“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” ~~ Ronald Reagan
President Reagan’s warning is more relevant today than ever. We need to start putting our money where our mouths are and teach our children and grandchild the plain, factual history of the United States. And we start with ritual, tradition. As I wrote about the Leftcult push to shove 9/11 down the memory hole:
What ritual and tradition allow us to do is to make distant events relevant to the contemporary generation. There has been little change to Judaism’s Passover Seder dinner. The plates may change but the readings and the symbolic foods have little changed in the few thousand years it has been observed. Years ago Dennis Prager actually proposed a 4th of July Seder as a way to reinforce memory via ritual. It’s a good suggestion for a good start.
And, indeed, it is. Take a few moments with your family, maybe as everyone finally gathers at the dinner table ready to dig in. Offer a prayer that includes asking for the blessings of God not just for everyone at the table, but for the nation. Have a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence at each place setting and encourage kids to read passages of it out loud at the table.
Make the 4th more than just hot dogs and hamburgers and fireworks. Because when you celebrate any birthday, you should be familiar with your guest of honor.
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
And I’ll leave you with this … May you enjoy your Independence Day Seder.
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featured image original graphic by Darleen Click
GWB says: I have often made the connection of passing on our freedoms to the admonition to tell our children of what God had done when sitting, when walking along the way, when you lay down, when you’re eating, etc. Just as a future rich Israel was warned they would fall away because they had forgotten how they got there, so, our modern America would forget their history and think too highly of themselves, rather than the Providence that blessed them.
I advocate for an American Seder, as you say. Read the speeches out loud (Patrick Henry and John Adams, especially), with feeling. Tell tales of how easy it was to procure food for the feast, and how that arises from freedom and industry. (And eschew the word “capitalism” as that has never been a thing here in America.) Thank God aloud for all his blessings. Remind them of his protective hand throughout our history. And for the betterment of our nation as He saw fit, through such things as the War Between The States.
Then, go set off some fireworks (even if they’re illegal where you are) in accordance with President Washington’s direction. And engage massively in the freedoms the Constitution guards for you: speech, religion, arms….
(OK, try to avoid the ones about needing a speedy trial and such, if possible.)
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
(Thank you, Darleen.)
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