Is Our American Heritage Worth Fighting For?

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      
      What exactly is America's heritage and what makes it worth preserving? I think it is summarized most clearly and beautifully in the 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."  Equality . . . Liberty . . . we hear these words a lot, even today, but do you think it means the same things as America's founders did? Due to ignorance of American history - our heritage - many of our elected leaders can use the words of America's founders to violate liberty rather than to protect it and in the process have created an ever-expanding government bureaucracy dominating the lives of American citizens.

      The Socialist crowd taking charge of our nations education system was by design. The 'molding" of America's youth in their own image is the top priority. The less our youth knows about the Constitution the easier it is for "change" to occur. Today, most young people cannot distinguish the First Amendment from the Fourth Amendment -- and do not

worry that they cannot. Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln are mere names of grammar schools but otherwise unidentifiable to most. The failure of our educational system to enlighten new minds with the ideals that drove our forefathers is what they fail to teach and what they do teach, or rather indoctrinate, and the graduates they send out into the world, incapable of seriously weighing alternatives for themselves or for American society. 

       In a recent speech at Boise State, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said: "Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name. ... The more I read and the more I listen, the more apparent it is that our society suffers from an alarming degree of public ignorance." These ill-informed voters are more susceptible to emotional arguments. They are more likely to believe that the prosperous become so only at someone else's expense and not their own hard work Almost half of America receives some sort of public assistance, and another half pays no federal income tax. About one-seventh of Americans are on food stamps. This is NOT our American heritage.

     We are not unlike Rome. They were the greatest empire the world had ever seen but by A.D. 200, the Roman Republic was a distant memory. Few citizens of the global Roman Empire even knew of their illustrious ancestors like Scipio or Cicero. The language was Latin but it became almost unrecognizable after time. Yet Rome endured as a global power for three more centuries. What held it together? A stubborn common popular culture and a false prosperity kept things going. Rome quieted the people with public spectacles and still affordable prices, so too Americans of all classes keep glued to favorite video games and reality-TV shows. 

      In 2015 America, as in Rome, there is a vast disconnect between elites and the people. Few

Americans seem to worry that our present leaders have lied to or misled the Congress and the American people without consequences. They divide us. Officially, America celebrates diversity; privately, America is fragmenting into racial, political and ideological camps. America is now many different little Americas. It is white America and black America. It is male and female, or at least feminized  America. It is Latino, gay, vegetarian -- you name it, they've got a label for you. Like Rome, America apparently can coast for a long time on the fumes of its wonderful political heritage and economic dynamism -- even if both are little understood or appreciated by most who still benefit from them. When the coasting stops - then what?