Where have you been, Ben?
This project was kicked off by Howard Zinn back when I was a history major in the early 80’s. It’s been wildly successful too.
"The structure has been erected by architects of consummate skill and fidelity; its foundations are solid; its components are beautiful, as well as useful; its arrangements are full of wisdom and order...."
Justice Story's words pay tribute to the United States Constitution and its Framers. Shortly before the 100th year of the Constitution, in his History of the United States of America written in 1886, historian George Bancroft said:
"The Constitution is to the American people a possession for the ages."He went on to say:
"In America, a new people had risen up without king, or princes, or nobles....By calm meditation and friendly coun cils they had prepared a constitution which, in the union of freedom with strength and order, excelled every one known before; and which secured itself against violence and revolution by providing a peaceful method for every needed reform. In the happy morning of their existence as one of the powers of the world, they had chosen Justice as their guide."
And two hundred years after the adoption of this singularly-important document, praised by justice Story in one century and Historian Bancroft in the next and said by Sir William Gladstone to be "the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given moment by the brain and purpose of man," the Constitution of 1787 - with its Bill of Rights - remains, yet another century later, a bulwark for liberty, an ageless formula for the government of a free people. In what sense can any document prepared by human hands be said to be ageless? What are the qualities or attributes which give it permanence?
The Qualities of Agelessness
America's Constitution had its roots in the nature, experience, and habits of humankind, in the experience of the American people themselves - their beliefs, customs, and traditions, and in the practical aspects of politics and government. It was based on the experience of the ages. Its provisions were designed in recognition of principles which do not change with time and circumstance, because they are inherent in human nature. "The foundation of every government," said John Adams, "is some principle or passion in the minds of the people." The founding generation, aware of its unique place in the ongoing human struggle for liberty, were willing to risk everything for its attainment. Roger Sherman stated that as government is "instituted for those who live under it ... it ought, therefore, to be so constituted as not to be dangerous to liberty." And the American government was structured with that primary purpose in mind - the protection of the peoples liberty. Of their historic role, in framing a government to secure liberty, the Framers believed that the degree of wisdom and foresight brought to the task at hand might well determine whether future generations would live in liberty or tyranny. As President Washington so aptly put it, "the sacred fire of liberty" might depend "on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people" That experiment, they hoped, would serve as a beacon of liberty throughout the world. The Framers of America's Constitution were guided by the wisdom of previous generations and the lessons of history for guidance in structuring a government to secure for untold millions in the future the unalienable rights of individuals. As Jefferson wisely observed:
"History, by apprising the people of the past, will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views."The Constitution, it has been said, was "not formed upon abstraction," but upon practicality. Its philosophy and principles, among others, incorporated these practical aspects:
"The foundation of our empire was not laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition; but at an epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period.... the treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labors of philosophers, sages, and legislators, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collective wisdom may be happily applied in the establishment of our forms of government."And Abraham Lincoln, in the mid-1800's, in celebrating the blessings of liberty, challenged Americans to transmit the "political edifice of liberty and equal rights" of their constitutional government to future generations:
"In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running ... We find ourselves in the peaceful possession, of the fairest portion of the earth....We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them - They are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic...race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights, 'tis ours only, to transmit these...to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know...."Because it rests on sound philosophical foundations and is rooted in enduring principles, the United States Constitution can, indeed, properly be described as "ageless," for it provides the formula for securing the blessings of liberty, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquillity, promoting the general welfare, and providing for the common defense of a free people who understand its philosophy and principles and who will, with dedication, see that its integrity and vigor are preserved. Justice Joseph Story was quoted in the caption of this essay as attesting to the skill and fidelity of the architects of the Constitution, its solid foundations, the practical aspects of its features, and its wisdom and order. The closing words of his statement, however, were reserved for use here; for in his 1789 remarks, he recognized the "ageless" quality of the magnificent document, and at the same time, issued a grave warning for Americans of all centuries. He concluded his statement with these words:
"...and its defenses are impregnable from without. It has been reared for immortality, if the work of man may justly aspire to such a title. It may, nevertheless, perish in an hour by the folly, or corruption, or negligence of its only keepers, THE PEOPLE. Republics are created by virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens."Our ageless constitution can be shared with the world and passed on to generations far distant if its formula is not altered in violation of principle through the neglect of its keepers - WE, THE PEOPLE.
All lessons from the Frankfurt School of Cultural Marxism.
The same people that want to destroy Confederate monuments and ban the Confederate flag, want us to focus on our history of slavery.
“...Aug. 20, 1619, when the first kidnapped African was brought to this country against his will and in bondage,..”
Ummm... by WHO? By Americans?
Think again, beto... think now... REAL hard, son..
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“Zinn’s history has now infused the teaching of American history in high schools and colleges across the country...
because so-called conservatives refuse to get off their fat, Mammon-worshipping asses and confront liberal schoolboards.
Here’s a little hint: Schoolboards exist in every county in America. That means stupid conservatives can drive to schoolboard meetings in less than 30 minutes to express displeasure about teaching COMMIE HISTORY.
Duh!!!@
Blame Matt Damon:
He made the lunatic Howard Zinn a household name with his absurd movie, Good Will Hunting.
Besides that history-ravaging crime, it was a childish fantasy of what a genius is by a bright-but-normal regular guy: Cool, hip, handsome, muscular, street smart, but also able to outdo every other struggling full-time junior genius while scrubbing floors for a paycheck: all things to all people. James Bond as a Janitor.
I was merely a garden-variety genius: I took most of the math and science awards extant - I honestly lost track - was voted Most Intelligent, and was debating “intellectuals” at 16, partly because it was more stimulating, but partly because my peers found me boring, while I found them perplexing.
I could hardly get a date to save my life, even though I respected women, and some of them liked me as a friend (and, note well, none of them described me as creepy, though some said I was nice but boring).
I was, in short, a classic nerd (now, geek, or some other derogation).
Like to like: I knew a smattering of fellow nerds wherever I went. Some were fairly good looking; some were fairly athletic. None were like Matt Damon wrote it.
If there is someone like Will Hunting in real life, I have yet to meet him.