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If our children don’t know why America is a great country, they will not be willing to die for its principles. What should we be teaching the next generation about The United States?
Memorial Day weekend is the right time to consider an answer to the question. There is one overwhelming reason why people want to live in America: people want to be free. In the U.S. we can think our own thoughts, make our own plans, and seek to fulfill our vocational calling, without government interference. In other countries, The State controls thought, beliefs, and work. In the U.S. we can control how we make money, keep money, and invest money. In other countries The State mandates prices, controls banks, and restricts investment. In the U.S. we can travel at will, cross state lines without checkpoints, and decide between a great many options of travel. In other countries, The State restricts the who, what, and where of travel. In the U.S. we have vast and varied options for food, an unrestricted diet, and access to many ways of cooking. In other countries, The State limits food supplies, hoards food supplies, doles out the barest amounts to the poor, saving the best food for the powerful. After hearing this brief list, is it any wonder why people outside of America want to live in America?
And do you know what allows America to be a great country? The Armed Forces of the U.S. military standing against all the bad guys in the world, maintaining American freedom. And this weekend is the perfect weekend to remind the next generation they should be willing to die for freedom. How? By taking young people to a military cemetery. Buried there are men and women who fought and died for the freedoms we have in the United States today.
For the Comenius Institute, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University, proud to be an American, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found. [First published at MarkEckel.com]
Discussion (10)
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It is the principles and ideas of freedom that make this country. It is the idea that anyone can be a United States Citizen. We are not a nation, such as the English Nation or French Nation. We'll let anyone in. Another good idea, which is heavily frayed around the edges now, was checks and balances in government. The states could help keep the federal government in check. The branches of the Federal Government could keep each other in check. The people could keep governments at all levels in check. That was how we became great.
During certain eras, we ejected all of that. The Wilson Administration was more than happy to eject it all. FDR ejected a lot of it. (Let's not forget Lincoln, either.) And lately, we have gotten further and further away from who we once were. Yes, we need to teach the younger generations the what and why of these United States. We can't depend on a military grown up where respecting trans and pronouns is more important than freedom or winning wars.
We have a lot of work to do.
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Very drôle.
Name five.
Don't get me wrong: the US is awesome, should be defended against enemies foreign and domestic, and we should all be deeply grateful for the role of the armed forces in undertaking the former. It is all of our duty to undertake the latter: and that includes telling the next generation what is what.
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This was brought home to me many years ago when traveling with some Soviet Union citizens (Ukrainian, by the way.) from Columbus, Ohio to Pittsburgh, PA. They were amazed that there were no check points at the state lines.
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Do you think that Lincoln's handling of the Constitution was improper? Looking back, was a better path open to him? Maybe a detailed discussion of this would get too far from this thread, but I am curious about those who to this day would refer to Lincoln as a tyrant.
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In my small town we have the normal remembrances like most communities with big cemeteries. Before that begins we always have about 50 people that go to the obscure Podunk cemetery. I took this pic an hour ago. They haven't missed a year since 1868. Even during Covid there we at least 25 of us. This also makes America great.
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