We Need to Teach our Children to Love America

Ask the average sixth grade today about Thomas Jefferson or George Washington. Probably the first thing that will come out of their mouth is the fact that these patriots owned slaves. An older child may bring up the fact that Jefferson had children by one of his slaves. Ask one of these kids who authored the Declaration of Independence. They probably will not know the answer. I'll bet that they know who Ceasar Chavez and Martin Luther King are. How many kids today can recite the Gettysburg Address, or even know where Gettysburg is?

One of the thing that makes America special is her heroic past. America was forged with the blood of heroic men and women who gave up everything to create this country. Many of them were flawed individuals. But so are many of the great men of the past. Do we need to recount the foibles of liberal icons such as Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, or Bill Clinton? Why is it acceptable to talk about the sex life of a widower such as Thomas Jefferson, but heaven help you if you bring up the wanderings of these three married men.

Unfortunately there has been a movement in the past 20 years to down grade the greatness of America. We are told that we must be ashamed of ourselves for slavery, dropping the bomb on Hiroshima, and our treatment of the Native Americans. Look at the furor that surrounds Columbus day each year. I'm not ashamed of my country and neither should any American. Granted, Michelle Obama wasn't proud of this country until they nominated her socialist husband.

In the past Hollywood made television shows and movies about great American heroes. Remember John Wayne as Davey Crockett in "The Alamo", Gary Cooper as Sargent York and Lou Gehrig,, Henry Fonda as "Young Abe Lincoln", or George C Scott as Patton. Today we get Sean Penn as Harvey Milk in "Milk".

What should we do? We conservatives need to get involved in the curriculum decisions at our local schools. Get your hands on some text books. We can post the egregious parts here. Let's show the word what our kids are being taught. Where are the great patriotic books that we read as kids? We need to make sure that a patriotic agenda is included in school curriculum. We have black history month, gay history week etc. Whats wrong with designating two months out of the year to celebrate 'American Heritage months'

We need to demand that Hollywood make movies with Patriotic themes. Sure they will say that there is no money in these movies. According to Yahoo movies, a left wing picture such as 'Milk' made $30,000,000 in 14 weeks. 'Hotel for Dogs' made $67,000,000 in 7 weeks. I'm sure that a well produced movie about an American hero like Pat Tillman, John McCain, or Norman Schwarzkopf could do better than 'Milk'.

What is America without patriotism? Its just a bigger version of France. And we know how well France stands up when they are invaded