Education, Linchpin of Freedom

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Charles Jarvis, 1820.

This sentiment expressed by Jefferson is as true today as it was at the dawn of our experiment in liberty. In light of the multitude of crises that are facing our nation, many have taken the attitude that only expert elites can save us from ourselves; and others question whether the people have the fortitude to preserve our freedoms. 


If such a attitudes and doubts have validity, it is because we as a nation have done such a poor job in educating ourselves about the foundation of our freedoms. As Jefferson explained, the solution is not shut the people out, but to ensure they are well grounded in our First Principles and history.  And only then can we expect that our freedoms will be sure.


For more on our educational crisis and how to combat it, see America's Survival Guide.  For more about Jefferson and our First Principles, visit Patriot Week.

JFK: Rights from the Hand of God

In his Inaugural Address, John F. Kennedy eloquently explained America's First Principle of unalienable rights:

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe - the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.

In all the clamor, passion, and heat of current politics, when is that last time we heard that sentiment?  Rarely if at all.  Yet, if we believe anything else, we are doomed to arbitrary whims of politicians to control our most fundamental rights.  This is not the American understanding.  JFK had it right.   Let's remember it or everything we believe in is at risk.

America: Land of Equality

In his seminal, A Defense of the American Constitutions, John Adams wrote:

"In every country we have found a variety of orders with very great distinction. In America there are different orders of offices, but none of men. Out of office, all men are the same species and of one blood; there is neither a greater nor lesser nobility."

Indeed, at the time of the American Revolution, America was alone in the world in rejecting nobility, hereditary advantages, and distinctions embedded in the law.  The Founders believed that "all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights . . . ." This great equality under the law allows those who prove their worth - through the "content of their character" as Martin Luther King Jr. would say - to excel regardless of their original station in life.  This is a First Principle that is worth remembering, cherishing, and fighting for.

For more about the First Principle of equality, visit www.PatriotWeek.org and Americas Survival Guide.

Patriot Week Bill Passes Michigan State House

http://spinalcolumnonline.com/patriot-week-bill-clears-house-panel/