Who will deliver the message?

5/4/09

I received a copy of an email from a fellow "resister" this morning, and the subject was the hubbub caused by someone with an apparently liberal bent who had posted a video upsetting to the more conservative among us.

There's no surprise that getting ourselves mixed up with a bunch of strangers can pose problems; how many times have you dreaded going to a family event knowing that some family members will automatically rub you the wrong way? It's no different with any group you join, whether it's an online group or a face-to-face group, there's always going to be someone in the group to stir things up. It could be you, after all, and everyone else wants you banned.... but I digress.

We each come to these web sites and social networking groups - like the Glenn Beck 912 Project, for example - calling ourselves "patriots," trying to save our blessed country from those who would destroy it. Naturally, but unfortunately, each of us has a different idea of what America is, and how it differs from what it is supposed to be, and consequently WHO is trying to destroy it.

I liken America to the difference between my childhood home and my friend Veda's house. When I was growing up I loved to visit Veda's house, where her Italian-American family always welcomed me, where the food smelled uniquely different from my house, where we were allowed to stay up late, and nobody made me do anything. I just "hung out" with the family and Veda and her older sister, and her folks, and occasionally her brother. I always thanked Mrs. L. for letting me wash dishes! The grass was always greener at Veda Luccioni's house.

At my house there were chores to do, bedtimes were firm, and expectations abounded. Things were not nearly as much fun as they were at Veda's house. But I was a child and I knew only childish things.

The apparent freedoms I experienced at my friend's house were tantalizing, to be sure, but here's the thing: The food smelled different because Mrs. Luccioni used spices that my mother didn't use. Bedtimes had to be firm because if I stayed up one TV commercial longer than my nine o'clock bedtime, I fell asleep on the floor and Dad would have to wake me and send me up to bed. (I was not a particular favorite for that teenage girl fun-fest called the 'sleepover' because I could never stay awake long enough to experience one.)

My mother knew me inside-and-out, and in our home my mother was always having to structure my day to work around my ditsy-ness and my penchant for avoiding work wherever possible.

Is it any wonder I loved to visit Veda's house? I was a guest and they expected nothing from me, and I gave them just what they expected: Nothing.

Which brings me to being an American. What kind of American are you? Are you a guest or do you live here? Do you need constant reminders to fulfill your responsibilities, to "do your chores," take your turn at washing the dishes, do you make your bed, take out the trash, keep the home clean and in good order?

Or are you the kind of American who prefers to be treated like a guest, with all the life-sustaining necessities provided for you, along with amenities, not to mention all the toys to keep your entertained lest you become bored?

Do you prefer that we expect nothing from you? How nice for you. How 'at home' you must feel knowing that you are free to live your life in any way you want, without the restrictions that other members of the civil society must endure. Welcome to Veda's house!

I have long felt that the most devastating words in the English language are not "F--- you!" but rather they are "I don't care." Nothing can be done with a person who doesn't care but this is not the forum for that. Someone with a psychology degree under their belt can deal with that.

But getting back to Veda's house, where life was fine and good all the time... Of course I know now that the Luccioni girls had chores to do, and Mr. Luccioni had a job to go to, and the son, Don, had responsibilities, too, and, of course, Mrs. L. kept the house running. But I never saw any of that. I just saw an idyllic existence, where everything was perfect - different, but perfect.

Our early American immigrants knew there was work to be done when they arrived here, and they took up the yoke of these societal chores willingly - perhaps not cheerfully, but certainly willingly. They worked because it's what people are supposed to do. They worked because they knew there's no 'free lunch.' The Old People know that it's "Work before Play," always.

I'm learning from the book, "The 5000 Year Leap," that the Founders were a lot smarter than many in the current crop of Patriots would give them credit for. The Founders took Human Nature into account right from the beginning of their deliberations and debates on how to structure this new government, this fledgling society.

If you find yourself thinking, "Those people lived in the 1790's and we know a LOT more now than they did a'way back then," you're not alone. I used to think my parents didn't have a clue about much of anything until I got to be their age and realized how much they had learned. Only the technology has changed in all these years - whether we're talking about years, centuries or millenia - We the People of 2009 are basically the same as They the People of 1789.

We'd like to think we know more now than the Founders did but apparently they were better read than we are today (maybe because they didn't have television and video games). According to their letters, they read not just the Bible, but Marcus Aurelius Cicero, John Locke, Adam Smith, to name a few - all names lost to our children.

They, the Founders, also realized that ignorance was the biggest handicap that their descendants would face, and for the most part, that warning has been wasted on the people of the 21st century. I know because I remained clueless - yes, ignorant - until recently. Now that I'm getting older and I see time running out I am desperately trying to catch up on my reading before it's too late.

I just heard this morning that Abraham Lincoln took a page from the Founders' history and warned that we have to teach these lessons of governance to every generation; the knowing is not instinctive, it is learned.

Lincoln and the Founders probably thought that the Schools and the Teachers could be counted on to do that, to teach about the republic, why the government of the United States of America was constructed the way it was, what the Bill of Rights actually says, and what is expected of those who serve in the government. But it appears that the teaching of these founding principles will have to come from the first people the children will encounter: Their Parents and Grandparents.

Start now. Start now to teach the children these lessons of what makes America the best republic on Earth. It's not too late.

It's only too late when there is no one left to deliver the message.