The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is how to celebrate America’s 250th birthday anniversary. Star Parker believes that learning about the Declaration of Independence is a good way to start the celebration. In her article published in The Daily Signal, she shared some material from a speech delivered by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas, Austin.
The
force of Thomas’ words does not just result from his deep understanding of what
the United States is about, and how the Declaration of Independence defines it.
The
force flows from Thomas’ personal reality. He has lived what the declaration is
about. His words are not just the product of thought and study, but of Thomas’
entire life experience.
Thomas
grew up poor in America’s Jim Crow South.
But
he says, “Despite the multiplicity of laws and customs that wreaked a bigotry,
it was universally believed among those blacks with whom I lived and who had
very little or no formal education, that in God’s eyes and under our
Constitution, we were equal.”
“When
you lived in a segregated world with palpable discrimination and the
governments nearest to you enforced laws and customs that promoted unequal
treatment, it was obvious that your rights or your dignity did not come from
those governments, but rather from God,” he continued….
Thomas’
life, career, and education were trial by fire.
By
the time he became chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the
country had already been captured by progressivism, particularly on matters of
race.
His
principled adherence to the eternal God-given truths of the declaration, and
refusal to fold to the progressive agenda – which he calls the “then-prevailing
orthodoxy on race” – was a lonely battle, which left him under constant attack.
It
was then he realized that carrying out the agenda was more than knowing the
principles, but having the courage to fight, and even, if necessary, die for
them.
Thomas
notes that the principles stated in the opening of the declaration – “We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights” – could have gotten nowhere
without the last paragraph of the declaration.
There
the signers conclude “We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred Honor.”
“What
changed the world,” per Thomas, “was not the words, but the commitment and
spirit of the people willing to labor, sacrifice, and even give their lives”
for what Lincoln called at Gettysburg “the last full measure of devotion.”
Thomas
asks, “Do any of us have what it took for our young soldiers to storm Normandy
Beach, to fight at Guadalcanal, to later fight at Chosin Reservoir?”
He
discusses the emergence of progressivism, which challenged the core principles of
the Declaration. As Thomas notes, its pedigree is not American but was born in
19th century Germany of Otto von Bismark.
It’s
a worldview that rejects the notion that God-given truths govern our lives, but
rather politics and government so-called experts.
It’s
deeply ironic and unfortunate that the civil rights movement – a movement about
human freedom, a movement about moving black people out from the distortions of
political control, and to our regime of freedom defined by our declaration’s
principles – itself saw progressivism as the answer to problems of race.
We
are in a great struggle today for the future of our country.
The
movement toward progressivism has delivered to us a new time with massive
government, deficits, debts, and bankrupt entitlement programs. The assault of
progressivism on the God-given principles of the [D]eclaration of Independence
has also taken a great toll on our culture, with the traditional family and our
birth of children in dangerous decline.
To
restore the vitality of our nation, we for sure today need a “new birth of
freedom.”
A good start for all is to listen to Thomas’ message.