Patriotism Matters!

Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families: July 4th, along with Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day, is one of America’s patriotic holidays, and there is a lot of evidence that we are not teaching patriotism to our kids. That our children are not learning their history and basic civics is a sad fact. For example, a 2006 survey of 14,000 college students by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute found that just 46% of college seniors know that the line “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” comes from the Declaration of Independence. Even worse, the ISI study found that college seniors at some of the nation’s most elite and prestigious universities actually graduate knowing less about American history and civics than when they arrived as freshman.

From my experiences in many schools, it seems that all we are teaching our children are America’s failures and shortcomings. Political correctness is rampant, and anti-Americanism is chic. Reflecting on the results of a previous ISI survey that was just as disappointing, Eugene Hickok, former U.S. deputy secretary of education, said “America’s students need to understand what America is about. Nothing less than our nation’s future is at risk. We need to be about the business of making patriots.”

In fact, Thomas Sowell wrote a brilliant column yesterday entitled, “Does Patriotism Matter?” noting how French intellectuals and “educrats” – liberal bureaucrats who control the teachers’ unions – scrubbed the history books of patriotic references following World War I. Sowell wrote, “Marshal Philippe Petain, the victor at Verdun, warned in 1934 that teachers were trying to ‘raise our sons in ignorance of or in contempt of the fatherland.’” And, not surprisingly, the nation collapsed in just six weeks after the beginning of World War II.

Today we face many dangers – economic challenges, the threat from Islamofascism, etc. But one of the greatest dangers we are facing is that the next generation will fail to learn what is good about America and that it is worth defending. Our kids must know that our founders believed America was and should always be “a shining city upon a hill.” They must understand what our founders meant when they wrote in the second paragraph of our Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” It was to this principle that Washington and Jefferson and the men of Bunker Hill and Concord Bridge pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor.”

Do our kids believe that today? It’s hard to fight for an idea you don’t even know exists. President Woodrow Wilson reportedly said, “A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.” Thankfully, there are still many young men and women who do appreciate America and cherish our freedoms even to the point of laying down their own lives. They are demonstrating their love of country in the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq and in other far away places. May God bless them and protect them. May we always honor their service and the sacrifice of their loved ones who will miss them tremendously this holiday weekend.

On this July 4th, by all means enjoy that hotdog. Go to the baseball game. Enjoy your time with friends and family. But, my friends, please “be about the business of making patriots.” Take a moment to talk to your kids and grandchildren about the meaning of America, the risks our Founding Fathers took to win our freedom and the sacrifices that were made then, and those being made today to defend our liberty. Because patriotism does matter.

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Tags: 4th of July, 2008, Gary Bauer, patriotism To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!