Understanding our history, determines our future

The proper understanding of history can change your life.  How we understand history actually effects what we think about the future.

Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States, a bible scholar, and son of Presbyterian minister, warned.
“A nation that does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we don not know where we came from, or what we are about.”

Our Constitution

In times past there was a national reverence for our Constitution and Declaration.

The Constitution (outside the bible) is the greatest document ever written for the expression of Freedom of Liberty.

The Founding Fathers in their wisdom and knowledge created a cultural climate that gave birth to the human spirit. Free enterprise and the individual rights of man was unleashed and expanded more than any other nation in the world.

“The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government-lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.” -Patrick Henry

Early Authors

To understand our heritage and history you must go back and read the early books and not rely on the those who would revise and rewrite it from a 20th century view point.

Charles C. Coffin (historical author 1799-1869)  traced mankinds struggle from the early days of tyranny, wrote, “The unseen hand of God shapes destiny, nations rise and fall generations come and go; yet through the ages there has been an advancement of justice, truth, right and liberty…if you fail to recognize this feature you will fail to fully comprehending the meaning of history. “

Charles Coffin was a journalist for the Boston Globe until he covered the Civil War (1867). He was fearless in covering his stories. He is most famous for his books, The Boys of 1776, The Story of Liberty (1879) and the Daughters of the Revolution (1892)

Inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D. C are these immortal words asked by Thomas Jefferson,  “God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are a gift of God?”

Thoughts for Today

Ronald Reagan warned in his farewell address to the American people, “Are we doing a good enough job of teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?  So we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion, but on what’s important, on why the pilgrims came here…If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are….I am warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result ultimately in an erosion of he American Spirit.

It is not about the “shot heard around the world last Tuesday, it is about the indomitable American Spirit that has the seeds of Freedom and Liberty planted deep in the soils of our hearts and will continue to grow.

The photo above hangs over my mantle in our great room to remind my family of our heritage.