Is Your Patriotism Diluted?

I'm concerned that Americans don't understand patriotism ... or at least American patriotism. Webster's definition is "a love of country and a willingness to sacrifice for it." But American patriotism requires a different twist, as defined by the founding fathers. More on that in a minute...

In my opinion, to be a true American patriot, there are prerequisites...a required foundation. This is my list of prerequisites:
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• A practical, detailed and very intense understanding of the injustices people faced throughout history and the sacrifices they made to put us in a better place.
• An understanding of money, what it truly represents and how it has been manipulated by leaders and bankers, historically as well as in the present.
• A principled understanding of how all this history led to the creation of the United States constitution.
• An awareness of how the checks and balances in our government have failed to do their job. Which government offices have been compromised and are ignoring or undermining the constitution? Which government officials have failed to fulfill their duty as a check and balance in the system?

Unless these prerequisites are met, our love of country cannot truthfully be called American patriotism. Maybe it's national pride or loyalty...to something. But without a solid foundation, we're easily lied to, deceived and misused by our leaders. This is bad because we could end up fighting on the side of evil instead of good without even realizing it.

The founding fathers recognized this danger. That's why their definition of patriotism was different, focusing on a common set of values. These values provide us with a clear view of where we're going and something unchanging to measure our government against. And by the way, these values depend on one another...remove one of them and the rest will be compromised as well. These values were codified into law so we wouldn't forget and to keep us focused on what's most important. So here we go...this is how the founding fathers defined American patriotism:

Since the very beginning of our republic, when our elected officials and public servants (including military and police) are sworn in, their oath of office includes the words:

"support and defend the constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

This oath emphasizes that our loyalty is to the values defined in the Constitution. It also emphasizes this loyalty to the Constitution is higher priority than any loyalty to our leaders or even to one another. Really? Yes! This oath clearly states that the enemies we are to fight against may actually be American citizens, and I say more likely than not, those citizens will be found within our own government. And therein lies our first problem ... their primary weapon is lies and deceit. This makes it tough to recognize the enemy, unless we have some objective standards. The answer? We must thoroughly understand the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the early acts of Congress and the history behind it all.

But this brings us to our second problem. How can we recognize the enemies of the Constitution if we barely even know what it says, let alone why it says what it says. Recognizing domestic enemies requires education. But our educational system has been under pressure, and has gradually been removing elements of patriotism and love of country from our classrooms. Probably the most talked about has been the corporate recitation of the Pledge Of Allegiance. But that's relatively unimportant compared to the watering down of all education relating to the Constitution. These important topics are only taught on a surface level and other important topics aren't taught at all, such as monetary theory. What is being taught certainly doesn't make the Constitution seem very personal or bring it into the present. If the real story were taught to the detail and intensity it deserves, people would have no problem staying awake in history and civics class.

In light of this oath of office, I'm concerned that most American citizens and most public servants, including police and military, lack the foundation they need to be true American patriots. For most of them, their love of country is intact. For some, their willingness to sacrifice is still there, and indeed some have made great sacrifices. But is their foundational understanding of the Constitution detailed enough to help them recognize the real enemy? Or, are they easily deceived and misused, sometimes to their own peril and other times to the peril of the America they've sworn to protect? Considering the sacrifices they've made, these questions are painful. Considering the power they wield, these questions are frightening. We've gotta start making changes. The problem with deception is that we don't know when we're deceived. To cut through deception we must aggressively search out the truth.

"Reason obeys itself; Ignorance submits to what is dictated to it."
- Thomas Paine

True American Patriotism may, at times, require dissent and disobedience. For the founding fathers, it required that and much more. I think the founding fathers would be ashamed of us for what we're putting up with and for how distracted we are from the most important issues.

So...to become true American patriots, we must educate ourselves...and that involves work. It's not as easy as going to school and being spoon fed. In fact, some of what we've learned may need to be unlearned. We've gotta dig. We've got to question and evaluate who's telling the truth by searching out and pondering the undisguisable evidence.

To begin building a solid understanding of the Constitution and the history behind it, let's briefly consider the most basic of questions. What is the purpose of the Constitution? Why did the founding fathers write it in the first place? The founding fathers knew one thing very well ... that governments are dangerous and that they tended to expand their power. They had first-hand, very personal knowledge of that fact. Therefore, as they built our government from scratch, they knew it was vitally important that the first laws brought into existence serve to LIMIT THE ROLE AND THE POWER OF GOVERNMENT. And this is the purpose of our Constitution...to protect the people from the government, to ensure the government serves the people and not the other way around.

The idea of returning to the Constitution is revolutionary to the establishment. For any hope of real change, we need the mob of American patriots to reach critical mass quickly and effect rapid, sweeping change. It's up to us. The politicians won't do it ... the status quo keeps them fat and happy. We need to move quickly and continually be becoming American patriots ourselves as well as helping to educate others.

The revolutionary idea of returning to the constitution transcends any one man. It's about Liberty, Freedom, Prosperity and Peace. It's about removing the invisible shackles that have enslaved Americans for many, many years. The Fed and the IRS are part of that. The Patriot Act is another. We need to WAKE UP and see what has been happening all around us. Look at where we came from and where we are now. Look what has already happened in other democratic countries around the world. We need to be educated and aggressive American patriots who are trustworthy to one another and dangerous to the establishment.