Why Is America the Great Nation That It Is Today?

This week being the week of Memorial Day, I thought that I would share some ideas presented by Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. He gives numbers of Americans who died for the United States of America and encourages us to teach this information to our children, teens, and young adults as well as people who have legally immigrated into America. 

This Monday was Memorial Day. It commemorated all the Americans who died on behalf of the United States from its beginning to the present. It started out as Decoration Day. It was a phenomenon that grew out of the horrific Civil War in which 650,000 to 700,000 Americans, North and South, died.

And people in that postwar era felt that their graves should be commemorated. And once people started to decorate the graves or put flowers on them or flags, that custom spread to the North, and each state then started to commemorate it. And it was finally federalized as an official holiday not until 1971….

How many people have died fighting for America? About 1.2 million, and that includes 20,000 to 25,000 in the Revolutionary War if we count disease as well, maybe 20,000 in the War of 1812.

The Mexican War, 1848, there were probably 5,000…. 650,000 to 700,000 in the Civil War….

And then, of course, there was the Spanish-American War, World War I, where 117,000 died….

And then, of course, World War II, where somewhere between 405,000 to 450,000 died, depending on how we count those who were sick, whether it was battle-related or whether they were in the United States or overseas….

And then, of course, Korea with another 35,000, and then we had 58,000 in Vietnam and 7,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan and on, and on.

The singularity, though, we commemorate or are depressed by or awed by the numbers in two wars, the 430,000 that died in World War II and the 650,000 or 700,000 – that is almost a million Americans who died….

We are now a country – we have never been on this frontier before in terms of percentages or the actual numbers of foreign-born. We have about 53 million Americans who were not born in the United States, and that is about 16.2% of the current population.

That is a huge number. And unfortunately, those large influxes occur at a time when we have lost confidence in the American system or experiment because we do not have civic education anymore. We do not have classes from K-12, much less in university, where people know about the iconic events, what the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is, what caused the Civil War, what was Iwo Jima, what was Pearl Harbor.

Nobody seems to have any reference, any knowledge of that. And so, what we need to do is to – one of the ways, the best way, I think, to assimilate legal immigrants is to remind them that they wanted to come to this country. We did not force them to come. In most cases, we did not invite them to come.

They chose to come here because they felt, in terms of security, personal freedom, and economic viability, they would be better off than they were in their home countries.

So, when they arrived in this fully developed 250^th year of America this year, they should ask themselves, and we should help them understand why this was such a prosperous, great nation, why it is the oldest constitutional republic in the world today, and why it has been so successful.

And the answer is that from time to time in its 250-year history, it has called on young people 18, 19, 20 [years old] to go far overseas in almost every case except the Civil War, the Revolutionary, and the War of 1812, and fight enemies, whether they were German militarists or Austro-Hungarian militarists or Nazism in Germany or fascism in Italy or Japanese militarism or during the Cold War in Korea to stop communist aggression in Vietnam, same thing.

But they were uprooted from a very comfortable existence, and they gave their lives so that the United States today would be what it is. And if we do not tell people that, there is no appreciation that they came late to a country in which 1.2 million people had died to make it the attractive nation that enticed them to come in the first place.

And it is not just legal immigrants that need to relearn the lesson of American sacrifice, it is our own youth. They grow up with iPhones, they grow up with sophisticated automobiles, they grow up as beneficiaries of 21^st-century medicine. All of that is a result, a dividend, of the sacrifice of people that we do not even know anymore.

And sometimes we do not even know the places or the circumstances in which they gave their fullest and their last sacrifice. And they were all young, and they never had a chance, as the rest of us did, to mature. So, on Memorial Day, think of the dead and what they did for us, and try to commemorate it.

Did You Lose a Friend or Loved One While in Military Uniform?

 My VIPs for this week are the men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for America, those in military uniforms who died while fighting or preparing to fight for this nation. Memorial Day is a day to commemorate their sacrifice.

I cannot think of any relative or friend who died while in military uniform – not a son or daughter, spouse, parent or grandparent, uncle, aunt, or cousin, or even a friend or classmate. I consider myself to be well blessed, especially since I know many who served in World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, recent wars, or are currently serving. I recognize that the families of all who serve sacrifice much whether a loved one dies or not.

Memorial Day 2026 is winding down as I draft this essay, so I want to share information from an opinion piece written by the editorial board at the Deseret News. 

Exact figures are elusive, but a variety of sources put the number of people who have given their lives in American military conflicts from the beginning of the revolution until the most recent fighting in Iran at more than 1.2 million.

That includes those who died in direct combat and those who died in accidents, by diseases or in any other way related to military service. The distinction really doesn’t matter. All gave their lives while serving their country.

That is a staggering number to contemplate as the nation prepares to observe its 250^th birthday in July. It becomes more staggering when one considers that the largest single share of those, 620,000, died in the Civil War. Noteworthy is also the cost of war in other countries, including the Soviet Union, with losses during World War II that reached tens of millions of soldiers and civilians.

Passionate patriots

Americans have always been passionate about defining freedom and amending laws in order to reflect an ideal definition of it. Unfortunately, sometimes they will come to blows over these definitions, as in the Civil War.

The nation’s Founders did a remarkable job of crafting a Constitution that keeps power in check while protecting basic freedoms and liberties, and yet the execution of those ideals has often been less than perfect. It is a testament to the beauty and inspired nature of that document that it endures and Americans continue to try to uphold its standards to this day.

Monday is Memorial Day. People sometimes joke it is the only holiday on the calendar that is not profitable to greeting card companies. That doesn’t mean it has been above trivialization. Many view it as the unofficial first day of summer; a time for barbecues and family gatherings. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, and yet it is important to devote at least part of the day toward the memory of those who have passed, and the debt a free and prosperous nation owes to their sacrifice. It is especially important that some of this time is devoted toward teaching these things to children, and toward teaching them that war is a last resort that all too often becomes necessary.

Born in Battle

This day should be a fitting prelude to the 250^th birthday celebration. It is not meant to be relentlessly sad or tragic. It is, however, a time to contemplate how the nation was born in battle, and how the hearts of many American men and women have always prized liberty enough to die for it.

 

Should Babies Born to Illegal Aliens Be Granted U.S. Citizenship?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday is birthright citizenship. As a reminder, President Donald Trump, just hours after taking his oath of office on January 20, 2025, signed 26 executive orders. One of those orders was written to end birthright citizenship as it is currently known. That order prompted immediate worldwide backlash because it was meant to change what is considered a right enshrined in the Constitution. The Trump administration obviously believes it is not a constitutional right for a foreigner to enter the United, have a baby, and claim U.S. citizenship for such a baby. I agree with Trump.

The first lawsuit was filed less than two hours after Trump signed the order. According to an article written by Natalia Galicza and published in the Deseret News, “attorneys general from 22 states sued to block it.” 

Opponents decry the president’s move as inhumane and in direct violation of the 14^th Amendment, which has legally granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. since 1868. Proponents say ending so-called birthright citizenship would decrease illegal immigration rates, limit “birth tourism” and protect the value of American citizenship.

Courts have interpreted birthright citizenship in the constitution to mean that those born in the United States are citizens, regardless of whether their parents are citizens. Trump’s executive order would effectively change that to mean a baby born stateside would not have American citizenship if the father is not a citizen or legal permanent resident (also known as a green card holder) and the mother is undocumented or has legal temporary status.

While it’s not the first time the principle of birthright citizenship has faced scrutiny, the current legal battle marks the most ambitious attempt yet to redefine it. “There’s been some chatter at various times about whether birthright citizenship makes sense. But no president has sought to restrict…..

At least six federal courts thus far have sided with opponents to Trump’s order….

For both sides, the stakes go beyond the ongoing immigration debate and contest to build up or break down obstacles to citizenship….

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments weeks or even months ago, and their decision on the case should come down before the end of June. According to Galicza:

… it would affect anyone born on or after 1 February 2025. A key factor that differentiates this moment from past challenges is that it isn’t just targeting immigrants living in the country illegally. The executive order would also deny citizenship to some children of “temporary legal residents.” That includes parents with student, work, family, tourist and humanitarian visas. People who have opted for legal pathways…

State-issued birth certificates would no longer count as final proof of citizenship. Instead, citizenship could only be proven by verifying the parents’ immigration status at the time of the child’s birth. With about 10,000 children born nationwide every day – or more than 3.6 million – the shift would require hospital and state workers to take on screening new parents about their citizenship status, requiring proof of immigration status or their own birth certificates and naturalization documents – would cost immigrant parents $600 per child in government fees and anywhere from $600 to $1,000 in associated legal fees….

Supporters of the executive order contend that children of immigrants living in the country illegally cannot express allegiance or take an oath to renounce foreign ties, and that heritage tied to other countries implies they owe allegiance abroad. In other words, they would not be subject to the complete jurisdiction of the United States….

Who or What Do You Choose to Serve?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to the book of Joshua in the Old Testament and a lesson titled “Be Strong and of a Good Courage.” The following information introduced the lesson. 

It had taken several generations, but the Lord’s promise was about to be fulfilled: the children of Israel were finally going to inherit the promised land. But in their way stood the Jordan River, the walls of Jericho, and a mighty people who had rejected the Lord (see 1 Nephi 17:35). And they would have to face all of that without their beloved leader Moses. The situation may have made some Israelites feel weak and fearful, but the Lord said, “Be strong and of a good courage.” What reason did they have to be courageous.” What reason did they have to be courageous? It wasn’t because of their own strength – or even Moses’s or Joshua’s – but because “the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” (Joshua 1:9). When we have our own rivers to cross and walls to bring down, wonderful things can happen in our lives because “the Lord will do wonders among [us]” (Joshua 3:5).

This scripture block teaches the following principles: (1) God will be with me as I strive to be faithful to Him; (2) The word of God can make my way prosperous (Joshua 1:8); (3) Both faith and works are necessary for salvation (Joshua 2); (4) With faith in Jesus Christ, I can experience God’s “wonders” (Joshua 3-4); (5) Obedience invites God’s power into my life (Joshua 6-8);

(6) “Choose you this day whom ye will serve” (Joshua 23-24).

I feel prompted to discuss the last principle about the wise use of agency, the choice to choose to serve God. Joshua’s teachings are contained in twenty-four chapters, and the first twenty-two chapters exhort the Israelites to “be courageous, keep the commandments, love the Lord, and neither marry among nor cleave unto the remnants of the Canaanites who remain in the land.”

The final two chapters (23-24) teach important warnings, counsel, and promised blessings. Joshua’s final words include the following verses.

14 ¶ Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

16 And the people answered and said, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord, to serve other gods;

Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles spoke on the topic of “Choose You This Day” in the October 2018 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He taught the following important concept. 

Our Heavenly Father’s goal in parenting is not to have His children do what is right; it is to have His children choose to do what is right and ultimately become like Him. If He simply wanted us to be obedient, He would use immediate rewards and punishments to influence our behaviors.

But God is not interested in His children just becoming trained and obedient “pets” who will not chew on His slippers in the celestial living room. No, God wants His children to grow up spiritually and join Him in the family business.

How Will You Commemorate Memorial Day?

Families, communities, states, and nations are stronger when individuals commemorate Memorial Day. It is commemorated by visiting cemeteries, memorials, participating in parades, and gathering with family members. It is a federal holiday that unofficially marks the first day of summer.

According to this site, Memorial Day was established to celebrate and honor the men and women who lost their lives during combat while serving in the United States military. Once held on May 30 every year, since 1971 it has been held on the last Monday of May annually. 

Memorial Day is a federal holiday that celebrates and honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Observed every year on the last Monday of May, Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day in a nod to the tradition of placing flowers, or other decorative displays at gravesites.

The origins of Memorial Day date back to the Civil War, which claimed the lives of some 620,000 soldiers. In the aftermath, devastated communities sought to honor its dead. The commemoration caught on across the nation, eventually expanding to honor fallen soldiers from all wars, but it wasn’t until 1971 that Memorial Day became a federal holiday….

Whereas Memorial Day commemorates deceased U.S. soldiers, Veterans Day honors all former members of the military with an emphasis on living veterans. [Armed Forces Day honors all men and women currently serving in the military.] ….

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries. By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear exactly where this tradition originated; numerous different communities might have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. Some records show that a group of formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina, organized one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations less than a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865. A year earlier, three women in Pennsylvania had decorated soldiers’ graves in their town.

Nevertheless, in 1966, the federal government declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day. Waterloo – which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866 – was chosen because it hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

 

Which Is Best, Regular Time or Daylight Savings Time?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns time and the effects of daylight savings time. The time may come when we will no longer need to change our clocks twice each year. “Spring forward, fall back” may no longer be necessary. Moving to daylight saving time may have been an innovative idea at one time, but it may no longer be one.

According to Jennifer Galardi at The Daily Signal, few people enjoy the biannual shift in time. Most of us enjoy having longer daylight hours in the evening, but other people do not like to get up in the dark mornings. Her article contains other interesting tidbits previously unknown to me. 

It is this lack of consensus, as well as significant pushback from health experts, that has stalled the Sunshine Protection Act (HR 139) in the House Energy and commerce Committee since the beginning of 2025. The broader effort to pass similar versions of the bill has been ongoing since 2018.

Now, it looks as if the sun will rise again on an amendment to make DST permanent for all states, and without much notice.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce late Tuesday night announced a markup meeting for Thursday, May 21, at 10 a.m. On the agenda was a proposal to fold the language of the Sunshine Protection Act into the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act (HR 7389).

This latest attempt would mandate permanent daylight saving time in all states that don’t self-exempt before its effective date, and it would prevent self-exemption after its effective date. The debate is not whether to stop changing the clocks every March and November. Most people, including members of Congress and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, despise the biannual switch. It’s which “version” of time to keep.

The issue doesn’t fall along traditional party lines. It’s not a Right or Left issue. It’s more of a “north vs. south” battle.

Both aforementioned politicians who want to “lock the clock” on daylight saving time are from states below the Mason-Dixon line, as are many of the supporters of the act. States such as Florida, South Carolina, and Alabama feel the warmth of the sun for more time every day in the winter months.

Although the disparity is flipped in the summer because of the Earth’s tilt, Northern states would really bear the brunt of permanent daylight savings time in winter, with the sun not rising in winter until 9 a.m. in some locations. That’s brutal for school-aged kids and anyone who does not have the luxury of sleeping in until the sun rises, and many Northern state legislatures, including Massachusetts, New York, and Alaska [news to me], oppose the change.

This is not merely a geographic issue – it is a fundamental tradeoff between public health and commercial interests.

Congress expanded daylight saving time in two phases: first in 1986, when it moved the start from late April to early April, and again in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which shifted the schedule in 2007 to run from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November.

These decisions were not based on human health, grassroots demand, or even policy to save energy, as some claim. They were made as concessions to the candy and golf industries.

Both major extensions of daylight-saving time were driven by targeted lobbying. In the mid-1980s, a coalition of commercial interests – retail and Chamber of Commerce groups, outdoor recreation industries, and tourism businesses – pushed Congress to extend DST beginning earlier in April to make more money during the evening hours.

The 2005 expansion was heavily backed by the golf industry as well as retail and outdoor recreation groups. The National Confectioner’s Association also supported pushing the DST calendar past Halloween because its members stood to benefit from an extra hour of trick-or-treating – and candy consumption.

Politicians like Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., claim that it is “better for our physical and mental health” to have more sunshine in the later hours. This is consistently proven false by medical experts. In fact, the data points to the exact opposite.

Misalignment of clocks from the sun’s natural position in the sky has been estimated to decrease sleep duration by an average of 19 minutes every night throughout the duration of the DST observation, per a 2019 study. Such misalignment has been found to decrease productivity and earnings up to 4.5% per a 2015 study. Even worse, this misalignment has also been observed to increase fatal vehicular accidents significantly, by 21.8%, resulting in an average loss of $1.8 billion annually, per a 2022 study.

According to a position statement from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, permanent standard time should replace daylight savings time due to “evidence [that] supports the distinct benefits of standard time for health and safety, while also underscoring the potential harms that result from seasonal time changes to and from daylight savings time.”

Despite the testimony of experts, many in Congress have unabashedly claimed it is great for communities’ bottom line with “more business” to “boost the economy.” However, one study shows that worker productivity decreases during the transition to daylight saving time. Plus, the MAHA movement has made clear that sacrificing Americans’ health to boost consumption (particularly candy!) and line industry pockets is not a tradeoff politicians should make…..

The push to standardize what is not standard – or healthy – is a mistake, particularly for certain geographic areas that will suffer the most. Public policy should reflect the natural order – not manipulate it for profit.

Did you learn something new about time and time changes? I did. Before reading this article, I thought that permanent Daylight Savings Time would be great. Now, I lean toward full-time natural time.

 

What Does the Trump-IRS Settlement Mean?

No one can complain about President Donald Trump being unable to multi-task. While he oversees the situation in Iran, visits China, and indicts Raol Castro, he also delivers the commencement address at the United States Coast Guard Academy and agrees to withdraw the $10 billion lawsuit that he filed against the IRS for leaking his private tax documents.

Lauren Irwin reported on the settlement in her article published at the Deseret News. As part of the agreement, the Department of Justice has agreed to give “President Donald Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from ever being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service over past tax issues.” This does not say anything about current and future tax issues, but past tax issues cannot be investigated. 

This agreement is “part of a deal the DOJ made when creating a$1.8 billion fund to compensate people or organizations who were prosecuted by past administrations for what the Trump administration says were political purposes.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, would not rule out the possibility that people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol will be considered for payouts from the new fund, per The Associated Press.

The news about the IRS not being able to prosecute the Trump family and organization was quietly added to the press release and was first reported by Politico.

On Monday, it was revealed that Trump would be moving to withdraw a $10 billion lawsuit he had filed against the IRS over a leak of his old tax returns.

The suit was filed earlier this year, but as part of the nine-page settlement agreement Monday, the administration announced the creation of the billion-dollar fund to compensate allies who they say were mistreated by the Biden administration.

A one-page settlement agreement was expanded Tuesday and is an unprecedented step that the administration has taken, benefiting the president and his family directly by saying the IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing investigations into Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” trusts and businesses related to the president and their past tax information.

The document was signed by Blanche, who made no mention of the addition when he testified before the Senate on Tuesday.

Trump filed the lawsuit against the IRS in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the federal government. His lawyers moved in April to ask the judge to pause the case while they worked to reach a settlement.

The DOJ said that Trump will receive a formal apology from the IRS over the leak of his tax records but no monetary payment of damages.

DOJ spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said in a statement to the Deseret News that it is customary for both sides of a case to have executed waivers “of a variety of claims that were or could have been brought.”

“There would be little point in settling several significant claims if either party could simply turn around and seek to initiative more adverse claims that could have been pursued previously,” she said.

Democrats hope to block ‘weaponization’ fund.

House Judiciary Democrats said on Monday they had filed a motion to block the $1.8 billion fund and asked a judge to step in and stop the administration from “engaging in collusive lawsuits.”

On Tuesday, the group of Democrats called the IRS’s exception for Trump a “super-pardon,” and said it was a “total free ride.”

Ranking members Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., said they were demanding Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Blanche and the IRS CEO “preserve records and provide answers” about the fund and the agreement given to the Trump family. The Democrats say that a president has never pursued corruption “this brazenly or on such a colossal scale.”

Two law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, filed a lawsuit suing the Trump administration to block the implementation of the fund. Harry Dunn, a former member of the U.S. Capitol Police, and Daniel Hodges, a current member of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, say the new fund goes against the Constitution.

The officers argued the fund would fuel violent groups.

However, Trump, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said the people who would benefit from the fund were “destroyed” and went to jail, their families were ruined and they “committed suicide.”

“The Obama administration started it and the Biden administration, was horrible in terms of what they’ve done to people is incredible,” he said. “And we’re reimbursing those people for their legal fees and for their costs and for anybody involved.”