"...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." -Abraham Lincoln, from the Gettysburg Address
In the Detroit Free Press editorial section today, they posed a question: "What Is An American?" It's the same question I pose to my eighth graders on day 2 or 3 of school to open our first unit. A group called the Bradley Project has a website dedicated to this, having polled 2400 Americans on their beliefs & thoughts about our country. Their sound-byte quote from the report is scary to me:
“America faces an identity crisis. The next generation of Americans will know less than their parents know about our history and founding ideals. And many Americans are more aware of what divides us than of what unites us. We are in danger of becoming not ‘from many, one’—E Pluribus Unum—but its opposite, ‘from one, many.’”
On this, the 232nd birthday of America, let's try to focus on what makes America great - the people. And what should be our core belief that we are one of the most free nations on this Earth & should stay that way; and it's because our founding fathers had a good idea. The Great Experiment, what some of them called our Constitution. And it's still working. That's something to celebrate.
In the Detroit Free Press editorial section today, they posed a question: "What Is An American?" It's the same question I pose to my eighth graders on day 2 or 3 of school to open our first unit. A group called the Bradley Project has a website dedicated to this, having polled 2400 Americans on their beliefs & thoughts about our country. Their sound-byte quote from the report is scary to me:
“America faces an identity crisis. The next generation of Americans will know less than their parents know about our history and founding ideals. And many Americans are more aware of what divides us than of what unites us. We are in danger of becoming not ‘from many, one’—E Pluribus Unum—but its opposite, ‘from one, many.’”
On this, the 232nd birthday of America, let's try to focus on what makes America great - the people. And what should be our core belief that we are one of the most free nations on this Earth & should stay that way; and it's because our founding fathers had a good idea. The Great Experiment, what some of them called our Constitution. And it's still working. That's something to celebrate.
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