"Proud to be an American" has nothing to do with the White House incumbent.
American citizens (some in uniform and others not) have stood up for the principles of individualism against economic slavery, righting past wrongs, and defending our nation against foreign terrorists--from the Barbary Pirates to the Taliban.
The principles of freedom explicitly found in our Declaration and Constitution, are persistently--if not always successfully--pursued. We don't give up! We are proud to pursue justice and the rule of law.
But first we must know our true past.
Unfortunately, American's heritage has been burdened with so much ideological baggage from activists, academics, educators, and politicians that current history presents a twisted and stunted picture.
Statues and flags remind us of that past. We apply our reason and deal with it, not destroy it. In his book Land of Hope, Wilford McClay notes that “textbook publisher Pearson has just announced its plans to go digital-first with its own massive array of textbooks, 1,500 titles in all, including those in history.”
Digitally-enhanced revisionism will now tether students and institutions to constant updating. But it will not necessarily be accurate or unbiased in its presentation. We will likely become subject to the history of “now,” not the history that actually occurred, good or bad. We will not be presented with all the sides, the reach of past history that gives context.
"Proud to be an American" has everything to do with Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, Benedict Arnold, Antietam, Gettysburg, Little Bighorn, 54-40 or fight, Wounded Knee, and Leyte Gulf.
We cannot learn from our actions and improve without an unfiltered exposure to our history, its successes, its mistakes, and the human elements of good and evil that have ever been present.
Human greed and avarice reside in all history. But--as with the XYZ Affair, Credit Mobilier, Teapot Dome, and Watergate--investigation occurred and resolution was achieved within the justice system by honorable men and women.
America is not just an idea. It is a people and nation unlike any other. We are not mere passersby. In the 7,000 years of recorded history, no nation has achieved the level of personal and economic freedom we currently enjoy.
Within this nation reside people who desire and promote equality, liberty, and justice. Nor are we fools to be led by the nose. In state and world economic and civic disaster, Americans send their nuclear aircraft carriers to provide power, soldiers to assist in search and rescue, and hospital ships to service medical needs. Agencies stand up and provide supplies, rebuilding skills and hope.
To be an American is to know our birth status does not determine our life station. We own a spirit that strives, just as our forefathers strove to create a better world.
We must know our stories. Without stories, our life is disconnected and meaningless. From the stories of real history, we learn, use language, share knowledge, raise families, develop conduct rules, pass on wisdom, and commonly interact with one another.
Without a sense of us, we are ungovernable. A culture without memory will revert to barbarism, easily tyrannized, regardless of technical advancements.
What has happened in California has happened throughout America. Federal elected leadership continues to advocate greater wealth confiscation from productive people, legislate restrictions on social and human interaction, impose exceptions to property rights through the imposition of taxes, fees and fines, dilute the rule of law, and transfer power from the people to the state.
The Supreme Court twists the Fourteenth Amendment to justify government dilution of state sovereignty. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, it is engaged in the deadly undermining of civilization and this nation.
Samuel Adams observed, “If we continue to be a happy people, that happiness must be assured by the enacting and executing of reasonable and wise laws expressed in the plainest language and by establishing such modes of education as tend to inculcate in the minds of youth the feelings and habits of piety, religion and morality.”
The Convention of States wants to stem spending and debt accumulation, bureaucratic over-regulation, and reduce federal homogenization of citizens.
Constant attacks on your freedom must come to a halt. You see it every day as California cities like Vacaville, Los Angeles, Santa Rosa, San Francisco, face an unfunded liability in the millions or billions to meet debt and pensions obligations.
You sense it every time a new regulation is imposed, roads are lightly slurried over, and roadway potholes remain un-repaired. Your freedom, liberty, individualism, productivity, peace, and harmony is being siphoned off by centralized government.
Join us to bring structure to an unstructured governmental growth. Sign the petition. Improve your knowledge of government's essential and intended function.
Tell the elected officials – No More!
