Frank Salvato, Managing Editor

A Week for the Earth; A Day for the Constitution
April 24, 2009

Each morning, as I drive my wife to the train, we listen to our local news talk radio station, WIND AM560 in Chicago. Their morning team, John and Cisco, offer a solid discussion on most issues presented, much more balanced and cerebral than the other talkers in Chicago. On this day, and, in fact, for most of the week, they have been addressing “Earth Week.” Today, as we made our way to the train, Cisco said something that struck a chord with both of us. To paraphrase, he said that he was a bit annoyed that Earth Day had morphed into Earth Week. To which my wife, Nancy, said, “You know, they have a week for the Erath but just one day for the Constitution.”

Nancy’s statement is true, not only for Earth Week but for a multitude of celebratory causes and events. We have Arthritis Week, Eating Disorders Week, Contraceptive Week, Celebrate Your Name Week and Let’s Talk About Sex Week. We even have entire months that are dedicated to causes and ideologies. There is National Prune Breakfast Month, Black History Month, Boost-Your-Self-Esteem Month, National Social Workers Month, National Salsa Month, Gay Pride Month, Lasagna Awareness Month, National Hispanic Heritage Month, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender History Month, Wear Brown Shoes Month and National Toilet Tank Repair Month.

But when it comes to the study and appreciation of the document that allows us all to celebrate and expand our awareness of these “important” issues we halfheartedly designate one day in September. US Constitution Day is September 17th.

This wouldn’t be such an affront to our Framers if our schools actually taught Constitutional Literacy. But in today’s hyper-politically correct, multicultural, diversified school curriculum, Social Studies and American History classes have been transformed into one-world appreciation-fests and the study of rewritten US History that focuses on the frailties of Americanism instead of its magnificence. Instead of focusing on the philosophies that moved the Framers to create the Charters of Freedom – The Declaration of Independence (which states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal...”), The United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights – today’s US History and Social Studies programs focus on perceived injustices perpetrated at the hands of the colonists and settlers throughout American History. Instead of learning about how Cicero, Aristotle, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes (to name but a few) influenced Franklin, Madison, Adams and Jefferson, our children are learning that Franklin had an affinity for women and Jefferson owned slaves.

It can be successfully argued that classes in American History and Social Studies  were initially established in the American educational curriculum not to tear apart our Founders, Framers and nation, but to instill an appreciation for and knowledge of how our nation came to pass and why it came to be; to preserve Americanism. Today, there is more emphasis on a one-world, globalist accounting of American History than on the philosophy behind the creation of a nation that has freed more oppressed people than any other throughout history. Today in schools across America, children are being taught about the false notion of American Imperialism instead of about how hundreds of thousands of Americans have died defending and providing liberty in the face of tyrannical oppression around the globe. Today, as we celebrate “Earth Week,” ideologues curse our nation for its fictional transgressions against Mother Earth as they employ junk science to frighten the public into hobbling the economy and crippling Capitalism in general, and they do so as our president apologizes for our “arrogance” and “derisiveness” to those our blood and treasure have gone to keep free.

So, why is it that our schools are failing in teaching our children about the greatness of America? Why are we not facilitating the education of our children in the philosophies of liberty and freedom using first-source fact-based material? Who is to blame for this abdication of responsibility to our youth and nation? I’m not sure you’re going to like the answer.

We are to blame.

We are to blame because most of us refuse to run for school board positions, positions that have influence over curriculum and the books we use to educate our children.

We are to blame because we haven’t adequately risen to protest the encroachment of ideological organizations into our classrooms, organizations like the NEA and AFT. That teachers unions have any say at all in the curriculum process usurps the authority of all local school boards, boards elected locally and established to safeguard our educational process.

We are to blame because we find it more important to watch American Idol than to attend school board meetings to provide oversight in defense of the educational process; to safeguard our children from those individuals and organizations that believe it is more important to teach our children about safe sex, the proper application of condoms, one-world ideology and special interest propaganda than it is to accurately teach American History.

We are to blame.

So, as you turn off your newly installed mini-light bulbs, the same ones you need a toxic dumping permit to dispose of, and as you drive down the street in your electric car, the one 50% less energy efficient than the diesel automobile driving next to you, think about this. If it took the culmination of the total of Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and all of the Framers’ lives to create the US Constitution – the Charters of Freedom – how on Earth can we expect a sub-par and ideologically infiltrated civics, US History and Social Studies curriculum to provide our children with a proper understanding of why Americanism is worth defending?