Jeanne Goodin
My first encounter with Phyllis’ skill with words was her debate in the 70’s with Stanford Law Professor Patricia McKenna in Pasadena, CA.
Phyllis and Patricia sat in arm chairs on the stage facing each other. How exciting it was listening to Phyllis decimate each of Patricia’s Pro-ERA’s comments while Phyllis maintained a feminine yet professional presence! It was obvious that Patricia had met an expert and was unable to refute any of Phyllis’ anti-ERA’s reasons for this destructive issue!
AND, I was fortunate to meet Phyllis personally after the debate at a private reception. I returned home to my family of three small active girls and wonderful husband, Mike, FOREVER CHANGED! I KNEW THAT PHYLLIS CHALLENGED ME TO SOMEDAY BECOME A PRO-FAMILY ADVOCATE.
My busy life as mother, and wife quickly passed, filled as Campfire Blue Bird leader, room-mother to all three, chauffeur to ballet dance classes, numerous visits to the library, piano lessons, birthday parties filled with extra fun activities, helper and leader of “Hot Dog” day at their Christian school, plus church activities, involvement with our local symphony, and as an elected member of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County Central Committee. I served on the Executive Committee, Secretary of the 54th Assembly District Central Committee, Chairman of the 27th Senatorial District, and Secretary of the Resolutions Committee for L.A.C.C.C.
The years quickly rolled by and when our daughters were off to college I became very active in Eagle Forum. I was invited to become a founding board member of Eagle Forum of CA some 31 years ago and with Dr. Jo Ellen Allen’s encouragement I founded the Eagle Forum of CA-Long Beach Chapter four years later.
I was alerted about Common Core by our EF of CA State president, Orlean Koehle and after reading her book, "Common Core, A Trojan Horse for Education Reform” knew, as a retired teacher, I had to become involved.
As a result of Orlean’s encouragement, I founded the Orange County Common Core Concerned Citizens. Gloria Pruyne, Chairman, and I, representing Eagle Forum, make Common Core presentations on the radio and to organizations that invite us. I, speaking about Common Core and Gloria presenting the “how to” training when addressing school boards.
We have training sessions in our homes and we both share our written school board messages for activists. Gloria and I believe that our prepared messages make it easy for interested parents and retired teachers to participate in addressing school boards.
Our teams of activists attend local monthly board meetings and make anti-Common Core presentations. Those participating find it exceedingly effortless as the prepared messages are 3 minutes in length and are easy to read.
We have created a website, Orange County Common Core Concerned Citizens, www.OrangeCountycccc.com which is filled with Common Core articles, messages on various aspects of Common Core and dates of our upcoming presentations.
Eagle Forum of CA’s Common Core website is: www.cuacc.org that has Orlean’s presentation; Common Core Talking Points in Spanish, a Common Core Opt Out Form and numerous sources for Common Core research.
My first opportunity to watch Phyllis’ example of citizen participation encouraged my involvement in the political process because this is MY BELOVED COUNTRY and to keep it FREE for our daughters, our nine grandchildren and all the children of this marvelous, exceptional America, I MUST PARTICIPATE!
Jeanne Goodin
Eagle Forum of CA, VP for S.C. Board Director
EF of CA-Long Beach Chapter President
