If you watch Game of Thrones you know damn well how tough the rugged people beyond The Wall are. If the freezing cold doesn’t kill them first, a plethora of heinous things waiting out there will. Without any choice but to fight to survive, it pays in gold to be prepared when the time comes to do or die.
Struggle makes people tough, in fiction and in life because struggle demands resilience.
Without his rough life growing up, who knows if “Iron” Mike Tyson would have had the motivation to claw his way through the blood, sweat and tears demanded of him to persevere and conquer the highest echelons of the boxing world.
From the smallest ant to the most powerful civilization, Survival of the Fittest dictates harshly, and without second chance, the law of the land: only the STRONG survive.
This Sunday, September 17, 2017 marks the 229th anniversary of the U.S Constitution’s inception.
The First Amendment states:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
America is the greatest country on Earth because it was built upon STRONG ideals, but I fear that as a nation, we’re in dire need of a refresher course on understanding them.
When the colonies were being battered, abused, and used by the British, our Founding Fathers had NO CHOICE but to fight back to affect change. Don’t forget where their ideals came from. The motivation behind 1776 is crystal clear: Americans had had enough, and they invested themselves entirely, in both bodies and in minds, in securing the independence we treasure today above everything else.
This is a call to arms. It’s time to wake up, America, because once again, our freedom is at stake!
The Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) recently published the results of a study which sends shockwaves through my spine, and frightens me to the core; because, this time the enemy isn’t a tangible “outsider,” it’s the nefarious absence of education: it’s an enemy from within.
The annual Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey [found] that:
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More than half of Americans (53 percent) incorrectly think it is accurate to say that immigrants who are here illegally do not have any rights under the U.S. Constitution;
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More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment;
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Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.
Like a cancer hidden within the shadowy parts of one’s body, I’m tempted to think the worst once the initial, cruel symptoms begin popping up after decades of dormancy. Again, WAKE UP America, before it’s too late.
Our due diligence as Americans has been expressed on paper since the beginning of our country’s inception; and has been repeated thereafter again and again.
In 1810, Thomas Jefferson sent a letter to William Duane stating:
“...the information of the people at large, can alone make them the safe, as they are the sole, depository of our political & religious freedom.”
Jefferson meant that like all ideals, American ideals enjoy poignant potency not simply because they are written down in the Constitution or are touted profusely by any singular individual, but because the group, and the group alone, fights together to maintain its strength in the midst of testing odds.
How can we fight together to maintain our rights if so few of us are even aware they exist?
We cannot.
There’s a cliche that states the Romans used vomitoriums to puke their guts out after overindulging. Vomitorium is actually the name Romans used for the exit out of an amphitheater; but the point stands...in many ways, Rome’s fall is popularly attributed to its citizens becoming hapless victims of a too easy existence; once shit hit the fan, it was too late for them to wait to toughen up; and at the flick of a wrist, the most powerful civilization was no more. The Romans who built their civilization initially did so tooth and nail, but the Romans who stood by idly as their civilization fell did so after slowly losing the edge their forefathers had meticulously sharpened in order to provide the comfort which ultimately and ironically spelt their doom.
We are at a cross-roads; and, in today’s day and age, America’s continued existence demands far more than military might and technological prowess. More than anything else, it demands knowledge, foresight, and the ability of our citizens TODAY, to respond at moment's notice slights against our freedoms. The Navy Seals have a saying which goes: “get comfortable being uncomfortable.” Being an American shouldn’t be easy because, like the adage goes: nothing worth having ever is. Americans need to know themselves, their history, and become aware of their privilege before becoming able to adequately defend the rights we didn’t have to fight for, but were fortunate enough to be born into.
As a nation, America is far from there.
More than a century ago, in Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886), a case involving an undocumented Chinese immigrant, the Supreme Court ruled that non-citizens were entitled to due process rights under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
That the APPC found more than half of Americans oblivious to this freedom, foreshadows harshly, an impending tyranny of the majority, fueled by Trumpist momentum, bigotry, dominionism, and some Americans’ sheer unwillingness to spend time fact checking before allowing themselves to be swept up in the divisive fray of misinformation currently plaguing our nation.
The Great Pyramids of Egypt still stand today, not because of how high its bricks were stacked, but because of how strong its base was. Our economy seems up, unemployment seems down...but our base is crumbling.
Many Americans don’t remember, let alone understand, the Constitution enough to defend it, and too many of us find ourselves satisfied with the status quo, looking towards an ill-minded, strong man caligula to do our thinking and make our decisions for us.
A subset of American’s beliefs, as of late, seek to subvert, diminish, and fracture our freedoms into chunks beneficial to the few rather than to the many in a clear departure from original intent. Yet informed Americans can and must persevere. Education is the only, and most effective tool we can muster as a society to shine light upon clear perversions of our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms under the law.
Recently, Trae Crowder, a self described “liberal redneck,” gave his thoughts on Charlottesville, using his persuasive and colloquial charisma as a foil to what so often occurs on the nefarious, grounded-in-lies authoritative meanderings of the far right whose, hype men prey on the ignorantly misinformed.
Americans, now is the time to stand up in unison, illuminated by knowledge rather than shaded by fear and hate, so we may be able to persevere through this epoch, and pass on the freedoms we have taken for granted to our children and to their children. On National Constitution Day, educate yourselves, and spread word on what our country was truly founded on--that is the Constitution--to those around you, so that we may preserve together these freedoms our forefathers fought so arduously to attain.