Honoring our past to secure our future
“Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.” – Noah Webster, 1788
As we leave the first decade of the 21st Century behind, the view of where we now stand is stunning. We’re peering over the edge of a vast chasm. The distance we’ve traveled from our sacred foundations across this swinging bridge has reached the breaking point. If America is to fulfill her destiny as the last best hope on earth (as proclaimed by Washington, Lincoln, Reagan and others), her citizens must consult and honor the wisest of sages: her past.
The more I study our history and heritage the clearer it becomes that the follies of today, and our great peril of the present, are the result of our refusal to know, understand and honor our past. Instead of a thorough and cherished knowledge of America’s history, heritage and first principles, we revel in shallow pleasures and the vanities of a vacuous pop culture. The focus of many today is entertainment and self service, not enlightenment and self improvement.
It’s painful to realize how needless our failures are in light of how easy it would be for us to consult the past. Having just finished a thrilling ride through American history and achievement by reading The American Patriot’s Almanac by William J. Bennett and John T. Cribb, I’m ever more convinced that a re-dedication to studying our past will remedy the majority of our problems today.
Take for instance the shameful decision of a local school board (Williamson County, Tenn.), who just voted 7-5 to remove “Christmas” from the vernacular of the county’s school system. It’s a textbook case of political correctness run am0k, but we miss the lesson here if we don’t realize that the muck we’re stuck in is pure ignorance of our past! These seven board members have caved to the likes of the ACLU and the progressives who haven’t the slightest knowledge or understanding of American history. This haphazard decision, albeit a minor one, disgraces our true heritage and what America originally stood for: religious freedom.
I wonder how it is that these seven naive board members could outsmart our founders who proclaimed that we are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights,” and who created our entire political system on biblical truths including the very make up of our government: do they even know that Isaiah 33:22 inspired James Madison, the father of our Constitution, to propose the executive, legislative and judicial branches? Or how about all 44 U.S. presidents who have acknowledged God in their inaugural addresses, and many of whom have called for national days of prayer, and prayed aloud to the nation on the radio? Have they also outsmarted the authors of all 50 state constitutions, each of which contains verbiage acknowledging God as the author and sustainer of our liberty? Or how about the Supreme Court who daily begins with the same centuries old proclamation “God save the United States and this honorable court.” The massive volume of evidence validating our nation’s Christian heritage and the acknowledgment of such by the leaders of every generation has somehow escaped these misguided school board members. I submit to them the following excerpt from President Harry Truman’s 1949 Christmas radio address to the nation:
“We miss the spirit of Christmas if we consider the Incarnation as an indistinct and doubtful, far-off event unrelated to our present problems. We miss the purport of Christ’s birth if we do not accept it as a living link which joins us together in spirit as children of the ever-living and true God. In love alone–the love of God and the love of man–will be found the solution of all the ills which afflict the world today. Slowly, sometimes painfully, but always with increasing purpose, emerges the great message of Christianity: only with wisdom comes joy, and with greatness comes love.
In the spirit of the Christ Child–as little children with joy in our hearts and peace in our souls–let us, as a nation, dedicate ourselves anew to the love of our fellowmen. In such a dedication we shall find the message of the Child of Bethlehem, the real meaning of Christmas.”
I suppose these school board members have outsmarted even Harry Truman, and in so doing have “passed the buck” to a minority of people on the Left who will continue eradicating all utterances of Christianity in America till we cease to be a nation under God.
By rejecting our past and the rich lessons found therein, we reject the very remedy for America as she ails on her deathbed. 2011 is here…the choice is yours to stand up, speak out and secure our future…one battle at a time.
