Pangs of Distress

 

William A. Barr

 

William A. Barr had a business career in engineering and has published many articles and books.

Revulsion grips me at the sight of a schoolboy dressed to defiantly proclaim: “My hip-hop appearance reflects my preoccupation with myself and my disdain for all authority, even my parents, so, get used to it.” Then I came across an even stronger jolt, an Associated Press news article with the headline, “Washington Washing Out?” It carried the following text on Presidents’ Day:

When Americans rate their greatest president, they do not agree on who tops the list, but seem to rank a half-dozen chief executives ahead of the nation’s first. George Washington tied for sixth place in one recent poll and rated seventh in another. . . . Washington has been considered the “Father of His Country” by school children for generations. . . . But in a poll commissioned by Washington College for Presidents’ Day (February 21), Americans rated Abraham Lincoln as the greatest president. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll put Ronald Reagan on top. Many young adults have only sketchy information about Washington, according to the college’s poll. When asked, “Who was the greatest president?” Twenty percent of those polled chose Lincoln. Reagan was picked by 15 percent, Franklin D. Roosevelt by 12 percent, John F. Kennedy by 11 percent, Bill Clinton by 10 percent, and George W. Bush by 8 percent. Washington was picked by 6 percent. In the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll, Reagan had 20 percent, followed by Clinton and Lincoln in the mid-teens and then Roosevelt and Kennedy at 12 percent.

The college’s poll involved 800 adults, the CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll
involved 1008 adults. Both were conducted February 7-10, 2005. Whatever the margins of error were, one conclusion is inescapable—that American citizens lack the knowledge and appreciation of our country’s founding, our legacy of freedom, and our civic processes, and thus, the future of our constitutional republic, our democratic institutions, and our precious freedoms stand in dire peril.

 

Obvious questions loom up. What is going on in our schools that American citizens have such a woeful lack of historical knowledge and perspective? What are the consequences of this lack of an appreciation of America’s political, economic, religious, and social freedoms? And what are a citizen’s responsibilities to protect and sustain them?

 

Research made me especially aware and thankful for the sacrifices, dedication and the heroism of the “Father of our Country,” both as the general at the head of untrained volunteers and as the first president of an infant union of diverse colonies.

v             He deserved and received august respect among such fiery revolutionists as Franklin, Hancock, Hamilton, Samuel and John Adams, Jefferson, Paine, and Madison.

v             His military leadership overcame the inherent handicaps of our Continental Army, such as the lack of training, supplies, arms, ammunition, and even clothing and food.

v             His steadfastness overcame many early defeats at the hands of the Redcoats, loyalists who aided the British, and the treachery of two his own Generals, Benedict Arnold and Thomas Conway.

v             He did more than any other man toward winning the Revolutionary War. As president of the Constitutional Convention in 1787 the veneration he enjoyed made possible the unification of the diverse views of the various colonies to forge our constitution and gain unanimous ratification.

v             Under the new constitution he was elected to be our first president by acclamation.

v             During his two presidential terms he was able to bind the new nation together and form its structure while setting the right path toward our eventual greatness.

I firmly believe that every student should be grounded in an understanding of our patriots’ accomplishments in fighting for our independence. All the signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 put their lives, their families, their worldly possessions, and their sacred honor in great jeopardy in a do-or-die struggle that lasted over five long years before our eventual victory at Yorktown in 1781.

Every American citizen would do well to understand that our constitutional democracy was the forerunner and model for all nations and that today the United States of America stands as the oldest existing constitutional republic on the earth, still going after 218 years. George Washington not only led us to victory in the field but served as our first president for two terms. Without question he deserves to be remembered, revered, and rated first among our 43 presidents, not sixth or seventh.

Just as shocking is the omission of Thomas Jefferson from both lists. Further brushing up on my American history revealed Thomas Jefferson’s contributions to the formation and early development of our growing nation, such as:

v             He was the author of the Declaration of Independence and unifier for its ratification.

v             As Governor of Virginia he supported George Rogers Clark’s frontier victories.

v             His Virginia set an example for original states to surrender claims to western lands.

v             His Northwest Ordinance of 1787 brought order to the settling of the western frontier.

v             As minister to France he spread his “Jeffersonian Democracy” abroad.

 

v             In Washington’s cabinet, his democratic views offset Hamilton’s commercial views.

v             In 1796, after Washington’s two terms, he became John Adam’s Vice-President.

v             His manual for parliamentary practice and legislative order are still in use today.

v             As President, he sent our navy to quell the Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean.

v             He established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802.

v             He purchased the Louisiana Territory and doubled the size of our nation in 1803.

v             He sent Lewis & Clark to explore our new lands; Zebulon Pike explored the Rockies.

v             In 1804 he enjoyed a landslide victory—162 electoral votes to 14 for the Federalists.

v             He devised the decimal system, cents and dollars, for our coins and paper currency.

v             He promoted the development of our United States Patent Office.

v             During his administration the 12th Constitutional Amendment to clarify our elections was adopted in 1804.

v             During his administration Ohio became our 17th state; Louisiana, Indiana, and Michigan became territories.

v             Upon his retirement he founded the University of Virginia and designed its rotunda.

v             Jefferson followed Washington’s example by shunning a third term as president.

v             Secretary of State, James Madison, the “Father of our Constitution” succeeded him.

Thomas Jefferson truly made us a nation “from sea to shining sea”, but more than that, he conceived and installed “Jeffersonian Democracy.” By the 21st century most of the leading countries of the world have shed their monarchies and despotic rulers to become prosperous constitutional republics, such as France in 1792, Italy in 1946, Japan in 1947, West Germany in 1949, Spain in 1975, and Iraq in 2005. Jefferson not only started our revolution, but also a world revolution, still in process. I rate him as our second-best president.

Apparently Abraham Lincoln is appreciated by today’s adults as he should be. He held the Union together under the most trying circumstances and his Emancipation Proclamation abolished American slavery in 1863. I place him as our third-best President.

Another overlooked American leader was my fourth-ranked president, Theodore Roosevelt. He was the first of the 20th century presidents. During his two terms we saw the birth of aviation, the construction of the Panama Canal, the start of the auto age, the start of the U.S. Forest Service, our national parks, and two new cabinet positions--Commerce and Labor. His initiatives in conservation of natural resources, anti-trust legislation, the Russo-Japanese armistice for which he was given the Nobel prize for peace, his Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (discouraging European meddling in our hemisphere affairs), his diplomatic position calling for the U.S. to “speak softly and carry a big stick” were all important. And so were his modernization of our naval fleet and its globe-circling voyage. Teddy brought respect to our nation among world powers.

I believe fifth-ranking is deserved by Franklin D. Roosevelt, fifth cousin of Teddy Roosevelt. As the Democratic governor of New York state, he was nominated and elected in the face of the Great Depression which gripped our nation and the world for the decade of the 1930s. He is our only president elected for four terms. In my view his ranking is deserved by his leadership in World War II. We avoided involvement in the European war that made Hitler’s Germany master of Europe by 1941, but when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor by Japan in December of that year, we were thrown into that massive conflict ill-prepared but unified and defiant. Having to fight suddenly two adversaries on two sides of the globe at the same time required the planning and best use of our resources which was accomplished most admirably under FDR’s leadership until his death near the end of the conflict. Out of it America emerged as a major world power, economically, politically and militarily.

Presidential candidates for my next ranking come from such a group as James Madison, James Polk, Ronald Reagan, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, and Dwight Eisenhower in that order based upon America’s development during their administrations and their influence toward that progress.

Although such ranking has to be somewhat subjective, it is striking to note the contrast of some of our lesser leaders compared to the best. Such presidents as William Henry Harrison, James Garfield, Andrew Johnson, Warren Harding, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton fall into the lesser group with Andrew Johnson and Clinton both suffering impeachments.

This troubling question remains: how have our people become so ignorant of what democracy requires of its citizens? Obviously, the teaching of American history and civics have been neglected or revised to the detriment of our nation’s future. Consider these insights:

v    Compare the slouching, hip-hop punk on the street corner with a boy scout.

v    Compare tenure-protected, union-protected public school teachers to Mr. Chips.

v    Note the futility of working mothers on cell phones trying to nurture their latch-key kids.

v    Our children watch thirty-five hours a week of TV, videogames and movies each with raw violence and brutality.

v    Fathers place golf, bowling, and other selfish pleasures ahead of nurturing children.

v    Many families are without spiritual values, church life, or biblical morality.

v    Secular materialism is becoming the norm, displacing Christian faith and worship.

v    Sexual recreation is without moral stigma. Judgment is square, drugs are cool.

v    Schools dwell on test scores, neglecting penmanship, history, grammar, and civics.

v    Situation ethics, revised morality--anything goes, but try not to get caught.

v    Manners, courtesy and respect for elders is replaced by road rage, impatience and rudeness.

v    Gangs, bullies, and pushers infest street corners and playgrounds with impunity.

v    Instant pleasure trumps virtue; respect and discipline are neither enforced nor expected.

Is there any question that our moral moorings are slipping? That our ethical standards are eroded? That the American family lacks the hand that rocks the cradle and the model father? That the public school systems are managed and staffed by mediocre secular humanists with self-serving interests? And that text books have been perverted so that the glory of our Founders and our noble traditions have been stripped from public education?

A final and sad irony: today we are boldly promoting democracy and freedom abroad while we are losing our bearings within for lack of responsible and informed citizens.

At the conclusion of the signing of the Constitution, sagacious Ben Franklin made this overview and assessment,

In our collective wisdom we have checked the ruler’s power and given that power to the people, if they can keep it.

What would wise, old Ben think and say were he alive today to observe our condition? Or Washington or Jefferson?

Pardon me while I dry my tears.

That is what the news article, “Washington Washing Out?” told me. How about you?     *

“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.” --Thomas Jefferson