Yet it can remain so only as long as we understand it, believe it, devote ourselves to it, and when necessary fight for it.” (Ezra Taft Benson, June 2, 1978) “Our forefathers left us a free government which is a miracle of faith – strong, durable, marvelously workable. We need an increasing and compelling vision of why the story of our Founding is important. Our objective is to urge us on to invest ourselves in becoming more informed and active citizens – that we might keep this great nation free. So, this begs the question: Which facts? What story? What vision? If we get them the facts, in the context of the story of who we are as Americans – and the purpose of our founding: to vouchsafe “the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.” We need not despair for our future, if we work together for the common good. Reagan had a deep trust in the people and in America’s potential and future. As most quality and effective politicians have. If we can get them the facts in the correct setting and context, and help build a vision, if you will, in their minds and hearts, then we can trust the people. Lincoln said we could trust the people to make wise decisions if we can get them the facts. A candidate for president once said that, “It is our duty to concentrate all our influence to make popular that which is sound and good, and unpopular that which is unsound.” If we abandon the establishment of what that “inherited conceptions” are, then we lose the best of what the Founders bequeathed us. “Culture is an historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols, a system of inherited conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and their attitudes toward life.” (Geertz, 1973) The following definition culture describes how we create and define our American Culture. Now, I am fully invested 80:20 in the better reasons to be involved, the effectiveness of our government for our posterity (more than the fun of the contest, the intrigue over the contest of ideas. But as I became a grandfather, the ratio of Fun to Needed blessings turned upside down - or, rather, to its proper proportion. More so than the impact of positive results we needed for the benefit of the county. When I was younger, and delved into politics, I was perhaps invested 80:20 - or, more likely, 60:40 decades ago - into the Contest, the Competition, the Fun of it all. I cite this because this is the type of “vision” we need to effectively maintain the last best hope, and successfully maintain and transmit our freedoms to our posterity. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls.” Forms change and pass bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. He said this about the battlefield there, but the ideas he employs apply to ANY great place, or any great set of circumstances : Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, then a college professor taking leave to lead a regiment from Maine, later to become the college president and then governor. The following words come from one of the heroes of the second day of the battle of Gettysburg. We tread every day where great souls once did great things. We are fortunate to live in a sacred part of the country. “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” (George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789) As Lincoln called it, the last best hope of mankind.Īs George Washington laid out in his first inaugural address, Then we can act with confidence in this great undertaking. The more we as citizens stand informed and aware, then the better able we will be to advocate for those principles which will tend to the greater public good. We, The People, need to encourage and benefit from its progress, or mourn and suffer its decline. Politicians, by their words or policies, either expand or contract the frontiers of our freedoms. It takes time, experience, and careful and ponderous and even solemn thoughts to inform whether and how we act. The things of politics and public policy are of deep import. Abigail Adams, American Exceptionalism, Benjamin Franklin, Constitution, Founders, Founding Fathers, George Mason, George Washington, James Madison, John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, visionĪ Vision of the Spirit and Promise of Our Founding Fathers
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