A Week For The Earth; A Day For The Constitution
By Frank Salvato
April 24, 2009
Each morning, as I drive my wife to the train, we listen to our local news talk radio station, WIND AM560 in Chicago. Their morning team, John and Cisco, offer a solid discussion on most issues presented, much more balanced and cerebral than the other talkers in Chicago. On this day, and, in fact, for most of the week, they have been addressing "Earth Week." Today, as we made our way to the train, Cisco said something that struck a chord with both of us. To paraphrase, he said that he was a bit annoyed that Earth Day had morphed into Earth Week. To which my wife, Nancy, said, "You know, they have a week for the Earth but just one day for the Constitution."
Nancy's statement is true, not only for Earth Week but for a multitude of celebratory causes and events. We have Arthritis Week, Eating Disorders Week, Contraceptive Week, Celebrate Your Name Week and Let's Talk About Sex Week. We even have entire months that are dedicated to causes and ideologies. There is National Prune Breakfast Month, Black History Month, Boost-Your-Self-Esteem Month, National Social Workers Month, National Salsa Month, Gay Pride Month, Lasagna Awareness Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender History Month, Wear Brown Shoes Month and National Toilet Tank Repair Month.
But when it comes to the study and appreciation of the document that allows us all to celebrate and expand our awareness of these "important" issues we halfheartedly designate one day in September. US Constitution Day is September 17th.
This wouldn't be such an affront to our Framers if our schools actually taught Constitutional Literacy. But in today's hyper-politically correct, multicultural, diversified school curriculum, Social Studies and American History classes have been transformed into one-world appreciation-fests and the study of rewritten US History that focuses on the frailties of Americanism instead of its magnificence. Instead of focusing on the philosophies that moved the Framers to create the Charters of Freedom -- The Declaration of Independence (which states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."), The United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights -- today's US History and Social Studies programs focus on perceived injustices perpetrated at the hands of the colonists and settlers throughout American History. Instead of learning about how Cicero, Aristotle, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes (to name but a few) influenced Franklin, Madison, Adams and Jefferson, our children are learning that Franklin had an affinity for women and Jefferson owned slaves.
It can be successfully argued that classes in American History and Social Studies were initially established in the American educational curriculum not to tear apart our Founders, Framers and nation, but to instill an appreciation for and knowledge of how our nation came to pass and why it came to be; to preserve Americanism. Today, there is more emphasis on a one-world, globalist accounting of American History than on the philosophy behind the creation of a nation that has freed more oppressed people than any other throughout history. Today in schools across America, children are being taught about the false notion of American Imperialism instead of about how hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending and providing liberty in the face of tyrannical oppression around the globe. Today, as we celebrate "Earth Week," ideologues curse our nation for its fictional transgressions against Mother Earth as they employ junk science to frighten the public into hobbling the economy and crippling Capitalism in general, and they do so as our president apologizes for our "arrogance" and "derisiveness" to those our blood and treasure have gone to keep free.
>> Continued -- Page 1 2
|