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"Only the educated are free."

Epictetus

 

 

 

"All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world."

Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

Abraham Lincoln

 

 

"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."

President Ronald Reagan

 

 

 

""The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived."

James Madison

 

 

 

"The happy union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world."

James Madison

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government."

Thomas Jefferson

 

 

 

"Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.  The human mind is our fundamental resource."

John F. Kennedy

 

 

 

"Liberty means responsibility.  That is why most men dread it."

George Bernard Shaw

 

 

 

"An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin

 

 

 

"Those who won our independence...valued liberty as an end and as a means.  They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."

Louis D. Brandeis

 

 

 

"Education is not a problem.  Education is an opportunity."

Lyndon B. Johnson

 

 

 

 

Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force."

Franklin D. R
oosevelt

 

 

 

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security."

Thomas Jefferson

 

 

 

"The government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."

Thomas Jefferson

 

 

 

"There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion."

Charles de Montesquieu

 

 

 

 

"As human beings, we are endowed with freedom of choice, and we cannot shuffle off our responsibility upon others, God or nature.  We must shoulder it ourselves.  It is our
responsibility."

Arnold J. Toynbee

 

 

 

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

Abraham Lincoln

 

 

 

 

"Two things in America are astonishing:  the changeableness of most human behavior and the strange stability of certain principles.  Men are constantly on the move, but the spirit of humanity seems almost unmoved."

Alexis de Tocqueville

 

 

 

"Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing."

Ronald Reagan

 

 

 

"The Bible, above all other books, favors that equality among mankind, that respect for just laws, and those sober and frugal virtues which constitute the soul of republicanism."

Benjamin Rush,
Signer of the Declaration of Independence and "Father of Public Schools Under the Constitution"

 

 

 

"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right."

Abraham Lincoln

 

 

 

"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained in arms, is the best most natural defense of a free country."

James Madison,
Founding Father

 

 

 

 

"Our history is not a story of perfection. It's a story of imperfect people working toward great ideals. This flawed nation is also a really good nation, and the principles we hold are the hope of all mankind. When children are given the real history of America, they will also learn to love America."

George W. Bush
Sept 17, 2002

 

 

 

 

"We are never defeated unless we give up on God."

Ronald Reagan

 

 

 

"The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees.  This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America."

Lyndon B. Johnson

 

 

 

"In the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior.  The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity."

John Adams

 

 

 

 

"To promote true religion is the best and most effective way of making a virtuous and regular people.  Love to God and love to man is the substance of religion; when these prevail, civil laws will have little to do."

John Witherspoon,
Signer of the Declaration of Independence; President of Princeton University

 

 

 

 

"Israel was not created in order to disappear - Israel will endure and flourish.  It is the child of hope and the home of the brave.  It can neither be broken in adversity nor demoralized by success.  It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom."

John F. Kennedy

 

 

 

 

 

                                 Our Rationale

"Suggested Presidential Speech" by Jack Kamrath
In Support of the Pledge of Allegiance by Jack Kamrath, President of AHEF

Historic Quotes on American Freedom and Civic Education
Current Quotes on American Freedom and Civic Education

__________________________________________________________________

 

"Suggested Presidential Speech"

by Jack Kamrath,
President of the American Heritage Education Foundation, Inc.

 "Suggested Presidential Speech" (PDF Format)

On September 11, 2001 our nation experienced the greatest single foreign attack on our homeland in history.  Two thousand seven hundred and ninety-two unsuspecting, innocent men, women and children were brutally murdered on that day three years ago.

We are here today to remember and memorialize those brave brothers and sisters who were taken from us in order that they will never be forgotten.  What words, what memorials, what monuments can adequately express our grief and sense of loss of these family members of our total American Family?  Certainly there should be special memorials to remember each and every one of these heroes.  Yet at the same time, we all have a sense that mere physical monuments are not enough to honor those that were killed on that awful day of  September 11, 2001.  Abraham Lincoln said it best at Gettysburg in 1863 after 7,000 brave soldiers died in three days of war between brothers who fought and died for what they believed.  President Lincoln stated the following and I ask each of you to very carefully listen to his great challenge: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom , and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

Lincoln's words reverberate today through our great nation louder and stronger than ever before. America was attacked on September 11th not for our land, industry, ports or airfields.  We were attacked simply because of our beliefs, values and ideals as Americans that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  When I became your President, I took an Oath of Office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America to the best of my ability.  The President of the United States is also sworn to protect the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  When our country was attacked for our beliefs, values and ideals, it placed on the Office of the President a challenge to lead our nation in this war of ideas and ideals.   For this reason, it is my emphatic responsibility to alert and inform our citizens that our nation is now under a relentless, cunning and devious attack upon the very foundations of our democratic republic.  This enemy will surely destroy our nation if it is not defeated.  This enemy will undermine our economy and lead directly to the corruption and destruction of our society if it is not defeated.  This enemy will destroy our homes and families with more certainty than any physical weapon of mass destruction if it is not defeated.  This enemy is the ultimate weapon of mass destruction and, tragically, is instigated by our own hand against ourselves. The scourge and plague of IGNORANCE is the lethal disease from which no self-governing people can possibly survive. 

The Congress and I stand together today to begin anew the fight against IGNORANCE.  This fight is in honor and memory of those that perished three years ago on September 11, 2001.  One may fairly ask, "How can IGNORANCE lead to the destruction of the freest society and greatest economy ever achieved by the mind of man"?  As your President, I respectfully ask you to please listen closely to the following lessons of history and to the heritage of our nation, the United States of America.

The concepts and ideas underlying the notion of self-government based on our Declaration of Independence and United States Constitution are very advanced intellectual concepts that were never attempted until July 4, 1776.   For thousands of years, man did not know how to understand, express and implement the meaning of individual freedom for every man, woman and child.  Modern man's recorded history is 5,000 years old on a planet that is many millions years old.  What types of governments or societies existed on earth by man prior to 1776?  With virtually no exception, all nations were organized in one form or another under 'Ruler's Law" in which all power and decision-making rested in one central, authoritarian person, family or group.  Ruler's Law still exists today in many forms including monarchy, autocracy, plutocracy, aristocracy, oligarchy, empires and military dictatorship.  Ruler's Law possesses very definite characteristics—all power is concentrated in the Ruler and government power is exercised by compulsion, force or decree.  The people are treated as subjects of the Ruler with no freedom or rights except those handed out by the Ruler.  The people are generally structured into social and economic classes with the thrust of the government being from the Ruler down, not from the people up.  Under Ruler's Law, freedom is not considered a solution to anything because problems are solved by issuing new edicts, taking more in taxes from the people or simply destroying any opposition to the Ruler. The land is treated as the realm of the Ruler.  Finally, the transfer of power from one Ruler to another under Ruler's Law is often by violence resulting in such countries having a strong history of blood and terror in both ancient and modern times.

Through very enlightened education and overcoming centuries of ignorance and the tradition of Ruler's Law, the American colonists came to realize that the King of England and the English Parliament would never voluntarily release their control over their American colonies.  These early Americans were neither brash nor impatient.  They knew their classics and their history—Biblical, Greek, Roman, European and English.  They were familiar with the writings and philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, Polybius, Cicero, Francis Bacon, Richard Hooker, John Locke, David Hume, Sir William Blackstone, Sir Edward Coke and Adam Smith.  None of the Founders could have brought a more profound or comprehensive training in history and political philosophy than the great Virginian, Thomas Jefferson.  The depth and breadth of his education are astonishing.  At the age of sixteen he had entered the college of William and Mary in Williamsburg as an advanced student.  At the age of nineteen he had graduated and immediately commenced five years of intensive study with George Wythe, the first professor of law in America.  He often studied fourteen or more hours per day and often knew more than his professors.  He gained proficiency in five languages and studied the Greek and Roman classics as well as European, English and Biblical history.

In studying the origins of freedom and self-government before writing the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson made a significant discovery.  He saw that at one time, the Israelites, after coming out of Egypt between 1490 and 1290 B.C. practiced the earliest and most efficient form of representative government in an otherwise tyrannical world.  The Israelites were led by Moses who organized the 600 ,000 Israelites into groups of a thousand families with one leader per group.  Further in his studies, Jefferson also learned that the Anglo-Saxons, who came from around the Black Sea in the first century B.C. and spread across Northern Europe copied Moses early form of representative government.  The Anglo-Saxons became an extremely well organized and efficient people in their day.  Jefferson greatly admired these laws of representative government and called these laws 'Ancient Principles'.

For seventeen days, Jefferson composed and revised his rough draft of the Declaration of Independence.  The major portion of the Declaration is taken up with a long series of charges against King George III of England.  Most of these abuses were nearly all copied from Jefferson's draft of the Virginia Constitution and his summarized view of the Rights of British America.  To copy these charges into the Declaration would not have taken him more than a day or two at most.  What was Jefferson doing the rest of the thirteen or fourteen days?  It is clear that he spent this remaining time trying to structure into the first two paragraphs of the Declaration at least eight of the 'Ancient Principles' in which he had come to believe in strongly.  His views and writings are well documented.  We are able to identify the following fundamental principles as the foundational ideas of the Declaration of Independence and therefore the basic foundational structural philosophy of the United States of America and it's creation.  It is essential that all Americans know and understand these eight great principles:

1.     Sound government should be based on self-evident truths.  These truths should be so obvious, rational and morally sound that their authenticity is beyond reasonable dispute

2.     The equal station of mankind here on earth is an obvious and inherent aspect of the Law of nature and of nature's God.

3.     This equality of man as a self-evident truth presupposes that man's Creator made human beings equal in their rights, equal before the bar of justice and equal in the eye of the Creator.

4.     Because these rights and equality have been bestowed by the Creator on each individual, they cannot be violated and/or removed by a Ruler.  They are therefore unalienable.  A person may have other rights in written law which are 'vested' by statute, but vested rights are not unalienable and can be changed or removed at any time by other human beings.

5.     Among the most important of the unalienable rights are the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, so long at this pursuit does not invade the inherent rights of others.

6.     The most basic reason for a community or a nation to establish a system of Government is to assure its people that the unalienable rights of the people shall be protected and preserved.

7.     And because of this, it follows that no office or agency of government has any right to exist except with the consent of the people or their representatives.

8.     It also follows that if a government, either by malfeasance or neglect, fails to protect those rights or , even worse, begins to violate those rights, then it is the duty of the people to regain control of their affairs and change or remove the government in order to serve the people better.

These eight 'ancient principles' that Jefferson crafted into the Declaration of Independence are as timeless and relevant today as when they formed the nation's foundational structure in 1776.  These principles are not Republican or Democratic Party principles.  These are American principles. They unleashed a pioneering, innovating and trailblazing experience of freedom, education, creativity and ingenuity that for over 200 years has been the marvel of the world in our advancing social progress based on the freedom of the individual. 

At the same time, it is clear from numerous studies, tests and research in recent years that our nation is beginning to forget, has forgotten, or even worse for our younger generation has never learned not only Jefferson's eight ancient principles, but the other key fundamentals of America's 'playbook'.  We all understand that if a team does not know the plays or the strategy of a game plan, then the team will fail and collapse in achieving its goals. The great philosopher, Will Durant, said, "Civilization is not inherited: it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew.  If the transmission should be interrupted by one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again."

The outstanding professor of history, Roger Wilkins, said, "I believe that somehow every student in every college of the United States ought to be taught fundamental lessons that say democracy is precious, democracy is perishable, democracy requires active attention and that democracy requires hard work."

Our greatest American philosopher and statesman on the concept of freedom itself, Thomas Jefferson, said, "If a nation expects to remain ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

As your President, it is my duty to not only defend the ideas and ideals of the United States, it is also my duty to promote their study and understanding by our people. The learned professor of classics and history, Donald Kagan, stated it very clearly when he said, "the unity of our country and the defense of freedom require that its citizens understand the ideas, history and traditions that created them."  Kagan said further, "The institutions and ideas that provide for freedom and improvement in material conditions cannot flourish without an understanding of how they came about."  It is clear that when a free nation based on self-government and an informed citizenry forgets its history and its heritage it is in serious trouble by its own negligence and ignorance. 

For this reason, the Congress and your President approved a new K-12 history program entitled 'Teaching American History' which is now in effect throughout the country.  And for this reason, I want to ask each of you within earshot of my voice to ask yourself, what are the key fundamental, timeless and enduring ideas and ideals underlying our national philosophy?  If someone from another country asked me as President what America's key philosophical foundations were, I would answer him or her by saying that I believe that there are four fundamental and vital characteristics of the United States of America.

I believe that the first and most important characteristic of our country is FREEDOM.  The founders of our nation were not royalty—they were all common people without class distinctions or nobility.  This fact is extremely important. Through their intense study and hard work in educating themselves the colonists came to understand that they were not free because the King of England declared them so or because they were nobleman of some sort.  Their intense and thorough studies taught them that they were free because they believed that a Creator endowed all men, including 'commoners', with the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  With the strength of their philosophical belief that their freedom was a gift from God and not a privilege granted by a monarch, the founders committed to each other their lives, fortunes and sacred honor toward achieving ultimate freedom from England.  Freedom in the United States has always been viewed as a gift from God because it affirms the idea, whether one is a believer and non-believer, that freedom for us all is unalienable and cannot be taken from us by another human being. In this sense, our nation is and always has been a God-loving nation. We have a very deep sense that if there were no God, then there could never be any lasting freedom for any of us.  This heritage in America of God's gift to us of freedom is by far our nation's most fundamental and most important characteristic.  If you are a non-believer of a God or a Creator, you are still a vitally important part of the American family and your beliefs and ideas are respected.  And, equally, believers hope that you will understand and respect their ideas in the fundamental connection between God and freedom as a historical fact of the United States.

I believe that the second most important characteristic of our nation is UNITY.  After our founders and forefathers gained their freedom through a long, demanding and difficult war with England, they found that it was very difficult for so many diverse and different colonies and peoples to agree on how to govern themselves. There were so many different nationalities, personalities, strengths, weaknesses, interests and characteristics among the colonies and colonists.  I think that the best analogy in describing our young nation in these early days is to think of it as a new family with thirteen new members, all born on the same day as full-grown adults.  Imagine trying to have these family members agree on anything much less on how to organize and govern themselves!  Whatever differences they had, and there were many, the original thirteen colonies somehow knew, above all else and in spite of their great differences, that they must unite together for their own survival or surely they would perish separately.  In looking back over the last 228 years, I believe that we can all see and understand that a unified American family is one of the strongest national families ever created and an enormously important national characteristic.  The first words of our Constitution, We The People…help to express our national unity. One of our first national mottos adopted in 1776, E Pluribus Unum, is Latin for the phrase, 'From Many, One'.  The recent focus on diversity for merely the sake of diversity without the corresponding understanding that diversity has always been and will always be only one characteristic of the American Family clearly tends to divide and separate us.  This is completely uncharacteristic of our people.  We are not and have never been the Diverse States of America. We are and always have been the United States of America.  As Americans we have the right and the duty to express our individual beliefs.  We also have the duty and responsibility to listen to our fellow Americans.  If all sides of an issue are discussed, heard and understood by everyone, then the great common sense of the American people and the great American spirit of understanding and unity will then hold us together as a nation as it has done for 228 years.

I believe that the third most important characteristic of America is PROGRESS.  Our nation's incredible social, economic, transportation, communication, health and living advances since 1776 as a result of our FREEDOM and our UNITY are unequalled in history.  Let me give you just a very few examples of this progress just since 1902, a little over 100 years ago:

  • In 1902, the average life expectancy was 47 years.
     
  • Only 14% of US homes had a bathtub.  Most of us washed their hair with borax or egg yolks.
     
  • Only 8% of homes had a telephone.
     
  • There were only 8,000 cars and 144 miles of paved roads in the country.  The  maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
     
  • Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California which was only the 21st most populous state.
     
  • The average wage in the US was 22 cents an hour, and the average worker earned between $200 and $400 per year.

The following inventions had yet to be discovered: the airplane, helicopter, insulin, penicillin, antibiotics, radio, television, computers, copy machines, word processors, washing machines, windshield wipers, vacuum cleaners, air-conditioning, frozen packaged food, the microwave, pop-top cans, ATM machines, the compact disc, the rocket engine, cyclotrons, or the space shuttle all of which were invented by Americans.

In understanding our nation's great progress, there are four key factors that determine the rate of economic progress that the people of a country can achieve.  These four factors are freedom, capital investment, energy and education.  These are the vital ingredients to increased output of goods and services necessary for each generation to do as much as possible in raising living standards through increased productivity.  At any time, for any reason, a deficiency in any of these four factors will adversely impact our economic progress.  Freedom must be maintained through minimal intrusion of our lives by government.  Capital investment must be maintained through a modest and reasonable tax structure.  Energy in efficient and creative levels must be maintained to provide the fuel for better health, better living conditions and increasing opportunity. Education must be maintained, increased and expanded in order that our economy and quality of life is sustainable.

In building a stronger America, we directly contribute to building a stronger and better world because of increased production of goods and services to all countries with whom we trade.  The road to economic progress for the United States and all countries is the creation of more goods, services and jobs for all, not in dividing existing wealth that ceases to grow.  We must always strive to grow the economic pie so that more people can eat well, survive and prosper as opposed to all trying to eat merely the same size pie that never gets bigger.  A pie that does not grow will surely result in the starvation of all.

I firmly believe that the fourth most important characteristic of the United States is RESPONSIBILITY.  In addition to our incredibly generous people who literally give away billions of dollars every year to important charitable causes, an astonishing 48% of our adult population contributes nearly five volunteer hours per week across the country in the fields of education, health, human services, youth development, religion, foreign aid and other similar areas of need.  This level of voluntary gifts, contributions, donations and time far exceeds that of any country in the history of mankind.  So while we are far from perfect and need to keep striving to do better in every way that we can, our free market economy based on free political institutions has proven itself to be enormously successful both in improving our own standard of living and then in providing extra wealth to help those that are less fortunate or unable to help themselves. Americans contribute enormous amounts of time and resources to try and help their fellow man both at home and throughout the world.  This characteristic of RESPONSIBILITY in helping our fellow man comes from, as we all know, the best Biblical tradition of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

In conclusion, I firmly believe that the four greatest fundamental characteristics of our country are FREEDOM, UNITY, PROGRESS and RESPONSIBILITY.  I would add further that, while we can do more and must never be satisfied or complacent, we can take a moment to acknowledge that this ingenious system of self-government so ably designed by our Forefathers, has worked incredibly well to help millions upon millions of our citizens live and work with dignity, peace and happiness.

Yet in spite of our great achievements, it is common knowledge today that a large number of our schools, colleges and universities that teach and train our young people routinely criticize the American system and way of life as being irredeemably flawed.  It is almost as if many of our nation's school teachers, administrators and professors hold in contempt the fact that our system of freedom and free -enterprise is working well and steadily moving forward for the benefit and improvement of as many of our citizens as possible.  Certainly it is important that students and citizens understand and improve on our flaws and imperfections. Yet our students and citizens must also appreciate the degree to which the basic ideals of freedom, unity, progress and responsibility under our democratic republic have helped the most people in history find a better way of life. These unique American characteristics, when combined with our great love for our fellow man is in the best tradition of our Judaeo-Christian heritage in the United States of being our brother's keeper. 

It is critical that our nation's history, heritage, advancement and goodness not only be constantly remembered and celebrated, it must be studied and relearned anew by each generation.  If this is not accomplished, then our young generation today and future generations will not understand, appreciate and maintain our fundamental national characteristics that it received from the previous generation.  I stated at the beginning that we were attacked on September 11, 2001 simply because of our beliefs, values and ideals as a nation and as Americans.  As your President, I have joined with the Congress to begin our national rebirth in honor the 2,792 that perished on September 11th for no other reason than that they were Americans.  In their honor, this September and every September hereafter is hereby proclaimed NATIONAL AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH for the purpose of relearning, expressing and promoting across our land the great ideas of freedom, unity, progress and responsibility, and our many other great national ideals, that are the structural foundations of the United States of America.

It has been said that, "IDEALS ARE LIKE STARS, YOU WILL NOT SUCCEED IN TOUCHING THEM WITH YOUR HANDS.  BUT LIKE THE SEAFARING MAN ON THE OCEAN'S WATERS, YOU CHOOSE THEM AS YOUR GUIDES, AND FOLLOWING THEM YOU WILL REACH YOUR DESTINY."

The destiny of the United States of America is still to come.  In seeking this destiny, we must always be guided by our proven ideals and our proven heritage.  The heritage and history of America, while not perfect, is based on truth, love of our fellow man and a beautifully designed system of self-government.  As your President and as your Representatives in Congress, we want the American people to know that we choose America and its foundational ideals and ideas as our guides.  We must all preserve and strengthen them in order that our children and grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren can preserve and strengthen the United States of America.

Thank you for allowing us into your homes tonight to honor and memorialize our fellow Americans that were lost on September 11, 2001 with the establishment of this NATIONAL AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH.  And thank you for all that you do as Americans for yourselves, your family, neighbors, friends and your fellow man.  May God always bless the United States of America.

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IN SUPPORT OF OUR PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE:
Attorney General's Defense of the Pledge Does Not Go Far Enough September 16, 2005

The source of our unalienable rights cannot be removed by the stroke of a pen from a King or from a Congress

By Jack Kamrath
Co-Founder and President
American Heritage Education Foundation

In Support of Our Pledge of Allegiance (PDF Format)

Texas' Attorney General Greg Abbott wrote an excellent op/ed piece in your September 16, 2005, issue of the Houston Chronicle newspaper.  Mr. Abbott discussed some of the cultural and legal history of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in the public square.  However, I felt that he did not go far enough to explain the basic, structural nature between Freedom and God in America.  I respectfully submit the following additional arguments in support of our Pledge of Allegiance and its including the phrase, "One Nation Under God."

The hullabaloo and confusion over reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools or exhibiting the Ten Commandments in 'the public square' is an important reflection of our nation's increasing case of 'civics amnesia' over the last thirty or forty years.  Our citizens and students, in large part, have not been taught the first and most fundamental philosophical concept of America.  This educational deficiency is a very well-documented fact (for example, see E Pluribus Unum at www.bradleyproject.org).  As a result, we Americans squabble among ourselves over the key founding philosophy of America - a philosophy that should unquestionably unite us.

This first and most fundamental idea of America is understanding the philosophical concept of Freedom.  The Founders of our nation were not royalty.  They were all common people without class distinctions, royal titles, or nobility.  This fact is extremely important.  Americans then and now were and are all 'equally common' people.  Through their intense study and hard work in educating themselves, the colonists came to understand that they were not free because King George declared them so or because Freedom was a birthright due to being a nobleman.  Their intense studies taught them that they were free because they believed that a Creator endowed all men, including commoners, with the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  With the strength of their philosophical belief that their Freedom was a timeless, permanent gift from God and not a privilege granted by a monarch, the founders gathered enormous internal strength to make a most radical decision to break away from their Motherland after concluding that the king would never voluntarily release his grip over his subjects.  This decision was terribly controversial at the time because the entire populace in the colonies was not fully educated or cognizant of the philosophical arguments and reasonings related to the widening western civilization concept of Freedom and the rights of the individual.

From those calamitous days in the late 18th century, Freedom in America has always been viewed as a gift from God because it affirms the critical philosophical ideas that, whether one is a believer or non -believer, Freedom for us all is an eternal or essentially "spiritual" state of the human existence that cannot be removed by another human being.  If one believes that one human has no right to impose or coerce another human, then it follows that the most important word in the Declaration of Independence is, arguably, 'unalienable.'  That is to say that without the understanding of the idea that the gift of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are permanent and unchanging rights for all, man is at the mercy of other men and any man-made law that can be given or taken away at any time by the stroke of a pen. 

All true, thoughtful Americans have a very deep sense that all Americans, regardless of their belief of non-belief in a God, accept the philosophical Founding of America as, for the first time in history, a nation conceived on this new and unique idea of the equality of all men in the eye of a Creator or a spiritual force that looks upon all human beings as totally equal.

Both believers and non-belivers of a God or Creator are historically respected as equally important members of the American family.  Both have also always been ready and willing to defend the philosophical concept of Freedom because they seem to know and understand the fundamental connection between God and Freedom as a historical fact of the United States' founding, regardless of their personal beliefs.

The inclusion of God "in the public square" through our Pledge of Allegiance, a public display of the Ten Commandments, or some other similar symbols should be a comforting and unifying tradition to all true Americans.  Those public displays are not forcing any form of religion on any other citizen.  These displays are simple reminders that America was designed and conceived on the fundamental concept that every person's freedom was a natural, God-given right emanating from a higher power than mortal man.

If the outward words "Under God" were removed from the Pledge and other similar national symbols, words that the majority of Americans understand and appreciate, you can be sure that America would more quickly slide backwards toward tyranny and oppression of men dominating other men.  Thomas Jefferson said it best:  "If a nation expects to remain ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."

America is not perfect.  It took many more decades for our black brothers and sisters, for example, to achieve Freedom.  But Jefferson and Washington, for example, two of the Founders who owned slaves because they were born into a pre-existing system of slavery, designed and put in place a system based on unalienable rights that would remain a permanent philosophical fact of America and eventually result in permanent Freedom for all slaves and their descendants.  Did this take longer than it should have?  Certainly.  But lest any of us forget, it took 1776 years from Jesus' birth (and thousands of years before that) for the common white man to light the first flicker of Freedom's flame for himself and to define it for all others in America's Declaration of Independence.  Can Americans today preserve and strengthen this comforting and unifying idea?  We can only hope so--and work to overcome the kind of ignorance in our schools and in our society that our Founders knew was capable of destroying what they had signed.

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HISTORIC QUOTES ON AMERICAN FREEDOM AND CIVIC EDUCATION

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."  --Thomas Jefferson

"The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time."  --Thomas Jefferson

"I have sworn upon the alter of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."  --Thomas Jefferson, inscribed on Jefferson Memorial

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.  Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  That to secure these rights governments are instituted among men.  We solemnly publish and declare that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states and for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honour."  --Declaration of Independence, inscribed on Jefferson Memorial

"I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings that 'except the Lord build they labor in vain that build it.' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel."  --Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention Address on Prayer

"The Foundation of every government is some principle or passion in the minds of the people."  --John Adams

"It is scarcely possible to reduce an enlightened people to civil or ecclesiastical tyranny....  Deprive them of knowledge, and they sink almost insensibly in vassalage.  Ignorance cramps the powers of the mind, at the same time that it blinds them to their natural rights."  --Noah Webster

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal....  That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."  --Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address

"Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given a new hope to their descendants."  --James Garfield

"A representative democracy, where the right of election is well secured and regulated, and the exercise of the legislative, executive, and judiciary authorities is vested in selected persons, chosen really and not nominally by the people, will, in my opinion, be most likely to be happy, regular, and durable."  --Alexander Hamilton

"As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it, in reason, morality, and the natural fitness of things."  --John Adams

"A union depending not upon the constraint of force, but upon the loving devotion of a free people; and that all things may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundations that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established among us for all generations."  --Rutherford B. Hayes

"The great essential to our happiness and prosperity is that we adhere to the principles upon which the Government was established and insist upon their faithful observance."  --William McKinley

"The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next."  --Abraham Lincoln

"I should like to think that America should stand as a land of opportunity and enthusiasm and riches.  By riches I mean not only raw materials, armies, navies, railroads, ships, and cities, but a whole people full of good will toward the world, loyal to its own flag and beautiful continent, ready to work to educate its whole people."  --Mrs. J. Borden Harriman

"Knowing as we do that the foundation of national greatness can be laid only in the industry, the integrity and the spiritual elevation of the people, are we equally sure that schools are forming the character of the rising generation upon the everlasting principles of duty and humanity?  Are children so educated that when they grow up they will make better leaders or only grander savages?  However loftily the intellect of man may have been gifted, however skillfully it may have been trained, if it be not guided by a sense of justice, a love of mankind and a devotion to duty, its possessor is only a more dangerous barbarian."  --Horace Mann

"It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."  --Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863

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CURRENT QUOTES ON AMERICAN FREEDOM AND CIVIC EDUCATION

"...If relentless cries for relevance and diversity should ever lead to dismantling the program of common studies of Western civilization, then all students--including minority students--will be left ill-prepared for the role we all face as participants in a democratic society.  Our system of government under law--itself a triumph of the Western tradition--will inevitably suffer."  --Jose A. Cabranes, "Our Common Ground," Wall Street Journal, June 9, 1995.

"The U. S. escaped the divisiveness of a multiethnic society by a brilliant solution:  the creation of a brand-new national identity.  The point of America was not to preserve old cultures but to forge a new, American culture."  --Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "The Cult of Ethnicity, Good and Bad."

"People need as much information as possible to make good decisions, Jefferson knew, especially when it came to government.  'Every government degenerates when trusted to the rules of the people alone.  The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositors,' he wrote.  'And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.'  Jefferson understood that firsthand knowledge is the most accurate, and he strove to gather his own information."  --Michael Mink, "Founding Father's Right Touch," Investor's Business Daily, July 7, 2003

"Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted for one century, civilization would die, and we should be savages again."  --Will & Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History

"I believe that somehow every student in every college of the United States ought to be taught fundamental lessons that say democracy is precious, democracy is perishable, democracy requires active attention and that democracy requires hard work."  --Roger Wilkins,  Professor of History and American Culture, George Mason University

"Freedom and responsibility are equally yoked.  Only when they are in tandem can we cultivate the vast field of opportunity and have an orderly society.  Freedom requires about as much courage to live with, as it does to get."  --Clarence Thomas, "It's a Dirty Little Secret:  Freedom Necessarily Entails Responsibility," Americans for an Informed Public, July 1996.

"I  have in mind the Founding Fathers' idea of an informed citizenry.  This is the basic principle that underlies our national system of education in the first place--that people in a democracy can be entrusted to decide all important matters for themselves because they can deliberate and communicate with one another."  --E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy:  What Every American Needs to Know

"History has taught us that freedom cannot long survive unless it is based on moral foundations.  The American founding bears ample witness to this fact.  America has become the most powerful nation in history, yet she uses her power not for territorial expansion but to perpetuate freedom and justice throughout the world."  --Margaret Thatcher, "The Moral Foundations of Society,' The Bottom Line Quarterly, Bellevue University, Spring 1995.

"It is even more important to pass stories of American courage and character to the next generation.  To capture their imaginations.  To raise a monument in their hearts.  It is the way our democracy renews its promise, by celebrating American heroes and American values, without hesitation and without apology.  Let us resolve to teach America's story to America's children."  --Austin Bay, "A Creaking Pulley and An Honored Flag," Houston Chronicle, June 13, 1999.

 

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