Tag Archives: patriotism

Making Good Citizens

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Author: R. Alan Harrop,Ph.D

In a prior article, I wrote about the importance of maintaining the rights, privileges, and duties of citizenship in our republic. The valued status of American citizen must not be taken lightly and given away as the Left would do by granting amnesty to illegals.

The Founding Fathers believed that it is critical for our country to teach our children about their obligations as citizens, to understand the principles of a free country, and to understand their duty to defend those principles and freedoms. It is obvious that many of the schools in this country are failing in this responsibility. Teaching critical race theory, diversity/equity/inclusion, and transgenderism are antithetical to the founding principles of America. Students frequently hear that America was founded on slavery and is an essentially flawed country that is inherently racist. Consequently, America must be “fundamentally transformed” as Barack Obama said. None of these things are true, but truth is never a Left wing value. In one generation, we have gone a long way from Ronald Reagan’s vision of America as a shining light on a hill.

The Republican controlled General Assembly, to their credit, passed HB588 that requires the teaching of the founding documents (2011) and more recently, HB 96-NC Reach Act,(2024) which would require all students attending state universities to take a course on the Constitution and founding documents prior to graduation. Not yet a law, it is being resisted by the usual suspects at UNC Chapel Hill and some other state universities and has not been approved by the Senate. A petition from several hundred Chapel Hill professors is being considered by the University Board of Directors, which is likely to advocate for a weakened version to substitute other less accountable teaching methods. Let’s hope the General Assembly will stick to its guns and get this passed as originally designed. Only leftist leaning professors, of which there are too many, would object to teaching the founding principles of this country.

What all this boils down to is that parents and concerned taxpayers need to insist that students receive a sound background in patriotism and love for and respect for this country. In other words, what most of us learned when we went to school needs to be passed on to our children and grandchildren. Parents also need to discuss American values and principles with their children and not rely on the school systems. There are many sources of material to assist parents. Prager University, an online source of free information, is excellent, as is Hillsdale College. Local school boards need to do more to ensure that students are receiving the instruction they need to be good citizens and appreciate the things that make this country great. If we do not fight the leftist indoctrination our children, how can we expect them to become good citizens as the Founding Fathers’ intended? The future of our Republic is at stake.

Supporting Patriotism

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The Washington Times is reporting today that Arizona Governor Doug Ducey will be cancelling be the incentives offered in a deal with Nike in response to the athletic company scrapping plans for a Betsy Ross-inspired sneaker. Just as Nike is free to scrap its plans for the sneaker, Governor Ducey is free to withdraw his offer of incentives to the company.

The article reports:

The sneakers, featuring a U.S. flag with 13 stars on each heel, reportedly was canned after former football player and political activist Colin Kaepernick said the design could be seen as an offensive symbol of slavery.

…Mr. Ducey said the state was supposed to announce a deal with Nike but then “this news broke yesterday afternoon.”

“Nike is an iconic American brand and American company. This country, our system of government and free enterprise have allowed them to prosper and flourish. Instead of celebrating American history the week of our nation’s independence, Nike has apparently decided that Betsy Ross is unworthy, and has bowed to the current onslaught of political correctness and historical revisionism,” the Arizona Republican tweeted.

“It is a shameful retreat for the company. American businesses should be proud of our country’s history, not abandoning it. Nike has made its decision, and now we’re making ours. I’ve ordered the Arizona Commerce Authority to withdraw all financial incentive dollars under their discretion that the State was providing for the company to locate here,” he said.

Would someone please explain to Mr. Kaepernick that history needs to be viewed in the context of its time–not the context of today. In the time of Betsy Ross, slavery was practiced all over the world. There was nothing noteworthy about it. Indentured servitude was also practiced. Mr. Kaepernick might want to take notice of the fact that there are countries today where slavery is still an acceptable practice. If he is so concerned about slavery and its ills, he might want to see what he can do to help the countries that practice slavery end the practice.

Kudos to Governor Ducey for taking a stand against misguided selective outrage.

 

Thoughts For The New Year

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The following is from In God We Still Trust by Dr. Richard G. Lee:

“Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” from President George Washington’s Farewell Address 1796

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” John Adams, U.S. President 1797-1801

“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.” James Madison, U. S. President 1809-1817

Dr. Lee also points out how a change in definition of a word reflects a concerning change in our society:

Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828, defines patriotism as follows:

n. Love of one’s country; the passion which aims to serve one’s country, either in defending it from invasion, or protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institution in vigor and purity. Patriotism is the characteristic of a good citizen, the noblest passion that animates a man in the character of a citizen.

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, copyright @ 2004 defines patriotism as follows:

n. Love for or devotion to one’s country.

Noah Webster’s definition includes service; Merriam-Webster’s definition is simply an emotion. Noah Webster’s definition includes action, not just acceptance of an idea.

It is time to return to Noah Webster’s definition of patriotism.