Rarely do I post video of my presentations because each one is different and tailored for the appropriate audience. I make this exception because I was asked by good friend and ultra-Patriot Nancy Coppock to present to her organization, The Bryan-College Station Tea Party, on American Exceptionalism.

Nancy is an educator intent on teaching Americans why this country is so dear to not only us, but the world. Her Tea Party is an educational resource and a powerhouse for anyone wanting to learn about America and our long, storied, and Providentially-blessed history.

Nancy, like me, cries when she hears The Star Spangled Banner.

The video below is simply an off-the-cuff presentation melding facets from several more organized keynotes and seminar offerings I provide to organizations throughout the country. This was my first presentation in my own hometown, which is not unusual if you remember the Biblical teaching that a prophet is never believed in his own hometown. Though I do not compare myself at all to a prophet or Jesus Christ, I take comfort in my message worldwide because even Jesus never preached in Nazareth!

So, enjoy this presentation (I hope!) as it is…a message and a discussion. While it is a glimpse of what I can do for your organization, though in a much more polished format (I told Nancy I would do it for free but she would get what she was paying for!), it can serve simply as something to share with your kids or homeschool group.

What matters to me most is that the message gets out: Exceptionalism Is In Our DNA!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v0cgO79epw

Click the image for the web site and options for purchasing.

Early this year I received a Tweet from Scott Hyland, Bible Department Head at Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg, Virginia. Before this contact, I did not know Scott. But I knew Liberty Christian Academy was a prep school founded by Dr Jerry Falwell almost half a century ago as part of his dream for a Christian education being available for children from earliest childhood through graduate studies. You may be familiar with the affiliated, more well-known Liberty University. To be Bible Department Head at Liberty Christian Academy is no small task.

Scott had been following me and knew of my patriotic bent. He was also a reader of this blog. Scott is an author, and soon asked me if I would be interested in reviewing his book.

After looking at his web site and seeing the context and premise of his book, The Five Laws of Liberty, I agreed. Within a week, Scott had a copy delivered to my door, with a personal inscription.

I told him that being blind in one eye made me a slow reader, and I had some obligations in late February that I had been prepping for out of state, so it would be a few weeks before I got down into the nitty-gritty with his book.

Eventually, I read the book and near the end of March, I spoke with Scott for over an hour by phone, discussing his book and all things American and Godly.

It’s always a pleasure talking with a fellow Sinner who gets up every day with the firm purpose of being better than he was yesterday. Scott is this kind of guy.

Scott is about my age, and he grew up in Library, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh. In fact, we determined that when I rode the trolley from a Pittsburgh Pirates game in the late seventies out to Library with my Dad when I lived in Glenshaw, Pennsylvania, there’s a good chance Scott was there.

I’m a firm believer that an author, no matter what they write, is giving you a piece of them when they put words together for you to read. I met Scott through Twitter, got to know him through his book, and then became his brother by phone.

That alone should tell you his book is worth reading.

But his book is more than that. It is worth putting into practice in your daily life. It’s even worth the daily affirmation that you recognize that you have failed to live up to everything we could do, but you know you have a fallback position by picking up the book and getting right with yourself and the world all over again.

The Five Laws of Liberty looks at Freedom from the Biblical perspective. It looks at the Founding Documents of our own country, and clearly connects the dots between those in successive iteration, starting with the Bible. Essentially, Freedom as codified in our Constitution is defined and its understanding evolves through the precursor documents that led to our founding.

Freedom, as a Gift from God, is delivered to Humanity through His Son Jesus Christ. The Freedom Jesus gives us is outlined extensively in The Bible – when you read from Scott exactly how many times it is mentioned, you will be both surprised and, well, not surprised.

As with all Gifts, Freedom can be readily accepted or easily refused because of the ultimate Freedom from God – Free Will.

Scott’s book may ap pear to delve into what’s wrong with America as she struggles with the downward spiral of her moral righteousness in unfathomable expressions of free will, but instead of complaining about it, Scott digs deeper to show that it begins in our own hearts.

As his book winds down in the last fifty pages, you get a sense of knowing that, simply by the sin of omission, we are culpable for the sorry state of affairs we find ourselves in as a nation.

I read these last pages of Scott’s book while I was dealing with a situation concerning a younger member of my extended family. While I, too, led a life of immorality as a young man and came to know the Freedom of Jesus Christ in my mid-twenties, my relative is defended by those of his family around him – towards me – because they say I am the pot calling the kettle black. Apparently, to them, my baptism just before turning 26 and my subsequent more-virtuous life gives me no credibility when being point blank with him and them about his sinful ways and the consequences he is sure to endure because he has given his Freedom to Satan. In his defense they hope to rise him up as righteous by putting me down as un righteous. No matter my own state of sin, it does not elevate him by putting me down.

His = as it is for all of us = is a Freedom only he can attain, retain, or, as the case is now, reclaim. He, as we all are and as Scott points out in his book, is subject to the natural laws of Freedom: The Five Laws of Liberty.

But, by reading Scott’s book, I knew it was my duty to help my relative see the path he was on precisely because I had been on it, and it would be sinful to deny him the freedom of knowledge my experience would give him. No matter how my condemnation of my relative’s sinful ways was received, I expressed and fulfilled my duty to spread Freedom to this relative, instead of sinning by withholding the Great Gift God asks us all to share.

In essence, sometimes the Golden Rule requires us to do unto others what they don’t yet know they want done unto themselves.

The Five Laws of Liberty tells us that if we don’t start with ourselves, our families, and our homes, the Liberty our forefathers procured for us will repeat its historical trend and we will be known for having willingly given it up – becoming slaves to immorality, collectivism, elitism, sloth, and eventually fear. Becoming slaves of Satan.

Do yourself a favor. Pick up this book. You can read it over a week’s worth of lunches. Then start figuring out what you can do, with the guidance of Scott’s suggestions, to bring true Freedom and Liberty back to the hallowed shores of this great Gift we call America!

The Five Laws of Liberty by Scott Hyland
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 256
Dimensions: 6 X 9 in.
ISBN: 0899570151
ISBN13: 9780899570150
Availability: Click here for your choice of retailer or online store!

A Message To Garcia is an inspirational story of a man with initiative.

Though the story is immortalized in Elbert Hubbard’s American Classic Essay, “A Message To Garcia,” the true story of the messenger, Andrew Summers Rowan comes alive when you hear it from Mr. American Kristofer Cowles.

Mr. American tells the story Hubbard intentionally leaves out – the story told in Rowan’s own hand. It is no small feat to cross the island of Cuba today, let alone over 100 years ago, and an even mightier accomplishment to find one man with just the instruction, “Get a message to Garcia” to go on.

When you listen to this inspiring tale of American Exceptionalism, you will see your goal more focused than ever. The details of accomplishment become secondary to accomplishment, and the goal itself relies on doing one thing – accomplishing it. This story relates the value of leadership and hierarchy, obedience and sacrifice. Most importantly, it portrays that quality most perfectly etched in the Exceptional American’s DNA – Initiative!

A Message To Garcia is our Motivational Americana Story for February, 2011.

Abraham Lincoln is one of the stories folks hear for the first time when Kristofer Cowles brings him to life.

We know Abraham Lincoln was an Exceptional American who came to leadership when we needed a leader most. But how did he get there?

With a brief look at the dates below, a snapshot of his life is enough to instill pride. But when you know the failures he constantly overcame during the rest of his life, as Kristofer will share, you won’t be able to help but be inspired to succeed!

1809 – Born on the 12th of February.

1834-1849 – Member of Illinois state legislature (Whig).

1847 – Representative from Illinois (Whig).

1837-1865 – Held private law practice in Springfield, Illinois.

1854 – 1856 – Candidate for Republican vice-presidential nomination. Publicly argued against Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

1858 – Unsuccessfully seeking election to Senate , engaged incumbent Stephen Douglas in series of debates (Lincoln-Douglas debates), accepting slavery in states where already practiced but criticizing Douglas’ willingness to extend slavery into territories

1861-1865 – 16th president of US (1st Republican president). Oversaw Union during Civil War. Signed Homestead Act 1862 (granting public land to squatters after five years of settlement). Issued Emancipation Proclamation. After battle of Gettysburg, delivered Gettysburg Address (dedicating Gettysburg battleground as monument to troops killed there).

1865 – Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth while attending play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. Perennially ranked as one of the two or three greatest presidents.

AMERICA. The very word instills pride, love, fearlessness, triumph and thoughts of the men and women who gave their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to create and ensure for her citizens the promise of this great country.

ANSWERING THE CALL, Mary Schandua became a riveter during World War II and worked in the Boeing factory. The famous poster of "Rosie the Riveter" not only recruited women to the factories, but came to symbolize their new era of independence. Standard-Radio Post Photo by Lisa Treiber-Walter

But how much of the story applies to you and your organization? Is their triumph applicable to your goals and your daily life?

YES!

We celebrate the people who made and make America great each year on patriotic holidays, but what about their personal lives and those events they lived through that are the threads in the fabric of our exceptionalism?

You and your organization can find out what Great Americans did to get where they wanted to go, and to get our Country where they knew Providence was leading them.

Through unique presentations that weave history, anecdote, and real-life victories, our keynote addresses and seminar presentations will direct your organization on the correct path that others have already blazed, to a future your goals have already defined.

The answers to “how do we accomplish our Mission?” come to life and, with the common thread we all have as Americans, participants leave with tools that are bred in their very DNA. They don’t have to remember the pithy comment of a motivational speaker that they forget three days later – because our presentations remind them of the victories of Americans and give them common ground they can continue to explore together long after we have left the stage. They won’t sit in a meeting a month later and say “What did that motivational speaker say at the conference?” They will say, “Remember what George Washington said the night we crossed the Delaware!” And they will apply the lessons of our forefathers.

These are not lessons from Kristofer Cowles. They are lessons from these and many other Great Americans:

Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Alice Paul, Arthur Ashe, Barbara McClintock, Benjamin Banneker, Benjamin F. Butler, Benjamin Franklin, Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Booker T. Washington, Chief Joseph Brant, Christopher Columbus, Christopher Newport, Conrad Weiser, David “Davy” Crockett, Dian Fossey, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, Elizabeth “Betsy” Ross, Ellison Onizuka, Eugene “Duke” Ellington, Franklin Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, George Mason, George W. Carver, George Washington, Georgia O’Keefe, Harriet Tubman, Harry F. Byrd, Helen Keller, Henrietta Lacks, Hiram Bingham III, Irene Morgan, Jackie Robinson, Jacques Cartier, James Madison, James Monroe, Jane Addams, Jefferson Davis, John Adams, John Paul Jones, John Tommy, Jonathon “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman, Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Juan Ponce de Leon, L. Douglas Wilder, Langston Hughes, Linus Pauling, Louis “Sachmo” Armstrong, Louis Agassiz, Lucy Burns, Maggie Walker, Martha Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr, Mildred and Richard Loving, Nat Turner, Noah Webster, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, Percy L. Julian, Phillis Wheatley, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Robert E. Lee, Rosa Parks, Sally Kristen Ride, Sandra Day O’Connor, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Thurgood Marshall, Ulysses S. Grant.

With tens of thousands of Great Americans and their stories in our repertoire, we could relate their triumphs a hundred times a day for a year and not repeat them. There’s more than one story and lesson that fits your situation and the needs of your group.

Our presentations are as diverse as the people whom we present to. People from all walks of life have triumphed in America, including:

Artists, Architects, Athletes, Authors. Dancers, Explorers, Leaders, Inventors, Mathematicians, Men, Musicians, Philanthropists, Poets, Politicians, Scientists, Spiritual Leaders, Women.

Look at the list on the right and check back regularly for inspirational stories of Motivational Americana!

Ayn Rand is increasingly well-known to this generation of Patriots for her staunch defense of Capitalism and her prophetic books that seem to foretell the fall of America that many Americans believe we are experiencing firsthand today.

A Soviet-survivor and emigrant to the United States, Rand’s struggles to get here and while here are brought to life by Mr. American Kristofer Cowles, who shares Rand’s philosophy relative to your organization’s mission and goals.

Struggles in Rand’s life made her strong in her purpose and stronger in her philosophy. Pithy sayings like “If it’s to be it’s up to me” hold no meaning unless you act upon them, and Rand not only talked the talk but walked the walk.

If Ayn Rand is part of the presentation by Mr. American, be prepared to expand your mind to the possibilities only YOU can create and make happen.

Martin Luther King, Jr. has a powerful life story that grips your American soul when shared by Kristofer Cowles. The successes and failures of a man who was only 39 when he was assassinated inspires any American to greatness by focusing on humility and persistence. The small list of events in his life below pale in comparison to the complete picture of overcoming shared when Kristofer visits with you about Motivational Americana!

1929 – Born on January 15th in Atlanta, Georgia.

1951 – King spent the next three years at Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, where he became acquainted with Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence as well as with the thought of contemporary Protestant theologians and earned a bachelor of divinity degree.

1953 – While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, a native Alabamian who was studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. They were married and had four children.

1955 – After arrest of Rosa Parks, led 382-day boycott of segregated buses in Montgomery, Alabama successfully leading to court injunction ordering bus desegregation.

1957 – Helped found Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). His leadership was fundamental to that movement’s success in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States.

1958 – Wrote “Stride Toward Freedom”.

1959 – He and his party were warmly received by India’s prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru; as the result of a brief discussion with followers of Gandhi about the Gandhian concepts of peaceful noncompliance (satyagraha), King became increasingly convinced that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom.

1960 – King moved to his native city of Atlanta, where he became co-pastor with his father of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

1963 – He helped organize a march on Washington and delivered “I Have a Dream” speech.

1965 – Organized and led march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery but was forced to turn back at Edmund Pettus bridge outside Selma, but shortly thereafter successfully led 5-day march as planned.

1968 – Visited Memphis to support labor movement among city sanitation workers, but assassinated by sniper while standing on balcony of Lorraine Motel.

The Mayflower Compact as transcribed by William Bradford, a signer

The what?

The Magna Carta, or Great Charter, was signed by King John, son of Henry IV and brother to Richard The Lionheart, in the year 1215. Forced to acknowledge and grant rights to the landed barony of Britannia, John wound up reneging on the Magna Carta some half dozen times before it took hold, and the erosion of rule by Divine Right commenced.

That’s not the Magna Carta I’m talking about.

However, without its writing and enforcement, perhaps we would never have experienced our own.

Ushering in what would become the Age of Enlightenment, with its pinnacle documentary achievement being the Declaration Of Independence delivered to another king some 675 years after King John acquiesced, forty men off the coast of what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts signed a document, under King James, before setting foot in the New World.

That document, the Mayflower Compact, is 390 years old today.

As a direct descendant of a Mayflower voyager, I take pride in and am grateful for those intrepid travelers. Though not to be excused, their perilous journey across the relatively uncharted North Atlantic and there hardships endured during their first years on a bounteous but unforgiving landscape is, I have always believed, secondary to the steps they took in extracting themselves from an Absolute Sovereign and relying on themselves while pledging to each other their support and commitment to succeed.

The Mayflower Compact is itself a relatively short document. It governed the men and their families by the consent of those very men, acknowledging the sovereignty of King James though they were settling far north of where their charter had been granted, and submitting to the universal sovereignty of God. Though not separating themselves from the rule of The Crown, it placed Tudor rule secondary to their own right to rule themselves.

The Mayflower Compact was signed by 41 men and granted majority rule to the settlers, later known as Pilgrims. Because these 41 did not represent a majority, but a plurality, the Compact came into fruition as a secular document, as several men who had come not under the guise of religious freedom but to seek their own fortunes. These men insisted that, because the settlement would be beyond the deed granted by King James, they were free to rule themselves.

It has taken historians, including me in this piece, longer to explain the circumstances and the context than the actual compact itself, which reads:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.

In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

The date is on the Julian Calendar…which means we can celebrate this great event again on November 21!

Three sentences…and two of those are preamble and salutatory. Only one sentence, the second, proclaims how men will rule themselves. In its simplicity, order was brought to the complex question of government that had plagued the Old World, and Ancient, for millennia.

Fathom for yourself the moment of signature as men embark on a journey that established a tradition of self-rule that pervaded the colonies even during British sovereignty. The local communities prior to 1775 were always self-governing and regulating with “such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

It is under these very pretenses that we continue to govern ourselves locally today – which is why San Francisco can ban Happy Meals and Texans can’t carry wire cutters in their back pockets.

We celebrate The Constitution, and rightfully so, each September. And we celebrate our Veterans on this day every year. In between, because of their proximity to our lives, lifestyle, and impact on those, we sometimes miss the little things that snowballed into what we have today.

For a moment, men stood on the edge of the world, preparing to set foot in what was quite understandably named The New World.

And before setting foot on that shore, they proclaimed the greatest gift that land would cultivate, such that springing from it would be what would eventually be called American Exceptionalism.

That gift was self-reliance and celebration of the individual, with a government that was subject to the sovereignty of the people meant to encourage and foment that self-reliance and individualism.

To the 41 signers, we thank you.

1. John Carver
2. William Bradford
3. Edward Winslow
4. William Brewster
5. Isaac Allerton
6. Miles Standish
7. John Alden
8. Samuel Fuller
9. Christopher Martin
10. William Mullins
11. William White*
12. Richard Warren
13. John Howland
14. Stephen Hopkins
15. Edward Tilly
16. John Tilly
17. Francis Cooke
18. Thomas Rogers
19. Thomas Tinker
20. John Ridgdale
21. Edward Fuller
22. John Turner
23. Francis Eaton
24. James Chilton
25. John Craxton
26. John Billington
27. Joses Fletcher
28. John Goodman
29. Digery Priest
30. Thomas Williams
31. Gilbert Winslow
32. Edmund Margeson
33. Peter Brown
34. Richard Bitteridge
35. George Soule
36. Richard Clark
37. Richard Gardiner
38. John Allerton
39. Thomas English
40. Edward Doten
41. Edward Leister

Peregrine White's cradle, now at Pilgrim Hall in Plymouth

William White was married to Susanna, who bore William a child, brother to their firstborn Resolved, on board the Mayflower while it lay off the coast. The day before the signing of the Mayflower Compact, this child came into the New World, and was named Peregrine – which means “foreign traveler” or “pilgrim.”

It is from Peregrine White that some of my own lineage springs.

In 1933, Jesse Owens broke world records in the 220-yard sprint, long jump, and 220-yard low hurdles and he tied the record for the 100-yard dash. He did all this in one hour.

In 1936, in the den of Nazi Germany under the furious nose of Adolph Hitler, he won Olympic Gold Medals in the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and the long jump, as well as co-winning the 4×100-meter relay.

These were short races, They were the culmination of an already long, 27-year old black man’s life.

When Kristofer Cowles shares the trials and struggles Jesse Owens experienced growing up, you will find yourself more willing to get up one more time than you are knocked down.

You will run the race with more vigor and pride, looking to this Exceptional American for inspiration and guidance.

TESTIMONIAL: “When Kristofer Dylan Cowles is involved, every measure of organizational growth, both tangible and intangible, is on the rise. Personal productivity, event attendance, publicity and peace of mind — all seem to increase without bound. Cowles’ leadership style has conquered many previously insurmountable obstacles. His message relies heavily on common sense, focuses on interpersonal relationships, and emphasizes the ultimate victory of the human spirit over every worldly antagonist. Cowles draws strength from extraordinary tribulations in his lifelong experience, as you will no doubt hear in his poignant anecdotes. He draws an audience with his relentlessly spontaneous humor. His innate power to motivate springs from his deep-seeded love for every member of the human race. For Kristofer Dylan Cowles, people-building is a way of life. Be forewarned that Kristofer’s presentations are highly interactive. I encourage you to open your mind and heart to his timeless message.” Rich Hall

“Hello American!”

With those two words I begin each presentation. It’s a resounding rallying cry that sets the mood, and prepares your organization for an emotional, inspirational, and long-lasting impression. The words Rich writes above are very special to me, because they are the very essence of what I strive to achieve for you from the moment we first visit by phone to years beyond my last visit with your entire organization.

I don’t come to your conference or seminar to teach and then collect a check. I arrive with IMPACT firmly set in my mind and heart, determined to leave only when I know the message of our greatest Americans and the lessons they learned are not only heard, but embraced and followed by your folks.

180,000 Stories of American Triumph

Whether I get 45 minutes with your group or an entire weekend, I promise things will be different and for the better when I am done. You simply CANNOT experience the trials and tribulations on the way to victory that our forebears experienced and NOT be changed.

My presentations draw on the history of our great land and over 20,000 hand-selected and researched Great Americans and their over 180,000 stories of triumph to match your organization’s mission and goals to real people who had the same dreams – and accomplished them. When I’m done, your organization will have a Patron American Hero who members can remember, learn more about, and hold high as their symbol that what you are doing is right, righteous and possible.

When you click on the CONTACT button on the left, or fill out our contact form, I will call you and we will discuss, at no obligation to you, what your needs are and how I will fulfill them. Check out the organizations and venues that are typical of the groups I visit with, and even if you don’t see yours – give it a shot. There’s no organization the principles and lessons of Great Americans can’t help, and I look forward to making that happen everyday!

Oh… And the one answer everyone wants to know: Yes, we work with your budget. We don’t think anyone should be excluded from future prosperity just because it hasn’t caught up with them yet!