How do you protect something you don’t cherish? How do you defend something of which you know little, if anything? Why would you give up something priceless unless you didn’t appreciate its worth?
In the December issue of Imprimis, a monthly publication of Hillsdale College, Larry Arnn, president, devoted the issue to American history, the 1776 Commission established by President Trump, and the dystopian telescreen-surveillance world of George Orwell’s 1984. Arnn observed that we are moving rapidly into the totalitarian world depicted in 1984, pointing to the decades-long near-total success by the marxist Left to erase our national history and heritage. (Protagonist Winston Smith’s job “is to fix every book, periodical, newspaper, etc. that reveals or refers to what used to be the truth, in order that it conform to the new truth.“)
Sound familiar?
Arnn chaired a panel on Constitution Day, last September 17th organized and convened by President Trump to identify what has gone wrong in the teaching of America history and to put forward a plan for recovering the truth.
The resulting 1776 Advisory Commission Report came out this week — the very same week that usurper “president” Biden canceled (smashed?) the 1776 project, initiated to counter the New York Times’ abhorrent 1619 Project that teaches slavery, not freedom, is the defining fact of American history.
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TRUMP’S 1776 COMMISSION: NATIONAL UNITY FOR AMERICA’S FOUNDING VALUES
JANUARY 20, 2021 | FROM THE EPOCH TIMES
President Donald Trump’s advisory 1776 Commission on Monday released the 1776 Report, fulfilling its task to revisit the nation’s founding history in an effort to reunite the Americans around its founders’ principles.
Americans today are “deeply divided” about the meaning of their country, its history, and how it should be governed, according to the commission, which was created in the final year of Trump’s first term, amid an increasingly popular trend of portraying the American story as one that based on racism and oppression. . . .
Some of these are historical, such as slavery, which is fundamentally incompatible with the idea that “all men are created equal.” Others are more contemporary, such as progressivism, which holds that the Constitution should constantly evolve to secure evolving rights; fascist and communist movements seeking a totalitarian government with no respect for individual rights; and modern identity politics in favor of a system of explicit group privilege in the name of “social justice.” . . .
The report warns of the dangers of modern political movements departing from America’s founding principles, noting that many of the historical movements were successful because they help up those principles, rather than breaking from them. . . .
The report calls for a “national renewal” of education to teach the future American citizens the founding principles and the character necessary to live out those principles. A patriotic education, according to the authors, doesn’t mean ignoring the faults in the nation’s past, but rather viewing the history in a clear and wholesome manner, with reverence and love. . . .
The authors specifically called out historian Howard Zinn and the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project for preventing students from seeing the humanity, goodness, and benevolence in America’s historical figures. Instead, they present their young readers with a distorted version of American history.
“Historical revisionism that tramples honest scholarship and historical truth, shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors, and teaches claims of systemic racism that can only be eliminated by more discrimination, is an ideology intended to manipulate opinions more than educate minds,” the report reads. . . .
“Above all, we must stand up to the petty tyrants in every sphere who demand that we speak only of America’s sins while denying her greatness,” the report states. “At home, in school, at the workplace, and in the world, it is the people—and only the people—who have the power to stand up for America and defend our way of life.”
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At the same time, this week Scott Kesterson added a program to his daily Bards FM podcast lineup devoted to reading and discussing the 85 Federalist Papers written by James Madison, John Jay, and Alexander Hamilton under the pseudonym “Publius.”
Each morning, Kesterson presents — n chronological order — an essay to help thousands of his listeners learn (many for the first time) and understand the arguments and debates by the framers about how a new country should be structured to assure freedom, justice and liberty for everyone. The Federalist Papers were written to encourage ratification of a new Constitution to replace the original Articles of Confederation. The essays appeared in New York newspapers between the end of the Constitutional Convention in September 1787 and New York’s vote to ratify the Constitution the following Spring.
It had never been done before – creating a nation from scratch. Which is why our country is truly an experiment — could it be done? And would it last? “A Republic, madam. If you can keep it,” said Benjamin Franklin.
I wrote a post a few days ago about a book I’m reading – Land of Hope, An Invitation to the Great American Story. Written by Wilfred M. McClay, this wonderfully interesting book is also being offered by Hillsdale as an on-line video series featuring McClay who delves into each chapter, bringing alive our history and the characters who feature prominently in it. The series is free.
We Americans find ourselves in what’s called “The Great Awakening,” a precursor to the Second American Revolution. In many ways, the history of our war for independence from the Crown’s tyranny is revisiting us in our time.
Will we persevere as did those who struggled mightily against tyranny and won? That remains to be seen. But in the meantime, it behooves ALL of us to revisit that history and the wonderfully amazing stories it tells, and teach it to our children and their children. Paraphrasing the Great Ronaldus Magnus, freedom is not passed through the bloodline. Each generation must fight to protect and guard it against those who would snatch it away for their own power and selfishness lusts.
I love Hillsdale College and they always have a free course that you can take to learn Constitutional principles, etc. If you want to read the best book you’ll probably ever read on our history, it’s Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny. It’s short and succinct and should be required in schools at about the 4th grade. As much as I want to see a Great Awakening, I don’t believe it will happen without a return to God and a repentant nation. I so pray that this would happen. This new administration I don’t think will be very friendly to Israel and history has shown and God has said, you will be blessed if you bless Israel. Non-negotiable.
We are currently experiencing the Great Awakening.And this new “administration”, which is really a regime, won’t be around long enough to do permanent damage. their days are numbered and everything they have wrought will be null and void. No one knows when the “end times” will be… many in the past have thought the same thing, only to see it didn’t come. trust in God, and leave the prophesying to seers.