31 Mar Freedom Begins at Home
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United State of America.
With freedom comes responsibility. We are responsible for our families and ourselves. We have a responsibility to obey the laws of the land and respect the enforcement of those laws. We also have a responsibility to speak out and perhaps even protest against perceived or real injustices. And, we have a responsibility to look around at our communities, get involved and help our friends and neighbors in need.
First and foremost, we must strive to instill these values in our children, if our republic is to continue to flourish.
In 1979, the U.S. Department of Education was created out of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare as a federal cabinet department. President Jimmy Carter signed the law on October 17, 1979, and the Department of Education began operating on May 4, 1980. Prior to this, education was solely the responsibility of local school boards and state departments of education. When the federal government assumed control of education and providing funds to local school districts and universities, the education of our children in school began changing. As usual, federal mandates and bureaucracy cannot effectively manage the critically important job of educating our children.
In particular, U.S. History taught in public schools has been hijacked. We already stated that our country is not perfect; however, schools now teach that basically everything about the United States is wrong and corrupt. The focus is on the problems encountered by an imperfect nation, not the premise of freedom and free markets upon which it was established.
We want our kids to learn the whole story – the decent, the indecent, the motivations, the big picture – not merely the negative.
If all we knew about our country was the injustices of slavery, women’s rights, the need for unions, the treatment of Native Americans, etc., it’s unlikely we would feel a sense of patriotic pride in our country. A broad knowledge of our history includes the struggles of these groups, but also the struggle to become independent and forge a new nation.
What of the character of people who explored and settled the frontier? Why has the continuous influx of immigrants continued from colonial times to the present day? And what of the 42 million brave Americans who have served in our country’s military to preserve our way of life and for freedom throughout the world? Our children and future generations of Americans must understand the whole picture of our history or they won’t have the patriotic heart needed to preserve these freedoms.
We grew up knowing that the U.S. is a melting pot, where we all have pride in being Americans, regardless of how our ancestors came to live here. Everyone in America, except the Native Americans, is an immigrant. We are all the same.
It’s great to have ethnic and religious traditions within our family and neighborhoods; but we’re all Americans. When someone asks me what my ethnicity is, I say, “American.” My relatives who arrived in the early 1920’s from Russia wanted nothing more than to be thought of as Americans.
Immigrants are still arriving from all over the world to the shores of America today.
Why? The one word answer is Freedom.
As parents, we must teach our children and young adults that freedom is the gift of our country to us and to the world. We’re responsible for setting an example that independence of thought and spirit is what has made our country great. The government is not there to take care of you; YOU are the government and they work for you.
A friend who emigrated from Poland in the 1980’s told us, “Americans don’t appreciate their freedom.” It’s time we proved him wrong.
