It has been years, honestly, that I sat in civics class in my senior year of high school, blessed with a teacher (I did not fully appreciate it at the time) that wanted to impress upon us the importance of the way of government and it’s founding documents that were presented to us and formed to preserve the young nation and personal liberties of it’s citizens and states.
That was not my objective at the time, nor did I embrace it’s purpose and importance at that time in my life, I just needed to pass Civics to graduate from high school. Yet I look back and appreciate that class very much.
It was post Vietnam era and I managed to get out of the draft as it was discontinued a year or so before I graduated, whew! I missed that one, but all of us guys grew up watching the nightly news of that mismanaged war and looked at Life magazines and wanted no part of it, there were those from our school that did not come back. We were scared we would get drafted and end up in a jungle in Vietnam.
The anti-war attitude at that time was so negative to say the least, and as much as I was fearful of being drafted, I knew that if my number was called I would go. I never got into the anti-war mentality and have always loved my country and would have served it as best I could.
Our school had bronze plaques honoring those that had fallen in the defense of our country from World War II and the Korean War, in addition to those more recently at the time, in Vietnam. We would walk by the plaques each day, sometimes looking, sometimes not, and at that age, there were other things on our minds in life, football, track, what’s for lunch….girls, yet, to this day I can only remember one name on those plaques, but I do remember the plaques.
I say all that to say that I am ashamed that it took me 30 some years to revisit my ‘Civics class’ in the form of 2 documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, all now in a small, but concise booklet that fits easily in my pocket. These words, penned years ago by our forefathers, at the risk of their lives, sought to create a form of limited government to ensure the freedom of the individual,and individual states, free from overbearing governmental oppression.
As I read through the Declaration of Independence, I begin to realize the heavy-handedness and tyrannical impositions by the King of England at the time, and it was not just some document and idea for freedom because it was a cool, good idea, thing to do, no, there was big time oppression and heinous things going on, such as “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses” and “…to bear arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or fall themselves by their hands”.
If you have never read this list of grievances, it is an eye opener, these are the things to be taught in school and studied by any freedom seeking person in this country, then one begins to understand the oppression that was draining the lifeblood of local governments and personal freedoms at the time. A stand for individual liberty and freedom was needed.
With the sacrifice of those in the early days of our country, up until now, thousands of young men and now women have given the ultimate, their lives, to serve a country that has allowed and given so much to each of us to enjoy, it is a precious thing the security and comfort we have because of the foresight of the founding fathers.
The rules part, if I may, on how to govern, is laid out in the Constitution with provisions to be able to change by the population if need be, if it gets off course, but at the same time, not easily changed, a safeguard and a guide to govern in fairness, to prevent a dictatorial or tyrannical government from happening again. A government that can be changed, if need be, by “We the People”.
This is THE RUB, this is where we will lose this country as we have known it, if we do not adhere to the founding documents, what the forefathers envisioned. For what good is a guide or a map if you do not follow them? Or worst yet, bypass or ignore them in order to advance a personal cause, movement, or an idealism that is contrary to the very principles that hold this country together, mind you, there are those that could care less of our founding documents, they are at work as we speak.
We will be guided by the founding documents and we will play by the rules, those that believe in these principles have no problem following the rules, those that promote socialism, communism, Marxism, or whatever ‘ism’ will always seek to get around the rules or negate them entirely, in order to force upon us, the American Citizen, the very things that our forefathers fought against and died for over 230 years ago.
We do not want our fallen to have died in vain, or worse, those that would seek to subvert our country at the expense of those who died, by ignoring the guiding and founding documents that are there, to keep us free from tyranny and a type of government that we fought so hard to separate ourselves from in the first place.
Be sure to remain vigilant, if it has been a long time, maybe high school, college, since you have read or studied the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, then I urge you to look it up online. For a free pocket version for study, go to the Heritage Foundation, or order multiple copies with a donation to distribute to friends and family.
It’s one thing to talk about these documents, it is another thing to hold them in your hand, read and study them, spread the truth and make a difference.
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