Our Fight – Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
Yesterday, we wrote this article, encouraging everyone to NEVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT. As Ronald Reagan said, freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.
What, then, is our fight? Back in 1776, the fight was literal, physical war. Today, however, our fight is different; our fight involves returning to the fundamental and foundational principals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and codified in the United States Constitution, in order to maintain the freedoms that rightfully belong to us.
Specifically, we must fight to preserve a nation that guarantees the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – for all people. We must fight to protect even the basics of the Constitution, from the Preamble to Article I to the 27th Amendment.
How do we fight for these things? We’ll get to that, but first – can we successfully fight to protect an interest, an ideal, or an idea without knowing what it is we are fighting for? No, not really. No, not at all.
The initial step in preparing to NEVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT is to study and know what the fight entails.
What is the Declaration of Independence? What does it proclaim? Why was it written? What did it accomplish? These are great questions, questions we as a nation may have forgotten. Let’s discuss and answer these questions.
What is the Constitution and what does it represent to us? Do the specific provisions written in the 18th Century really matter today? How can a document that old still effectively and properly govern an ever-evolving nation in an ever-changing world?
Should the President of the United States have as much power and authority as he now exercises?
Does Congress really matter anymore? What relevance do the two chambers have in a world run by computers?
Is the Supreme Court really “not normal,” as President Biden claimed following a recent ruling concerning affirmative action?
What do the Amendments really mean and how are they applied?
The answers to these, and so many other, questions are vital in preparing to NEVER GIVE UP THE FIGHT.
The first place to look is the source. Read the Declaration of Independence. Read the Constitution. The answers to most questions concerning government lie within those relatively short documents. To be sure, volumes have been written interpreting them, and thousands of laws have been enacted under the auspices of their authority, but securing a basic understanding of the foundational principles of our government and its proper role should start with a thorough understanding of the documents that created and established our nation and its governance.
Over the coming days and weeks, we will discuss these questions. Let’s start a dialogue and remind ourselves what so many of us learned in high school civics classes in years past, which we may have forgotten, but is no longer properly taught in schools.
As we learned in “The Sound of Music” –
“Let’s start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC, when you sing you begin with Do-Re-Mi.”
The Sound of Music, Rogers & Hammerstein, 1965
As we learn about our government, we will discuss the ABCs and the 123s, and we may even throw in a Do-Re-Mi!
Let’s do this together. Let’s learn and then teach. Success will never be found in isolation and ignorance, but in information and instruction.
So begins our fight to preserve our freedom and independence for future generations!
Stay tuned. More to come.
