Are You Teaching Constitutional Principles to Your Children?

             Our families, communities, and nation are strengthened when parents and teachers teach the rising generation to love America. They should include in their teaching a study of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. They should also teach how the government is set up with three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial – to divide the power of the federal government and to keep it from being centralized in one person or one group. They should also teach children about the separation of powers between the federal government and the sovereign states. They should talk about their love for America and their gratitude for the many freedoms that Americans enjoy.

            On January 5, 1967, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as the governor of California. The following quote comes from the first four paragraphs of his inauguration speech. The lines in bold type have become famous over the past 53 years. 

To a number of us, this is a first and hence a solemn and momentous occasion, and yet, on the broad page of state and national history, what is taking place here is almost commonplace routine. We are participating in the orderly transfer of administrative authority by the direction of the people. And this is the simple magic which makes a commonplace routine a near miracle to many of the world’s inhabitants: the continuing fact that the people, by democratic process, can delegate this power, yet retain custody of it.

Perhaps you and I have lived with this miracle too long to be properly appreciative. Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.

Knowing this, it is hard to explain those who even today would question the people’s capacity for self-rule. Will they answer this: If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? Using the temporary authority granted by the people, an increasing number lately have sought to control the means of production as if this could be done without eventually controlling those who produce. Always this is explained as necessary to the people’s welfare. The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principle upon which it was founded. This is true today as it was when it was written in 1748.

Government is the people’s business, and every man, woman and child become a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid. With all the profound wording of the Constitution, probably the most meaningful words are the first three, We, the People. …

            One of my sons asked me earlier this week when I became so involved in politics, but I could not remember. I later remembered that it happened soon after Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States in January 2009 and immediately began acting like a tyrant in a Third World country. I watched the speed with which he started to “fundamentally change” the United States, and I became greatly concerned. Nothing like this had happened previously in my life, and it seemed to be happening like dominoes falling. To me, it was a scary time in America.

I was so concerned with what I was seeing that I immediately began a deep study of the U.S. Constitution and the workings of the federal government. I wanted to know for myself what the Constitution said, and I wanted to understand how the government was supposed to work.

I gained so much knowledge in the first six months that I began to look for ways to share it with my children and grandchildren. I felt prompted to start a blog to share what I was learning, but I first had to discover how a blog works. In September 2009 I wrote my first blog post and have been writing almost daily since that time.

I do not know if any of my children read my blog or what influence it has on them. However, my grandchildren know that I love America and that I am doing all that I can to maintain freedom and liberty in the United States. I have worked hard and diligently and have sacrificed much time to make sure that my posterity cannot accuse me of doing nothing while freedom was lost in this great nation.

The generation of my parents and my generation have held socialism at a distance for more than 50 years. We kept America free for our children and grandchildren, and it is now time for the next generation to stand up and defend freedom and liberty. However, I fear that many of them have been deceived by the siren call of socialism. The results of the 2020 presidential election show that socialism has gained a strong foothold in the free nation of the United States of America.

I know that America will stay free if parents and teachers will accept their responsibility to properly teach the rising generation. If they will teach constitutional principles and love for America to their children and grandchildren, freedom will be passed to the next generation. If they do not, freedom will be lost in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”