so it went, week after week, until soon it was an actual thing that clearly begged to be formalized. So Joe, with no mental health training, but a big heart and a lot of love for people in crisis, launched the I Love You Bro project. It’s been growing ever since, with now 14 different weekly meetings from Logan to Spanish Fork. By now, more than 3,000 men have participated. Sometimes a handful of guys show up. Sometimes a couple dozen. There’s no formal program, no therapy, just a safe place to talk about what’s been bottled up inside….

Dr. Eric Monson of Huntsman Mental Health Institute says men are less likely than women to recognize their mental health challenges. And much more reluctant to talk about them. Depression can show up as irritability or feeling on edge. Men sometimes dive into work harder or they don’t feel well. They may use drugs or alcohol to numb their feelings. Monson said recklessness and temper flares are among men’s externalizing behaviors, and those can create legal problems.

My point for choosing Joe as my VIP for this week is to show that just average people – an average Joe – can do something to help another person.  In Joe’s case, the group he spear-headed after helping Aron has helped more than 3,000 other men. We never know what we can accomplish until we try.

For more of the article, follow this link. 

Should Supreme Court Decide in Favor of Americans or Illegal Aliens?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns birthright citizenship, a topic that is much in the news. Everyone has their own opinion about how the matter should be resolved. Joseph E. Schmitz has his opinion on the topic and shared his thoughts in an article titled “The Case for Resolving Birthright Citizenship in Trump’s Favor” and published at The Daily Signal. Schmitz was the inspector general of the Department of Defense from April 2002 to September 2005 and was awarded the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service. 

Schmitz recognized that President Donald Trump promised repeatedly while campaigning that he would “end birthright citizenship” and then acted on his promise by issuing his executive order on January 20, 2025. That same executive order was argued in the Supreme Court on April 1, 2026, and Trump attended the court session in person, making history as the first sitting president by doing so. Schmitz then offered his opinion of what the Supreme Court should do.

For reasons explained below, the court should sustain Trump’s executive order because the people elected Trump, and any ambiguities in the 14^th Amendment should be construed in favor of the people – which is different than construing the amendment in favor of Trump. [This would put America and Americans first – not illegal aliens.]

The purpose of Trump’s executive order is clearly stated: “The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift. The Fourteenth Amendment states: ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.’ That provision rightly repudiated the Supreme Court of the United States’ shameful decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857), which misinterpreted the Constitution as permanently excluding people of African descent from eligibility for United States citizenship solely based on their race.”

Trump’s executive order also acknowledged that, “The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof.’”

On April 1, the lawyer representing the American Civil Liberties Union in its challenge to Trump’s executive order relied primarily on the 1898 Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Wong Kim Ark for her arguments in favor of birthright citizenship for the children of parents not in the U.S. legally. She suggested that this “landmark decision” established that children born on U.S. social are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.

As the parents of the child at issue in Wong Kim Ark were in the U.S. legally, to suggest that this “landmark decision” established birthright citizenship for the children of parents not legally allowed to reside in the United States defies logic.

The issue argued in the Supreme Court on April 1 centered around ambiguities in the phrase in the 14^th Amendment, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

Even though the final Section of the 14^th Amendment, Section 5, grants Congress “the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation,” the 14^th Amendment, Congress has never enacted legislation clarifying the ambiguities in the phrase, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

When dealing with ambiguities in the 14^th Amendment, unless or until Congress exercises its powers under Section 5 of the 14^th Amendment to clarify ambiguities by legislative enforcement, the Supreme Court should construe the ambiguities in favor of the people, who reelected Trump….

Trump repeatedly promised to “end birthright citizenship” for children born in the U.S. to noncitizen parents, and then did just that on the first day of his second term. Now, the Supreme Court should resolve ambiguities in the 14^th Amendment using contra preferentem and thereby avoid frustrating the will of the people.

It’s our government after all.

What Is the Purpose of the Sacrament?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Exodus 7-13 and a lesson titled “Remember this Day, in Which Ye Came Out from Egypt.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

Plague after plague afflicted Egypt, but Pharaoh still refused to release the Israelites. And yet God continued to demonstrate His power and give Pharaoh opportunities to accept “that I am the Lord” and “there is none like me in all the earth” (Exodus 7:5; 9:14).

Meanwhile, Moses and the Israelites must have watched with awe at these manifestations of God’s power on their behalf. Surely these continued signs confirmed their faith in God and strengthened their willingness to follow God’s prophet. Then, after nine terrible plagues had failed to free the Israelites, it was the tenth plague – the death of the firstborn, including Pharaoh’s firstborn – that finally ended the captivity. This seems fitting because in every case of spiritual captivity, there truly is only one way to escape. It is only the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Firstborn – the blood of the Lamb without blemish – that will save us.

The principles taught in this scriptures block include (1) I can choose to soften my heart (Exodus 7-11); (2) Jesus Christ can save me because of His Atonement (Exodus 12:1-42); (3) The sacrament helps me remember my deliverance through Jesus Christ (Exodus 12:14-17, 24-27; 13:1-16).

This essay will discuss principle #3 about the sacrament. This is obviously the Easter lesson, which is scheduled a week late due to General Conference being held on Easter Sunday. However, it is a good lesson for us to remember all year long.

Jehovah commanded the Israelites to observe the Passover each year to help them remember He had delivered them, even after their captivity became a distant memory. He wanted them to teach their children and children’s children about the Passover to remember “throughout your generations” (see Exodus 12:14, 26-27).

After His Resurrection, Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His atoning sacrifice. The sacrament is an ordinance in which Church members partake of bread and water in remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Through this ordinance, Church members renew the covenants they made with God when they were baptized. Here is a video titled “Always Remember Him” that teaches the importance of the sacrament. 

Each Sunday when we partake of the bread and water, we should do so in remembrance of the Savior’s Atonement – His time in the Garden of Gethsemane, His trials, His Crucifixion, and His Resurrection.

As you participate in the sacramental services tomorrow, think of the things that you do to “always remember” Jesus Christ (Moroni 4:3; 5:2). Think of ways that you can preserve that remembrance “throughout your generations” (see Exodus 12:14, 26-27).

How Does a Higher Fertility Rate Strengthen a Nation?

States and nations benefit from a high fertility rate and strong families. Therefore, states and nations are weakened by low fertility rates, but they are strengthened by strong families. The United States and nations around the globe are experiencing a two-decades decline in fertility rates. In her article published at The Daily Signal, Mariam Sunny reported on the fertility rate. 

The U.S. fertility rate hit a record low last year, extending a nearly two-decade decline, provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed on Thursday.

The decline also reflects global trends, as fewer women choose to have children against a changing social backdrop. In the U.S., the general fertility rate has fallen nearly 23% since 2007, according to the agency’s data.

Shifting priorities among younger women, including “greater and more demanding job market opportunities, expanded leisure options, increased intensity of parenting … make the option to have children less desirable,” said Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley College.

The number of babies born in the U.S. in 2025 declined 1% from a year earlier to roughly 3.6 million, while the general fertility rate – the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 – also slipped 1% to 53.1, the data showed.

While fertility rates among women in their 30s and 40s have increased over the past decade, those gains have remained too modest to offset sustained declines among women under 30. Last year, the fertility rate among women aged 25 to 29 fell about 4.4%, while the rate for women aged 30 to 34 rose about 2.7% from 2024, the data showed.

Fertility rates among teenagers also declined sharply, with the rate for those aged 18 to 19 falling 7% and the rate for younger teens aged 15 5o 17 dropping 11%, both reaching record lows.

The provisional data is based on 99.95% of all birth records received and processed last year by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the CDC, as of Feb. 3, 2026.

 

  

Why Is Democracy Necessary?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns democracy and its ability to preserve freedom. The president and prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Dallin H. Oaks has long discussed importance of democracy, and he chose to focus on the same message in his first address as president of the Church of Jesus Christ. His message on Easter Sunday is that “peace and democratic freedoms, especially in times of conflict, require believers to extend Christ’s love to their opponents, even across vast differences in values and beliefs.”

Mariya Manzhos reported on President Oaks’ message in her article at the Deseret News. 

President Oaks also continued the theme of his predecessor, President Russell M. Nelson, calling believers to be peacemakers – those who “seek to reduce human suffering” and those who “work to promote understanding among different peoples.”

President Oaks described the current climate as “toxic” and “a time of contempt or hostility toward adversaries.” This kind of “hostility,” he said, is spreading across society, and involves “many whose Christian beliefs should orient them otherwise.”

Christ’s teaching, which the church’s leader described as “revolutionary,” is to extend love not only to the neighbors, but also to the enemies, whom President Oaks identified as “military foes” and those in direct conflict with one another. “Today we might say that we are commanded to love our adversaries,” he said.

The church’s leader has himself demonstrated a way of finding common ground in Utah politics. He played a key role in shaping the Utah Compromise in 2015, helping broker an agreement between religious groups and LGBTQ advocates, and supported a framework that paired protections for same-sex couples in housing and employment with safeguards for religious liberty – an agreement that became a national model for balancing competing rights.

In his Sunday address, he said: “As followers of Christ, we should seek to live peaceably and lovingly with other children of God who do not share our values and do not have the covenant obligations we have assumed. In a democratic government we should seek ‘fairness for all.’ In countless circumstances, strangers’ suspicion or even hostility gradually give way to friendship when personal contacts produce mutual respect.” …

In a new leadership position, Oaks is showing that there is no distinction between being Christ-like in personal life and being Christ-like in civic life, Rauch said.

President Oaks acknowledged just how hard reconciling the requirements of the church and civic life can be. “We balance our various responsibilities, this balancing is not easy,” Oaks said….

In President Oaks’ view, by contrast, the Constitution guarantees a shared civic space.

 

Will the Truce between US, Israel, and Iran Hold?

Over a period of several days, President Donald Trump sent out over Truth Social. The idea behind all the messages was that Iran either opened the Strait of Hormuz to let oil tankers and other sea-going traffic to pass, or Trump would order bombing over Iran enough to destroy a “whole civilization,” or at least destroy all the bridges and power plants in the country.

According to Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell at The Daily Signal, Trump set a firm deadline of 8:00 P.M EDT on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. Either Iran opened Hormuz, or destruction would rain down on Iran. However, negotiators continued to work for a compromise. Iran understood that Trump had said and done “crazy” things before and that terrible things would happen if something did not change by the deadline. 

“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” Trump wrote. “47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!” …

Iran says it would retaliate against U.S. allies in the Gulf, whose desert cities would be uninhabitable without power or water. It claimed to have carried out fresh strikes on a ship in the Gulf and a huge Saudi petrochemical complex.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Tehran would “deprive America and its allies in the region of oil and gas for years.”

“Up to today we have shown great restraint for the sake of good neighbourliness and have had some consideration in choosing targets for retaliation,” it said. “But all these restraints have since been removed.”

However, things changed. Just prior to the arrival of the deadline, Trump announced that a deal had been made. Tyler O’Neil at The Daily Signal reported the news as follows. 

Iran has agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz and the United States and Israel will engage in a two-week ceasefire, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday.

President Trump said that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir helped him orchestrate the deal.

“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshall Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” the president wrote. “This will be a double-sided CEASEFIRE!”

“The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” he added.

President Trump said the U.S. received a “10 point proposal from Iran” and he said it represents “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated,” he added….

As the deadline approached, both the U.S. and Israel carried out strikes. The U.S. targeted Kharg Island, and Israel struck eight bridge segments that the Israel Defense Force claimed have been used “for transporting weapons & military equipment.”

Kharg Island, a coral outcrop off Iran’s coast, handles roughly 90% of the country’s crude oil exports, since much of the coastline lacks deep-water ports.

The Strait of Hormuz is a key waterway for the global oil trade. About 25% of world seaborn oil trade transits the straight, according to the International Energy Agency, 80% of it destined for Asia. About 19% of the world’s liquefied natural gas transits the strait, as well.

Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan imported almost two-thirds of their LNG supplies via the Strait of Hormuz in 2025, making them particularly vulnerable to Iran’s actions.

Oil prices fell sharply in late trading as Trump announced the ceasefire. West Texas Intermediate crude, the domestic benchmark, fell by more than 9% to around $102 per barrel, The New York Times reported.

Also earlier Tuesday, Iranian-backed Iraqi militia Kataib Hezbollah announced that it had released Shelly Kittleson, a 49-year-old American journalist who had been kidnapped in Baghdad.

According to staff at the Jerusalem Post, the truce lasted only hours before Iran fired missiles at Israel. 

Iran launched missiles toward Israel early Wednesday morning, hours after US President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire involving the US, Israel, and Iran. Air raid alerts continued in Israel after the truce was announced, raising immediate doubts about whether the arrangement would hold.

Later on Wednesday, the Bahrain Interior Ministry said that air raid sirens were activated across the country following an Iranian attack on its territory.

“The alarm siren has bene activated. Citizens and residents are requested to remain calm, head to the nearest safe place, and follow updates through official channels,” the Bahrain ministry said in a statement.

Later on Wednesday, Bahrain confirmed the attack was carried out by Iran, with the missile causing a fire without leaving anyone wounded.

“Trust but verify” is the watchword. Iran has been deceitful in the past, and no one fully trusts that they are honest currently. It is possible that they asked for the ceasefire to give them an opportunity to rebuild their missile supply. However, it is possible that the currents “leaders” in Iran understand that Trump will bomb Iran into the Dark Ages. 

Are You Proud to Be an American?

Americans – at least most of us – are celebrating two extra-ordinary happenings. First, is the Artimis II flying around the moon and further into space than any previous rocket. Second, is the miraculous – an Easter miracle – rescue of an Air Force officer who evading capture for 48 hours after his fighter jet was shot down over Iran. Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell reported on the rescue in her article published at The Daily Signal. 

“Despite incoming fire and unforgiving conditions, our troops brought every American home,” Secretary of War Pet Hegseth said during a press briefing Monday. “No American lives were lost.”

After the officer’s fighter jet was shot down, the injured officer survived by climbing to higher ground, treating his own wounds, and contacting American forces to request rescue.

“We immediately mobilized a massive operation to retrieve him from the mountain holdout, and he kept going higher and higher,” Trump said. “The mountain kept getting rougher and rougher and really, verry, very hard to find.”

Because thousands of Iranians were searching for the pilot, the United States “executed a deception campaign to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airman,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said.

On Saturday morning, the U.S. confirmed the airman was alive and hidden in a mountain crevice, “still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA,” Ratcliffe said.

The United States deployed three helicopters to extract the American pilot. He was rescued at midnight Eastern time on Easter Sunday. An air armada protected the rescue team, including tactical drones, strike aircraft, and more.

“God was watching us,” Trump said. “Well, it was Easter. We were in Easter territory.” Trump praised the military for carrying out the operation without any casualties. He said he will “never forget the extraordinary risk taken by the warriors that we send into battle.”

“In a breathtaking show of skill and precision, lethality and force, America’s military descended on the area, the real area, engaged the enemy, rescued the stranded officer, destroyed all threats, and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties.”

Ratcliffe said he was honored to serve under a president who lives out the motto, “No man left behind.”

“We’ve seen it against the cartels in the Western Hemisphere, and we’re seeing it every day in Operation Epic Fury, including this mission to rescue an aviator buried deep behind enemy lines,” Ratcliffe said, “because it is the unique tradition of the U.S. armed forces that we leave no man or woman behind.”

“Peace through strength” is not a slogan, Hegseth said, but “a doctrine that saves American lives.”

“His unwavering commitment to rebuilding our military and restoring the warrior spirit has paid dividends in missions just like this one,” Hegseth said. “Under this command, America progresses power with confidence and brings our people home with victory. And that continues today.”

All Americans should be proud of their country and their country’s heroes – whether it be their President who makes the difficult decisions, the astronauts circling the moon and preparing for further space travel, the CIA who works in secret, or the military men and women who willingly stand between the enemy and Americans. God bless America! 

Who Is Jesus Christ?

With Easter being on Sunday, it is only natural that my VIP for the week should be Jesus Christ. Nearly two thousand years ago, He was resurrected. His spirit and His body came together never to be separated again. By overcoming death by resurrection, He made it possible for all mankind to also be resurrected and live forever. By His atoning sacrifice, He also made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins and live with Heavenly Father for all eternity.

Tyler O’Neil, a senior editor at The Daily Signal, shared his thoughts about Jesus Christ and the Easter message. 

History is chock-full of pivotal moments, from Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon to Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler deciding to invade Russia, to George Washington turning down power. One moment eclipses them all—and most people at the time had no idea this moment would change the world forever.

Mankind has a virtually guaranteed 100% death rate, but one obscure carpenter-turned-rabbi defied the odds. He set off a chain reaction that didn’t just offer eternal salvation, but also inspired movements of compassion and invention that made life better for billions in the here and now.

I know I’m biased—I worship Jesus Christ as the Son of God and believe he will come again. But I also honestly think his Resurrection is the pivotal moment in human history, and not just because it offers eternal salvation to those of us who believe.

It’s hard for us to grasp just how painful most of human existence in the past truly was. Not only did people live for thousands of years without modern conveniences like refrigerators, microwaves, and washing machines, but high infant and child mortality was a fact of life—for the poorest of the poor as well as for the wealthiest and most powerful.

In Ancient Rome, when a plague began spreading, the wealthy quickly departed and the poor secluded themselves. Christianity spread, by contrast, in part because Christians started risking their lives to care for the sick; with a little help, many of the sick recovered.

Rodney Stark, a now-deceased social sciences professor at Baylor University and author of the book “The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success,” told PJ Media that without the Resurrection, “we would still be in a world of mystery and probably in a world of repressive empires.”

He argued that Christianity has been the driving force behind limited government, science, capitalism, the abolition of slavery, medicine, organized charities, and more—and Christianity would have been impossible without the Resurrection. In fact, the Gospels record that Jesus’ disciples scattered—and Peter even denied Jesus three times—but the Resurrection brought them together. According to church tradition, all but one of the apostles died painful deaths under torture, refusing to reject the faith.

There is more information in O’Neil’s article, which you can access here. Jesus Christ had greater influence on mankind than anyone else. His gospel teaches a better way to live. His atoning sacrifice makes it possible to live forever. 

How Should Americans Act During King Charles’ Visit to Washington?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is a visit from the King and Queen of Great Britain. Two hundred and fifty years declared independence from Great Britain. Now Congress has invited King Charles III to address a joint meeting. Members of Congress were not aware of the visit or did not care that the Monarch was coming. Pedro Rodriguez shared the following information in his article published at The Daily Signal. 

The king’s visit will be the first time a British royal addresses Congress since his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, delivered an address to Congress in 1991.

In response to Punchbowl News scooping the king’s speech, Re. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told The Daily Signal that he had “no idea” Charles was scheduled to visit until The Daily Signal asked. “I didn’t even know he’s coming. I don’t know what he could talk about.”

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., told The Daily Signal he thought the visit was “interesting,” given how rarely British monarchs address Congress. The king “could talk about the relationship between England and America,” Van Drew said with an indifferent shrug. When asked by The Daily Signal whether the king should discuss other conflicts, like the wars in Iran and Ukraine, Van Drew said, “I think he should, I don’t know if he will or not, but I think he should.”

The sentiment is bipartisan. Ranking Member of the Committee on Veterans Affairs Rep. Mark Takano, D-Calif., told The Daily Signal that he “honestly doesn’t know” what the British monarch could possibly speak about during his joint address.

Another Republican member of the House told The Daily Signal they are not very invested in what the king will have to say.

“I’m just a commoner, I’m not royalty,” the Republican House member said. “That’s why I’m in the House and not the Senate.”

“I think there’s value and traditions and all those things, and I think that if we ignore those, it could be bad,” the member added.

Congress sent an official invitation on Wednesday for Charles to speak: “The United States Congress would be honored to host Your Majesty for this historic event, which will celebrate the shared heritage and enduring friendship between the United Kingdom and the United States.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X: “it is my distinct honor and great privilege to invite His Majesty King Charles III, The King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Norther Ireland, to address a Joint Meeting of Congress.”

King Charles and Queen Camilla will visit Washington, April 27-30, and will attend a state dinner at the White House while in Washington.