Today, is it any wonder that so many Americans do not know what celebrating the 4th, the nation’s date for independence of 1776, is truly all about, other an occasion to eat bbq and have days off from work? The United Kingdom’s newspaper, theDailyMail.com, reported that many of Americans have no idea of why we celebrate the nation’s independence on the 4th.  Stunning!  But this is not anything new.  These type of reports have been making the rounds for many, many years.  Evening late-night comedians based whole segments and monologs on how woefully ignorant so many Americans are when it comes to even the most basic knowledge of the country, and the purpose of the celebration of the Fourth of July, the day that has been set aside to celebrate the nations’ independence from Great Briton, which gave birth to the greatest economic and social marvel in history for something other than a couple of days off of work and a purpose to cookouts.  Far, far too many of us take for granted our cherished freedoms and liberties as though they are self-sustaining and will eternally be present for us and our future generations.

I recently read an article in theBlaze.com that reported that college students are not proud of America. But, they do not exactly know why.  The reporter doing the survey, Cabot Phillips of Campus Reform, was asking the questions due to a Gallop Poll that showed a decrease in the number of young Americans who consider themselves to be patriotic.  The poll revealed that “47 percent of people are “extremely proud” of being American. Another 25 percent say they are “very proud” of being American.”  The survey was of 1,520 U.S. adults. This after a high in 2003 of 70 percent of people saying that they were very proud.  Let’s just pause for a tic … college students don’t love America, and don’t know why?.  This was a survey of “college” students. The future defenders of America and its ideals and principles.  Remember that Abe Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of government tomorrow.”   What are the students of America learning in government schools and places of so-called higher learning? How to be social justice warriors? Or that it is a right to not get offended?

I am fascinated with history.  I believe that if one does not know their history,  they can not truly know how they got to where they are now, and is attempting to move forward unattached from the understanding of his origin and purpose for his being. It is astonishing how many of us Americans have been conditioned to have no reverence for our nation’s past and make such extreme light of that fact. That it is such a joke.  And to that, we are blind to the consequences to our gross lack of knowledge of how this nation has become as great as it is and how is it that we are the envy of the world, due to our freedoms and liberties that were codified in the nation’s documents – the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, that have lasted for 250 years.  Lets take the fact, as reported last September by philidelpia.cbslocal.com, that four out of ten Americans could not name any of the First Amendments of the Constitution, and the article by the wsj.com in June 2016 reported on the troubling fact that “just 23 of the institutions among the 76 deemed to be the “best” by U.S. News & World Report’s 2016 require history majors to take at least one U.S. history course”, you began to get a bird’s eye view of how the severe lack of reverence and knowledge of the nation and significance is so pronounced.

To not know why this nation was created, to not know of the principles of the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, nor have the basic knowledge of the Founders whom gave up their lives and fortunes to create a nation that is one of a kind, that places individual freedoms and liberties superior to that of the State, i.e., the government, is most problematic to the nation’s posterity and their ability to inherent these same experiences and freedoms.  As evidence, a recent Pew Research survey reveals that just 18% of millennials believe that the U.S. “stands above” all other nations.   It is no wonder that recent reports, such as the report from the dailymail.co.uk, reported that a whopping 44% of millennials would prefer to live in a socialist nation, at the same time 1/3 can not distinguish between capitalism and socialism.

When I was growing up I was taught the difference between capitalism, socialism, and communism throughout grade school, as well as about the Revolutionary War and the Founders.  It was just common knowledge and part of basic education.

As appreciation and reverence for the tenets of the nation’s Constitution and Declaration of Independence, the cherished value of self-governance and individual freedom, they are being systematically pushed from the consciousness of so many of the populous, as it is no longer taught in the schools, and the public display of exuberant pride for Americanism is reacted to more and more disfavorably. This has given rise to secularism and post-modernism that both violently dispatches traditional values and beliefs that not all things are equal – that there is a difference between right and wrong, good and evil, that not everyone deserves a trophy just for showing up, or that not everyone deserves things based on their needs to take from others based on their ability.  This ground has become fertile for the socialist and communist to begin to come out of their closets and less disguised, as nearly a dozen openly socialist democrat politicians are seeking public offices this year.  Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist, was nearly the Democrat Presidential candidate in 2016, and most recently, a twenty-something socialist newcomer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, shocked the world by defeating New York Democrat old guard Rep. Joe Crowley.

As Ronald Reagan prophetically said,“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.”  The knowledge and history of the nation’s independence and the reason why America is so unique and special, why so many of the world nation citizens risk life and limb, legally and illegally, is paramount to continue to hand it down to future generations and exhibit it throughout our lives.  It is virtually impossible to have high national esteem if you don’t have knowledge, respect, nor reverence for your nation’s values and history.  We must fight those who wish to relegate America as just another member of the world community and the abolishment of Americanism but instead, push to raise them to the ideals of this great nation and forever promise to pass on its remarkable history for generations.