CORE VIRTUES
  • Home
  • Our Approach
    • Program Overview
    • Why Stories?
    • Implementation
    • The Morning Gathering
    • Suggested Book Lists >
      • Year One Suggested Book Lists
      • Year Two Suggested Book Lists
      • Year Three Suggested Booklists
      • PDF Book Lists
    • Digging Deeper
    • Telling our Stories >
      • Blog Archives >
        • 2018 Blog Archives
        • 2019 Blog Archives
        • 2020 Blog Archives
        • 2021 Blog Archives
        • 2022 Blog Archives
        • 2023 Blog Archives
  • About Us
    • A Little History
    • Mission
    • Board and Staff >
      • Mary Beth Klee
    • Core Virtues Schools
    • Our First Champion >
      • The Portsmouth Declaration
    • Newsletters
    • Contact Us
  • Virtue of the Month
    • Virtue Cycle Definitions
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December
    • January
    • February
    • March
    • April
    • May
    • June
  • Cycle of Virtues
    • Year 1
    • Year 2
    • Year 3
  • Heroes-Lives to Learn From
    • September Heroes
    • October Heroes
    • November Heroes
    • December Heroes
    • January Heroes
    • February Heroes
    • March Heroes
    • April Heroes
    • May Heroes
    • June Heroes
  • Holidays
    • Labor Day
    • Veteran's / Memorial Day
    • Thanksgiving
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Martin Luther King Jr
    • President's Day
    • Black History Month
    • Saint Patrick's Day
    • Women's History Month
    • Passover
    • Easter
    • Ramadan
    • Immigrant Heritage Month
  • Poetry
  • Core Knowledge Connections
    • Kindergarten
    • First Grade
    • Second Grade
    • Third Grade
    • Fourth Grade
    • Fifth Grade
    • Sixth Grade
  • Links
  • Anthologies
  • Chapter Books
  • Parent Teacher Bibliography
  • Schools of Faith
    • Saint of the Month >
      • January Saints
      • February Saints
      • March Saints
    • Jewish Schools
    • Christian Schools
    • Islamic Schools
    • Eastern Faith Traditions
  • Grade Level Goals
    • Kindergarten Goals
    • First Grade Goals
    • Second Grade Goals
    • Third Grade Goals
    • Fourth Grade Goals
    • Fifth Grade Goals
    • Sixth Grade Goals
  • Store
  • Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Our Approach
    • Program Overview
    • Why Stories?
    • Implementation
    • The Morning Gathering
    • Suggested Book Lists >
      • Year One Suggested Book Lists
      • Year Two Suggested Book Lists
      • Year Three Suggested Booklists
      • PDF Book Lists
    • Digging Deeper
    • Telling our Stories >
      • Blog Archives >
        • 2018 Blog Archives
        • 2019 Blog Archives
        • 2020 Blog Archives
        • 2021 Blog Archives
        • 2022 Blog Archives
        • 2023 Blog Archives
  • About Us
    • A Little History
    • Mission
    • Board and Staff >
      • Mary Beth Klee
    • Core Virtues Schools
    • Our First Champion >
      • The Portsmouth Declaration
    • Newsletters
    • Contact Us
  • Virtue of the Month
    • Virtue Cycle Definitions
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December
    • January
    • February
    • March
    • April
    • May
    • June
  • Cycle of Virtues
    • Year 1
    • Year 2
    • Year 3
  • Heroes-Lives to Learn From
    • September Heroes
    • October Heroes
    • November Heroes
    • December Heroes
    • January Heroes
    • February Heroes
    • March Heroes
    • April Heroes
    • May Heroes
    • June Heroes
  • Holidays
    • Labor Day
    • Veteran's / Memorial Day
    • Thanksgiving
    • Hanukkah
    • Christmas
    • Martin Luther King Jr
    • President's Day
    • Black History Month
    • Saint Patrick's Day
    • Women's History Month
    • Passover
    • Easter
    • Ramadan
    • Immigrant Heritage Month
  • Poetry
  • Core Knowledge Connections
    • Kindergarten
    • First Grade
    • Second Grade
    • Third Grade
    • Fourth Grade
    • Fifth Grade
    • Sixth Grade
  • Links
  • Anthologies
  • Chapter Books
  • Parent Teacher Bibliography
  • Schools of Faith
    • Saint of the Month >
      • January Saints
      • February Saints
      • March Saints
    • Jewish Schools
    • Christian Schools
    • Islamic Schools
    • Eastern Faith Traditions
  • Grade Level Goals
    • Kindergarten Goals
    • First Grade Goals
    • Second Grade Goals
    • Third Grade Goals
    • Fourth Grade Goals
    • Fifth Grade Goals
    • Sixth Grade Goals
  • Store
  • Privacy Policy

Telling Our Stories

Lincoln: July Fourth Should Bring Us Together

7/12/2021

0 Comments

 
Author of the recently published novel, Old Abe, John Cribb (Core Virtues Foundation Trustee) offered the following reflections on America's Independence Day at RealClearPolitics.com on July 4, 2021.

In five years, on July 4, 2026, Americans will observe the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, a milestone that carries a somewhat awkward name: the semiquincentennial.

Those old enough to remember our nation’s 200th birthday in 1976 know the bicentennial was a months-long celebration full of parades, fireworks, and tall ships. The country had recently struggled through the Vietnam War, Watergate, recession, and an energy crisis, but Americans came together to pay tribute to the American Revolution.
 
As Gerald Ford observed in Philadelphia on Independence Day 1976, it was a time for “both pride and humility, rejoicing and reverence,” a day to reflect that, for our nation’s founders, “when liberty was at stake, they were willing to pay the price.”

If we don’t watch it, we may be headed toward something quite different in 2026. The last few years have brought arguments that the American founding wasn’t so great after all and that the founders were just a bunch of old white men who talked about freedom but instituted slavery and racism.

Some students are being taught that the real founding was not 1776 but 1619, the year the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia. A National Archives task force recently cited the Archives’ own rotunda, where the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and other founding documents are displayed, as an example of “structural racism.”
 
If this line of thinking wins the day, 2026 will be a year-long scowling at America’s past. That would be wrong, not only because our country deserves better, but because a nation that learns to loathe itself is in deep trouble.

What to do? Abraham Lincoln offered some excellent guidance in a speech he gave in Chicago in July 1858, just a few weeks before the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates. He used the occasion to give his thoughts on the founding, the Declaration of Independence, and the importance of celebrating July Fourth.

Lincoln never hesitated to address head-on the issue of slavery and the founding. He explained that the founders knew slavery was wrong, but they did not believe they could fight a war against one of the greatest military powers on earth, launch a new nation, hold 13 new states together, and get rid of slavery all at the same time. It was too large a task.

What they could and did do, however, was lay down principles in the Declaration of Independence that spelled the doom of slavery—the ideals that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The declaration of those principles, coming at a time when the vast majority of people on earth lived with little or no freedom, was a magnificent step forward. For the first time in history, a nation was created out of the idea that all should be free and govern themselves.

Those founding principles were a promise. They stood, and still stand, as beacons for the country to move toward.

In one sense, the founding was thus tragically flawed by slavery. In another sense, it was the glorious start of a long journey that has brought hope and freedom to millions.

Lincoln knew the founders were far from perfect, but he also knew they were an extraordinary generation of leaders, perhaps the most extraordinary in history. He called them “iron men” and saw much to admire in them.

He pointed out that few of us are descended by blood from those founders, but we are all their descendants in that we have inherited the ideals they fought for. “That is the electric cord in that Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together,” Lincoln said, “that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men throughout the world.”

Lincoln knew Fourth of July celebrations are part of the glue that holds us together. They remind us of how difficult it was to establish the principles underlying our democracy and win the liberty we enjoy. They help us, Lincoln said, “feel more attached to one another, and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit.”

In other words, the Fourth of July builds patriotism, love of country.

If they were here today, Abraham Lincoln and Jerry Ford would no doubt both say let’s have a grand semiquincentennial party in 2026. And they would no doubt push back hard against the idea that the American founding was anything but a miracle.

Americans need to do the same in their children’s schools, on college campuses, in town halls and in legislatures. We need to push back hard against the narrative that America’s history is mainly a story of racism and oppression.

Despite its faults and sins—and some of them, like slavery, have been grave—the American record stands tall. It is a brilliant, unparalleled story.

It is still true, as Gerald Ford said on Independence Day 1976, that “the United States today remains the most successful realization of humanity's universal hope.”

Five years from now, let’s come together for a joyful 250th birthday celebration full of patriotism and pride. We can start by lighting a candle this Fourth of July and remembering just how blessed we all are to live here.

John Cribb is the author of “Old Abe: A Novel,” published by Republic Books.

This article was published July 4, 2021 on realclearpolitics.com

Archives

July 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Write something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Home

About us

Resources

Contact

NEWSLETTER

Core Virtues Foundation Copyright © 2018