Why Are Married Parents Better for Families?

Strong families begin with parents who marry and stay together. Such individuals understand that marriage is not always smooth sailing but “winds and rough waters” will make daily life difficult. That being said, there are marriages that are not good for either spouse or their children, and such marriages should be improved or ended. However, children do better in school and society when they live with their married biological parents.

Most of us have heard the statistic that 50% of marriages end in divorce. The statistic was once probably true, but times are changing with divorce rates falling. BlazeTV Staff reported the following in their article on this topic. 

“The good news about all of this is that that stat is ancient and it doesn’t really apply to society any more. This is a really good thing,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says, before pulling up a chart that shows that divorce rates have steadily gone down since their peak in the 1970s.

“The only decade where marriages have stayed together at a better rate than the 2010s is the 1950s,” Stu says.

“Consider the culture around us and all the negatives that we talk about on a day-to-day basis. That’s a really positive development. And there are some of those in our society that we shouldn’t just look past,” he adds.

Married-parent families also steadily dropped since the 1970s, but the trend reversed in 2012, going from 64% to 66%.

“Now, that’s just a slight uptick. It’s not a massive one, but the fact that the falling has stopped is really positive. And a little bit of an upturn makes you think, ‘Hey, maybe there’s something positive going on there as well,’” Stu says.

“When you have a kid who was raised in a two-parent family instead of a one-parent family, they’re much less likely to commit crimes. They’re much more likely to finish high school. They’re much more likely to get through college. They’re much more likely to hold down a job. They’re much more likely to get married,” he continues.

“All these outcomes wind up being positive for society,” he adds.

As I worked towards a bachelor’s degree in marriage and family studies over the past ten years, I studied many articles that agreed with the statements made by Burguiere about marriage and its affect on children. I have read studies with statistics showing that two-parent families provide a stronger foundation for their children. I have also seen articles stating that children from two-parent families have an unfair advantage over children of a one-parent family, a situation that demands social adjustments.

The best thing that society can do for children – no matter their race, ethnicity, religion, or any other marker – is to encourage marriage and to support marriages. Marriage is good for spouses and children. Married people do better financially and socially, and their children do better in every other way. Married parents create stronger families, and strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations.

Why Is Correct History Important?

Families, communities, states, and nations are stronger when the rising generations are taught correct history. Various individuals and organizations often seek to hide bad history. When President Donald Trump unclassified the papers surrounding the killing of President John F. Kennedy, Americans began to get answers to their various questions about things that did not make sense.

According to Jarrett Stepman at The Daily Signal, Democrats are seeking to hide “one of the biggest scandals in American political history” – the coverup of the infirmity of President Joe Biden while he was President of the United States. Stepman believes that there is an even bigger “fiasco of the Biden presidency” – “how his administration fully leaned into the ‘great awokening’ despite his campaign message of returning to normalcy.” 

A report from The New York Times on Tuesday highlighted how Biden ultimately ceded ground to his left flank on issues such as forcing schools to allow men in women’s sports with little opposition despite his trepidation. The former president, who ran as some kind of moderate, barely performed the function of a speed bump to the Left’s desires. It’s that legacy Democrats and their media enablers will try to make you forget. With a chief executive essentially out on a four-year lid, the Left’s political machine worked on autopilot.

They flooded the country with illegal aliens, completely circumventing the laws of our nation and creating a ginormous mess for the succeeding regime to deal with. They pushed DEI into the government. They forced transgender insanity onto K-12 campuses and Easter was used to celebrate a “Trans Day of Visibility.”

They stumbled and bumbled aimlessly in foreign policy with no more of a strategy than to keep up the narrative that they were fighting for “democracy” against authoritarians while using government tools to silence their domestic opponents.

All this while the president snoozed at the beach.

As a result, Democrats were ultimately swept out of office and fell to their lowest popularity in the history of polling.

However, despite being obviously so far gone, Biden lingers like old cigarette smoke clinging to a jacket. He emerged from the woodwork recently to make a bizarre and stuttering speech that simply reminded everyone about the chasm in energy levels between him and President Donald Trump.

The Left just can’t make this problem go away, even if they want to. Some Democrats are trying to use Biden’s ill health to make excuses for their party’s failures while giving themselves the out that they had no idea Biden was in such bad shape….

Whereas up until the moment of Biden’s catastrophic presidential debate most legacy and leftwing media were still programmed to say that questions about Biden’s health were right wing conspiracies, they are now actually prodding Democrat politicians if the subject comes up at all.

Don’t think for a moment this is because of some sudden commitment to journalistic integrity or anything like that. When it became clear that Biden was no longer useful and that he had become an outright impediment to the Left’s power they turned on him.

What’s happening is that the media is going into a phone “mea culpa” mode to in part help Democrats pin their troubles entirely on Biden’s health and lack of energy rather than the Left’s policies and ideology.

The reason Biden’s successor as candidate, former Vice President Kamala Harris, was torched by Trump in the 2024 election and that nearly every demographic shifted to the right was not just because Biden was a do-nothing president (though that certainly didn’t help).

The issue was that Democrat ideas, their policies, and the cultural values they were foisting on the country were absolutely loathed. They embraced issues like defunding the police and forcing women’s sports leagues to admit biological men. On issue after issue, Democrats supported positions that were massively unpopular with Americans, though massively popular with elite institutions.

Once the legacy media narrative machine really cracked there was a bottoming out for a Democratic Party that for too long had coasted on their institutional advantages.

Now Democrats are locked into continuing support for those deeply unpopular issues despite some of the craftier members of the party trying to shift the rhetoric if not the policies.

They are banking on Americans having memory loss, just like Biden, and convincing everyone that the previous president’s failures were an anomaly, that the country hadn’t fallen into a deep malaise that they caused, and that Trump is disrupting a political system that was working smoothly and efficiently with just a bit of trouble at the top.

The media’s gaslighting and Democrat denials about Biden’s health were not the only problem, they were symptoms of a larger issue of America’s elite institutional corruption. Now that the corruption has been exposed to the American people, they are desperately trying to rewrite history.

Today’s parents should seek to have children who know what actually happened. This is a tough assignment, particularly for parents who lean left and may not want their children to know the truth about the coverup. However, if parents do not teach correct history, the information could be lost to a large portion of the American population.

By sharing the truth with their children and grandchildren, parents and grandparents can avoid the necessity for a future POTUS to “declassify” information. By ensuring that their children know the truth, they can strengthen their family, community, state, and nation.

How Would You Destroy the Most Powerful Nation in the World?

Families, communities, and nations are stronger when parents can discern the truth about what is happening around them. Americans are deluged with information from all sides. The problem is that it is difficult to know what is fake news and what is the truth. The power to discern truth is important, and it helps to have trusted people who share it. One of the people that I trust is Victor Davis Hanson who shared ten things that an individual or nation would do to destroy the U.S. 

First, you would surrender our prior energy independence….

Second, print trillions of dollars in new currency as the lockdowns end, demand rises, and consumers are already saturated with COVID-19 subsidies. Keep interest rates low … as you print more money….

Third, end America’s physical boundaries….

Fourth, destroy the public trust in its elections. Render Election Day irrelevant….

Fifth, redefine crime as one rich man’s crime, another poor man’s necessity….

Six, junk the ossified idea of a melting pot and multiracial society united by common American values and ideals….

Seven, render the United States just one of many nations abroad….

Eight, neuter the First Amendment….

Nine, demonize half the country as semi-fascists, un-Americans, insurrectionists, and even potential domestic terrorists….

Ten, never mention the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Never blame China for the release of the SARS-CoV-2 virus….

After listing the ten ways to destroy the United States, Hanson stated: “We have done all of the above.” He continued, “It would be hard to imagine any planned agenda to destroy America that would have been as injurious as what we already suffered the past two years.”

I agree with Hanson on his ten items. I do not believe in coincidences or conspiracies. I do believe that there are individuals, organizations, and nations that wish to destroy the United States. I believe that the Biden administration is purposely working with them. Parents must open their eyes to discern what is really happening in our nation, and do what they can to strengthen their family, community, and nation.

What Is the Role of Credit and Loans in Successful Financial Planning?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when credit and loans are used wisely. Credit should be used sparingly and for purposes that cannot be purchased in any other way – such things as “education, a modest home, or a basic automobile” (Robert D. Hales). 

            E. Jeffrey Hill and Bryan L. Sudweeks wrote a textbook titled Fundamentals of Family Finance – Living Joyfully within your Means, and much of the material in this post come from their chapter on credit and loans.

Unwise debt leads to financial downfall. J. Reuben Clark, Jr. gave the following warning: “Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it … and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” 

            Debt can destroy marriages and crush families if it leads to marital conflict. Financial difficulties can lead to excessive debts and marital stress. Marvin J. Ashton quoted a study by the American Bar Association that indicated that “89 percent of all divorces can be traced to quarrels and accusations over money.” 

            Financial problems often come because we do not have enough self-control to wait until we have the money to purchase what we want. Thomas S. Monson taught how debt can have negative impacts on family relationships: “Feelings become strained, quarrels more frequent and nerves frayed when excess debt knocks on the door. Resources channeled to make payment on debts do not put one crumb on the table, provide one degree of warmth in the house, or bring one thread into a garment.” 

            Too many or too big of loans can bring havoc into a marriage, but credit cards are particularly destructive. Credit cards are tools to use for our benefit. My husband and I have used credit cards for many years without getting into financial difficulty with them. Our secret is that we pay the entire balance every month. We recognize that the money comes out of our pocket whether we use cash or credit card.

            Wise marriage partners will be wise in their use of credit and loans. They will “avoid debt as [they] would avoid a plague” (Ezra Taft Benson). When they have children, they will share their knowledge and experience with money management with their children, and thus they will strengthen their family, community, and nation. 

Do You Know Important Truths about Marriage?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when the importance of love, marriage, and families is understood. Wendy Watson Nelson is now the wife of Russell M. Nelson, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – a man sustained by millions of people as the prophet, seer, and revelator of God. President Nelson and his wife spoke at a Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults on January 8, 2017, at Brigham Young University.

            When Sister Nelson married President Nelson, she left her profession of twenty-five years as a professor of marriage and family therapy. She took her training and experience into her new role as a second wife to man who was the father of ten children, grandfather of dozens, and great-grandfather of hundreds. As a professor and marriage therapist, she counseled thousands of couples and heard many tragic stories. She saw what worked in marriage and what did not. In speaking to the young adults, she shared four truths about love and marriage.

I’d like to share four truths I believe will not only save you unnecessary heartache but will help you to be, and to choose, a righteous spouse and then to create a happy marriage and a productive family….

Truth #1: Truths about love and marriage are brought to you by the Holy Ghost from our Heavenly Father. He decreed marriage to be an irreplaceable component of His plan of happiness. The Spirit is the messenger of these truths. I urge you to seek to understand them….

Truth #2: Personal purity is the key to true love. The more pure your thoughts and feelings, your words and actions, the greater your capacity to give and receive true love….

Truth #3: As an important part of the expression of their love, the Lord wants a husband and wife to partake of the wonders and joys of marital intimacy. Marital intimacy is ordained by God. It is commanded and commended by Him because it draws a husband and wife closer together and closer to the Lord! True marital intimacy involves the whole soul of each spouse. It is the uniting of the body and the spirit of the husband with the body and the spirit of his wife. That soulful union represents just how united a husband and wife are in all areas of their lives. They work together as partners. They pray, play, struggle, grow, and enjoy life together. They sacrifice for each other and encourage each other to be all they were born to be…. [M]arital intimacy is sacred….

Truth #4: For true marital intimacy, the Holy Ghost needs to be involved.

It is simply not possible to have the kind of intimate experiences outside of marriage that you can have within because the Spirit will not be present…. [The Holy Ghost] can purify your feelings! Therefore, anything that invites the Spirit into your life, and into the life of your spouse and your marriage, will increase your ability to experience marital intimacy…. On the other hand, anything that offends the Spirit will decrease your ability to be one with your spouse. Things such as anger, lust, unforgiveness, contention, immorality, and unrepented sin will reduce your attempt for marital intimacy to be something that is nothing more than a sexual experience….

… if you will intentionally implement these four truths, I am confident that you can build a happy marriage that will sustain and comfort you forever. A marriage that will allow you to be more than you could ever be on your own.

… marriage is one of the greatest privileges God gives to His children….

            Sister Nelson’s four truths about love and marriage can and do strengthen marriages and families. Strong families strengthen communities, and strong communities strengthen nations.

Are You Ready for General Conference?

             Families, communities, and nations are stronger when parents gather their children and watch General Conference. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds its General Conference on the first weekend in April and the first weekend in October.

            General Conference consists of five sessions, each of which are two hours long. There are morning and afternoon session on both Saturday and Sunday with an evening session on Saturday. The morning and afternoon sessions are for general audiences, from little children to their grandparents and priesthood leaders. The sermons are prepared for all ages.

The Saturday evening session in October is for girls and women ages 8 and over, and the sermons contain counsel for female members of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Saturday evening session in April is for males 12 years and over, and the sermons are directed to those who hold the priesthood. However, all sessions have counsel that any person can find useful and enlightening.

            The October conference will be like the one held in April in that all sessions will be held in a small theater and closed to anyone not actively participating. The music will be provided by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, but the music will be pre-recorded from earlier conferences. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ and friends will be virtual – over the internet, radio, and television.

            Members look forward to the conferences for six months because they know that the prophets and apostles will offer counsel to direct them for the next six months. Soon after the conference is completed, the sermons are available at the Church of Jesus Christ’s web site. They will also be available in the May and November Ensign Magazines.

            The conference is open – virtually – to anyone who desires to attend. It will be held at 10:00 A.M., 2:00 P.M., and 6:00 P.M. on Saturday and at 10:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M. on Sunday. I encourage all my readers to come and listen to the word of Jesus Christ as delivered through His servants, the Prophet and Apostles. I know that their counsel can bless your life as well as strengthen your family, your community, and nation.

Do You Support Life?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when babies are protected. Babies have always been important for survival of society. In ancient days, men selected wives who would be faithful and who were strong enough to bear and rear children. Women mated with men who had the skills and abilities necessary to provide protection and security for her and her children.

Babies are still essential for the strength of any society, but current civilization does not seem to recognize its peril. The birthrate worldwide has fallen below replenishment numbers. The United States is about even but only because of immigration.

Yet, women demand choice. They desire the freedom to be carefree in their sexual liaisons, while rejecting responsibility for any child that is conceived. The irony is that women in the United States are aborting their babies while the nation’s birthrate is steadily falling.

In case you have been living in a cave or off the grid, there is a presidential election this year. The choice has never been clearer between the two political parties. The Democrat Party supports the right for a woman to kill her baby any time up to birth. If the baby survives the abortion, Democrats say that the mother can allow the baby to die after it is born alive. Republicans are the right-to-life party and believe that every life has value – from conception to natural and dignified death.

President Donald Trump is the most right-to-life president in recent history, and he continues to grow stronger in his fight for life. On Wednesday, September 23, 2020, he announced that “he will sign an executive order to ensure that babies who are born alive receive proper medical care.” Apparently, he has grown tired of waiting for Congress to do something concrete about the problem. 

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law a bill extending legal protection to infants born alive at any stage of development, including after an abortion. The law, however, lacked enforcement provisions.

Legislation called the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, considered in 2019 and again in 2020, would include criminal consequences for health care providers who violate the 2002 law. It also would require that proper medical care be given by the health care practitioner present if an infant is born alive.

The bill that did pass Congress and was signed into law did not include power to enforce it. The second bill that would empower the first bill cannot get through Congress to be signed by the President. Meanwhile, more babies are killed or left to die.

Trump did not go into details about what would be included in his executive order. However, earlier proposals had requirements for “health care professionals to treat a baby born alive after an attempted abortion the same as medical professionals would treat any other newborn.” Trump declared, “I will always defend the sacred right to life” when he spoke at the 16^th annual – and first virtual -- National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.

When Democrats refuse to take action to preserve the lives of unborn and born infants, it is time to replace them. I encourage all people who believe that life is sacred to vote Republican. Let our nation re-elect Donald Trump who will continue to fight for all Americans – born and unborn, keep the Senate, and take the House of Representatives. VOTE RED and help Trump to make America as great as it can be!

How Should We Avoid Power Struggles?

            Families, communities, and nations are stronger when parents avoid power struggles with their children by giving children appropriate power. Every individual on this earth desires to feel some control of their own life. Infants do not hesitate to let adults know that they are hungry, tired, or soiled, and toddlers learn quickly to say “no” to everything. The desire for autonomy continues through childhood and the teens into young adulthood. Wise parents give their children as much power as possible while ensuring that individuals can use the power wisely.

            I saw a cute post on Facebook today, and I realized that it taught several principles that can help parents deal with their child or children. The first principle is that there is unlimited power, so an adult does not dilute or lose power by giving some away. The second principle is that “Power is not like a remote control where only one person has all the power and control. Power is like a candle. You can give a child power without giving way any of your own power.”

            The article gave two important goals for parents to set: (1) Deal with children and teens in such a way that they realize their importance to you but without allowing them to become tyrants over you and others and (2) Help them to have “power within themselves.”

            Parents may ask how they are to achieve these goals, so the author(s) gave some ways of helping the rising generation to meet their power needs. (1) We can give them a choice rather than giving them orders. (2) We can give them responsibility – chores, assignments, etc. (3) We should look for the strengths of our children and then help them to see them. (4) We should “express interest rather than praise.” (5) We can ask for their opinions. (6) We can ask for their help.

            The author(s) listed numerous things that parents should remember in giving power to their children. I believe that the most important one is to recognize “your own need for power and control.” Are you one of those people that must control everything, or can you delegate responsibility and allow others to grow? If control is a problem for you, I suggest that you start working on it now. Another thing that we should all remember is that the need for children and teens to develop autonomy increases as they mature. The goal of every parent should be to help their children grow into self-controlled and responsible adults who are ready to go into the world.

            Included on the author(s)’ list of things to remember is the counsel to “respect the boundaries” set by children and teens. When we respect their boundaries, we tell them that we consider them to be capable of setting their own boundaries. In other words, we give them the power to set their own boundaries. It goes without saying that parents should “avoid making threats” because they never work in the long term – and they usually make the parent look ridiculous. We should also “avoid power struggles” by sharing power as often as possible. By sharing power and teaching children and teens to use it appropriately, parents can strengthen their family, community, and nation.

March for Life

            Families, communities, and nations are strengthened when individuals, born and unborn, have the right to life. The introduction to the Declaration of Independence states: “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.”

            The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1973 case of Roe vs. Wade that abortion – the murdering of unborn babies - was legal in every state. Right-to-Life activists held its first March for Life in 1974. The 45^th annual March for Life was held today – two days before the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade - at the National Mall and attracted thousands of anti-abortion activists in a movement to save the lives of unborn babies.

            Today President Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to address the activists via video conference as he did so from the White House Rose Garden. However, other Republican presidents have addressed the anti-abortion demonstrators by telephone. Here are some of the President’s remarks. 

As you all know, Roe vs. Wade has resulted in some of the most permissive abortion laws anywhere in the world… It is wrong. It has to change. Americans are more and more pro-life. You see that all the time.

            In his remarks President Donald Trump discussed a bill that would ban late-term abortions. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act in October 2017 by a vote of 237-189. This “bill includes exceptions for rape, incest, or to save the life of the pregnant woman.” Today President Trump called on the U.S. Senate to vote on the bill. 

I strongly supported the House of Representatives’ pain-capable bill, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide, and I call upon the Senate to pass this important law and send it to my desk for signing. [He added that the] United States is one of only seven countries to allow elective late-term abortions, along with China, North Korea, and others. [The seven nations are Canada, China, Netherlands, North Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States. The U.S. could choose a better group!]

            I am a Right to Life supporter because I believe that all human beings have the right to life from the moment of conception until the Lord takes them home. The right to life itself is a direct blessing from Heavenly Father. He alone has the authority to choose who lives and who dies, and no government can usurp that authority. The right to life is one of the reasons that our forefathers fought for independence from Great Britain, and the loss of it is enslaving us now.

            I urge the U.S. Senate to pass the painful late-term abortion bill, and I urge all Americans to join the Right to Life movement in an effort to overturn Roe vs. Wade. This law is an evil one that arose from a desire to limit the number of African Americans born. It has destroyed millions of lives and should be overturned. We can strengthen our families, communities, and nations by bringing the right to life to all people, both the born and unborn.

           

Maintain and Strengthen Families

                We can strengthen our families, communities, and nations by studying the document titled “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” and by following its precepts. One way to study the proclamation is one paragraph at a time. This is the twelfth and last article in this series.

                Paragraph nine of the proclamation on the family states: “We call upon responsible citizens and offers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental.”

                Since the “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” was presented at the Relief Society Broadcast in September 1995, it “has been translated into 77 languages and distributed to many world leaders… 

                "On December 6, 2004, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the findings of the November 2004 Doha Declaration, which contains many of the proclamation’s central teachings. Among the principles contained in the declaration that are similar to those in the proclamation is the concept that marriage is between man and woman, with each partner of equal esteem.

                “At the European Regional Dialogue Conference on the Family in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 2004, Bonnie D. Parkin, Relief Society general president, was given the opportunity to speak. She supported her comments with the proclamation.”

                In addition to being presented at international events, the proclamation on the family has also been presented to various Presidents of the United States, governors of numerous states, and mayors of many cities. The world has been warned about the importance of safeguarding the family. Time will tell if the family will survive the onslaught of wickedness in the world.

                As you study the ninth paragraph of the proclamation, you may want to share what you learn in a family home evening. This site has a wonderful family home evening program all outlined with lesson, music, activity, and refreshments. I hope that you will strengthen your family, community, and nation by fulfilling your family responsibilities. 

Dream Job

                As adults we strengthen our families, communities, and nations by assisting the rising generation prepare for life.  There are many ways we can assist in this preparation, but the most important way is to teach our children and youth how to be happy.  I believe that most of us have been guilty at one time or another of asking a child, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  Maybe we are still trying to decide what WE want to be when we grow up!

                In either case, we can learn much from the answer given by a thirteen-year-old gave in his TED talk.  He obviously knew more about life than most youth his age as well as many adults.  His answer was, “When I grow up, I want to be happy and healthy.”  He then proceeded to list eight Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes (TLF) taught by Dr. Roger Walsh, an expert on how to be happy and healthy.  The young man is already applying these TLF’s in his own life:  (1) exercise, (2) diet and nutrition, (3) time in nature, (4) contribution and service, (5) relationships, (6) recreation, (7) relaxation and stress management, and (8) religious and spiritual.  How are you doing in these eight areas?  Which area makes you the happiest?  

                We must encourage the rising generation to follow their dreams.  It does not matter how much money, power, prestige, etc. that comes from a career if we do not enjoy what we are doing.  When we are doing something we enjoy doing, time flies; when we are doing something we do not enjoy, time drags.  There is nothing like time dragging by to make us unhappy!  We must help our young people to get to know themselves.  They need to know what talents and skills they have and how to apply them to a career.

                When our rising generation reaches for their dreams, are they reaching for money or glory or are reaching for happiness and good health? We can strengthen our families, communities, and nations by teaching the rising generation how to follow their dreams to happiness and good health.

Vote Wisely

                    We strengthen our families, communities, and nation when we teach the rising generation that the right to vote carries the responsibility to be well-informed and wise voters.   We carry a great responsibility to discuss with our children and grandchildren the great importance of exercising our right to vote as well as of explaining the essentials about voting responsibly and wisely.  We can ensure that our family members are good citizens when we teach by example how to be knowledgeable and wise voters.

                    In order to be wise and responsible voters, we must do our own homework to learn as much truth as we can possibly find.  We must study history to know what happened in past years, and we must study current events in order to know what is happening today.  We cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope that all is well.  When we study both history and current events, we can see how human beings are basically the same; we come to understand that we make many of the same mistakes as the people who lived many years ago.  Since history tends to repeat itself, we have to learn for ourselves those policies that did not work in past years and then develop different ways to solve our problems.

                    Will Durant described many Americans when he said, "We Americans are the best informed people on earth as to the events of the last twenty-four hours; we are not the best informed as the events of the last sixty centuries."

                    I am not a fan of President Franklin D. Roosevelt because he established many government policies that do not work in a free republic; however, I believe he was right when he said, "The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."  

                    Senator Jim DeMint is a current leader of the conservative movement, and he also agreed with FDR:  "I just want people to know that if they want to change the direction of the country, they can do it, but only if they're active, informed, and engaged."

                    President Ronald Reagan understood the importance of parents teaching patriotism in their homes, "All great change in America begins at the dinner table."  He also said, "Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

                    I do not want to ever be in the position where I must explain to my grandchildren or great-grandchildren what it means to be free.  I believe that I have the duty to teach my posterity the importance of being responsible citizens and exercising the right to vote.  I know that we can strengthen our homes, communities and nation by helping our children to develop the habit of informing themselves and then voting wisely.