Showing 61 comments for
The Rights and Obligations of Liberty

As always, Great Stuff...in all candor and dismay.."how are you going to keep 'em down on the farm"....once they've seen Washington DC...

While I appreciate your grasp of Constitutional principles I feel compelled to point out something to you. You lamented that most people under 50 have never had a basic civics course. Do you know a single state run academic institution that offers such a course? My observation is that 100% teach statism, advanced federalism, whatever you want to call it, the theory that big brother is the answer to all our problems. In 1974 Paul Harvey observed that at the University of Arizona they wanted to offer a course in free enterprise. After consulting all the faculty of all of Arizona's state run institutions, they found only two that believed in free enterprise and no one that wanted to teach the course. Years ago this country accepted the notion that government education would make us a better place. We now have the culmination of that endeavor. I don't expect it to get better.

The liberal left has spent many years teaching lies to our children with our blessings. Many adults and kids have no idea what this country was built upon or what it stands for and have no idea what they are loosing under the current "banana republic want to be dictator who has lied his way into the white house. His goal is clear to those who choose to look and his methods have been used many times before. Please America, WAKE UP and remove this want to be tyrant before it is too late.

I think your comments about the obligations Americans have towards their country are right on. I'm of a mind that one of the central commentaries on such obligations is the book Starship Troopers (NOT the movie, which is about special effects). The central theme running throught the book is the individual's obligations to his or her country, one example being that the privilage to vote is only won through military service or other similar service, that only those who've made a personal sacrifice become citizens, rather than just residents.

I agree with all that was posted. However, I have a question. Since congress has passed many laws in recent years that are NOT authorized by our constitution and they govern by the golden rule,(Those that have the gold, make the rules)how can this country reverse the slide down that this country has taken? Since avarice and greed are innate to our human behavior. Those greedy will ultimately accumulate the gold and then make the rules. I am 70 years old and I for one am desolute with despair and thankful that I will not live to see the final demise of our once great country that so many have sacrificed themselves for.

I am always humbled by your comments. I remember as a child the words of my Grandfather (WW1 vet who drove a wagon pulled by horses and picked up the wounded at the Argone Forrest) and my Mom (Navy Petty Officer, as draftsman for damage control repair) and Dad's(101st Air Borne France), comments as they recounted their lives as children and as young adults. Our freedom wasn't then and to this day remains not free.Vietnam era vet

This is the first time I have ever disagreed with Alexander. The Constitution imposes no requirements or obligations on the citizens. It does, or at least tries to, limit the actions of government. Freedom and obligation are hard to reconcile. Yes, we should take an interest in what the bureaucrats try to slip past us, yes we should vote for those who believe what the Constitution says, but 'obligation'? Almost like requiring us to volunteer. I think someone tried that a few years ago, I forget his name. Eternal vigilance is indeed the price of freedom, but how can you mandate it? It has to come from within, self determination. Something totally out of favor with the elite, as long as they get theirs. Karl Marx wrote that to control a nation, you need only control the schools and the press. Look at what has happened over the past 50 years. That's what our children are taught. That's why they vote to "spread it around". (someone said that recently, but I forget his name as well)How do you mandate a commitment to freedom? If the majority doesn't want it, we are in for hard times.

I have just finished reading the essay "The Rights and Obligations of Liberty" and again thank Mark Alexander for putting words to some of my deepest concerns for our republic.Lately I read another essay that dealt with the many conservative think tanks that essentially sit around and preach to the choir when all those resources may be better spent reaching out to our future generations.This is not the case with The Patriot Post and Mark's essays. There is such a great need to educate and inform both our nations educators and even more directly all students from grade school up in the Rights and Obligatins of Liberty I do not know where to start.Clearly the children singing their mmm mmm mmm songs are the canaries in the mines of our public( or as some may say 'government') education system.I applaud the Essential Liberty project for opening the vent shafts in our education system so that our children may breathe free the message about the Rights and Obligations of Liberty.

What great timing with this article!Today our package of 50 copies of the Declaration of Independence/Constitution came to the house.Even my husband and sons were more excited about that than the delivery of 50 cigars yesterday.Thank-you for the good work you do.

For the reasons you outline above you must support ending the Federal Reserve Banking System and restoring sound money.Fiat money allows the welfare/warfare state to operate with impunity and the government to grow without bounds.Basically, the government can not be trusted with a printing press. The supply of money should be constrained by nature and the market.In this way when the government wants to fund a project, whatever it is, it must take that money directly from the people. That is, it can not simply inflate the money supply to pay for its projects, thereby laying a shadow tax upon all of the people.I would encourage everyone to learn more about how the monetary system works and learn about the benefits of sound money. This is the root of the tree. Strike it and you destroy big government.

Please devote at least some editorial time/space to John Dewey - the "father" of modern education. It might help understanding one of the incremental steps that have taken us to where we are today. This misguided(??) individual is the father of today's morally relativistic and bankrupt education - yet universally hailed as a true hero. "John Dewey and the High Tide of American Liberalism" by Alan Ryan provides some insights.

Well said. It is so true our youth do not know and if the humanists have their way they will never know as the textbooks of yesteryear are long gone and with it the history of our nation and those who founded it. Sad but true.

So true, but we have a problem. Isaac Asimov identified it in "Foundation" where the Galactic Empire went into decline because they had advanced machinery which no one knew how to repair and keep in operation. Would you agree we cannot have a Legacy of Liberty without a Legacy of Literacy? When the American public reads at a fifth grade level and 80% read no more than one book a year (AP Ipsos poll 2008), the average person cannot or will not read "The Patriot Post", let alone the Constitution, because it is "too hard". When fathers overlook teaching their children how to ride a bicycle, those children ask to be driven everywhere. All it takes is one generation of parents refusing to pass on a love of reading, expecting "someone else" (aka the Public Schools) to carry the torch, and the love of reading is lost. We have a century of neglect. Where there is no literacy, there can be no liberty. First things first. And someone expected giving kids pizzas for reading books was going to work?

I served 25 years in the US Amry and upon initial swearing in and upon re-enlistment during my career, I was sworn to defend the Constitution and my country in accordance with all orders by those appointed over me.I feel that due to current political sitution it is hard to do.The current Code of Conduct and my personnel feelings are in conflict to continue following what I have previously sworn to do.How many Ex-military feel the same as I do?

As a student of the law, I am bewildered by the fact that virtually no one in Congress, on either side of the isle, has questioned the Constitutionality of what they are doing. This has been so far too long. The Constitution has esentially been abandoned. I am afraid that we have progressed too far along for any meaningful change unless drastic measures are taken. A complete overhaul is in order.

THANK YOU and AHEMN I'm forwarding this along. Bob

Your ignorant friend whom you say was educated at our finest institutions is to me nothing more than collateral damage. She is not the best nor brightest of anything. She is totally irrelevant. Her education is a sham if she does not understand what it means to be an American. Should the three percent of us who have served and have taken an oath to defend our Constitution find it necessary to spill the blood of traitors and tyrants, I would not lift a finger to defend her. I would die to defend any of the three percent to which I am sworn, but your "educated" friend is mere collateral damage. TRC

How much more do the obligations of the Constitution apply to the President and members of Congress, who take an oath to uphold the Constitution and then proceed to ignore their oath. Swearing a false oath is perjury and the President and the entire Congress should be impeached for their perjury. Since convicted perjurers cannot hold public office, maybe we can get a President and Congress who will uphold the Constitution as they swore to do.

Around 1803 the anti federalist lost the argument about the right for government expansion to be better controlled. The court even then legislated from the bench, and the congress has always walked roughshod over the Constitution, so it has been the duty of the states to resist unconstitutional laws and resist their implementation..."What country can preserve it's liberties, if it's rulers are not warned, from time to time, that people preserve the spirit of the resistance?" TJIn today's heated climate there would be great disagreement from the left.LH

Another "BZ" [job well done] on Alexander's Essay of 22,October 2009. Our country is falling apart, Congress does nothing but spend, spend. Like the storyof the Ant and the Grasshopper, instead of being likethe ant to protect and defend our Constitution we arebeing like the grasshopper having no idea of how bad ashape we are in. Keep up the good work there are some of us that believe.V/r Steve

Other than voting a politician out of office or impeachment (which will never happen, since quite often we have the fox guarding the hen house), what are the legal means of getting rid of a politician who fails to live up to his/her oath to support and defend our Constitution?

Thank you for today's commentary (10-22-09) on original Liberties given to us by our Constitution. If only the average American could see how the current administration is trying to plow them under!Keep up the good work!

The "rigors" of U. S. citizenship? HA! Right!!!I met and married my wife in Italy when I was a USMC F/A-18 pilot and "importing" her to America. The "rigors" of U. S. citizenship that we experienced were primarily paperwork, payments and perennial harassment.The paperwork drill to go from conditional permenant resident, to permenant resident, to citizen was mind numbing! Forget to dot a "I" or cross a "T" and you might find yourself starting from square one. Bring the wrong form to an interview and you get rescheduled.Every form has the obligatory payment that goes with it. I've lost track of how much I've spent on my wife over the many-year journey from foreign national to U. S. citizen.At the end of the day it would have been easier and cheaper if she were hispanic, instead of Italian, and if she had just waded across the Rio Grande, instead of trying to comply with our immigration laws and procedures.The final insults were the citizenship interview and the swearing-in ceremony. At her interview she was asked three questions: who was the first president, what are the colors in the U. S. flag and (for the toughest question of all) who succeeds to the presidency if both the president and VP die in office? On that final question my wife just couldn't remember "Speaker of the House", but she knew that the person was Nancy Pelosi, which is what she answered. The interviewer had to stop and check if that was indeed who the correct response. FRIGHTENING!! On swearing-in day, fully 15% of the soon to be new U. S. citizens in the room were there with their translators, despite the requirement that a new citizen be "proficient" in English.Since the election of BHO, my wife seriously questions her decision to become a U. S. citizen.

I would like Patriot Post to listen to Our Commander in Chief's speech regarding the Climate Treaty last week. He is to sign the Climate Treaty in Copenhagen in December. My fear is that he intends to sign it according to his speech and no one is discussing the disastrous consequences in the media. I am not sure if you did. You are very sharp in your discourses regarding various presidents and others. I wish that your reporting would take up this issue. I have not heard of any treaty that has ever been challanged by Congress. I may be wrong in both counts but I wish that some well structured medium would look into this before the treaty is signed. Our C and C has defused us in his public speeches outside out country and I am not too happy about that. An ardent reader of yours. President Reagan walked out on the Hyoto Treay, I wander why. Thank you.

Mr. Tim, I am compelled to rebut several misunderstandings and misgivings in your comments concerning "The Rights and Obligations of Liberty." First, Mark Alexander neither describes nor endorses anything as an obligation imposed by the Constitution, our human framework for Rule of Law. Second, while freedom and obligation might be difficult to reconcile in some debates, our Founding Fathers and Mr. Alexander speak to Liberty, which is freedom inexorably coupled to responsibility. Third, you confuse "mandate" with "obligation," for a mandate is that for which one has no choice, whereas an obligation is that for which one may choose to morally fulfill ... or to immorally ignore. (Therefore, your debate above is more appropriately between freedom and mandate.) Fourth, Mr. Alexander offers no mandates of his own: he reminds us to honor our forefathers, who believed so much in you, a complete stranger and unknown entity to them, that they sacrificed their fortunes and lives to secure the rights that you enjoy today. Fifth, Mr. Alexander calls upon us to sacrifice so that our posterity, complete strangers and unknown entities to us, will be secure in their God-given rights.

This is a very inspiring comment today, I will send this to everyone I am in contact with. We as a nation better wake up to what is happening and what it will take to turn this mess around.

Mark: I always enjoy your articles and the included passages from others.Regarding your 'friend' who lacked 'civics' education, I think that people who have never served in the Armed Forces lack a fundamental appreciation of what the term 'freedom' really means. In other words they take it for granted and since they have never existed within (under?) any other form of government, they probably never will understand it. If they cannot or will not read, they sure as h--- won't learn anything about it from TV! When I walk down the hallways during class change here at the College I sometimes hear some pretty scary conversations!Oh well, keep beating the drum, someone will hear it!

10/22/09I read an article a few yrs.ago.I didn't realize atthe time how profoundly prophetic a statement by aEdinbrough University Professor "Alexander Tyler,said in the year of our Lord 1778."This DemocraticState will not survive.Knowing the mind set of men,When the LEGISLATOR'S find they have access to thePUBLIC TREASURY it cannot EXIST.The reason above,iswhy our young people should be taught what and why our founders endured for our and their FREEDOM,

I am a patriot and a Christian. Even I do not know all I should about our Constitution but I would stand first into the fray to defend America and my faith. If I can be of any help, ask, and I will do all I can, the military refused me for Viet Nam. I want to help.

Today,22 October 2009 solidfied Mr. Walter Williams anaylis that our governemnt is infringing on our LIBERTY by taking greater control of our lives. No where in the Constitution is the government authorized to DICTATE and DECIDE Salaries of citizens working in the private sector! What a shame! What a "SHAM"!

Has anyone heard the so called Republican leadership (still an oxymoron) say the Constitution gives the federal government no say on healthcare? Instead they are trying to modify the bills before Congress. If healthcare is outside the relm of the federal government how can modifying a healthcare bill make it Constitutional?

We have had a minimum wage for many years. The federal government is now impossing a maximum wage. All that is left is to make the minimum wage equal to the maximum wage.

I am a 72 year old veteran. While in elementary and high school fifty to sixty years ago we were required to study civics. Somewhere along the way the powers that be decided the citizens of our great country should not know how our system should work so they deleted the civics courses from the curriculum, along with all the world and American history. I served our country for twenty-eight years in our Armed Forces (Navy) and it pains me sorely to see the direction our great nation is headed.

I feel moved each time I read the messages that your web site posts. We do have freedoms and they go hand-in-hand with obligations. As I read through the Williams artilce, a television ad came to mind. The TV ad was meant to be a comercial for Skelly Oil in the early 1970's. The company logo was shown and then a viedo of a wind surfer was shown riding the waves with the wind at his back. The was a male voice in the background during the viedo; not touting the oil company but saying something that struck me as very profound. To the best of my memory the jest of the message was "Freedom, a very fragile thing; it can be lost a little at a time". I have wondered if that ad is still somewhere in the Tulsa, OK TV station's vault or not. I can not remember which station it was on; but there were only three at the time: ABC, CBS and NBC. Seems like that message would fit right in to today's climate. Keep up the good work. You a truly Patriots for individual liberty and restoration of consititutional limits on government.

Obama is signing away our sovereignty in December! When he signs this treaty, our constitution will become null and void! We will be responsible for paying every country who signs this treaty large amounts of money to cover their "global warming" There is no escape from this treaty unless all the other countries say we can and since were their biggest cashh cow, that won't happen! watch videohttp://youtube.com/watch?v=PMe5dOgbu40&feature=player

America is defined by human beings (culture), not by laws. We were never a nation of laws. The Constitution only ever had power so long as it reflected the values of most Americans. Now, at least half of our governments actions, many of which are supported by laws, are in direct violation of the Constitution. The Constitution is inevitably ignored or rejected by modern politicians because the values of Americans have been corrupted and no longer match the philosophies on which the Constitution was founded. Even those who share the values of our Founders often accept the fruits of corruption (such as the "free money" of Cash-For-Clunkers and recent home buyers' programs). Alternatively, believers in the Constitution mildly accept unconstitutional laws and programs.Laws, including Constitutional laws, are only fruitful when they are supported by citizens willing to obey them and officials willing to enforce them. Without such cooperation from individual human beings, the Constitution might as well by a John Lennon lyric. It is a plan for action... not the action itself.America is dying because our culture is dying. To save our Constitution, we must save the hearts and minds of individual Americans from lies, cowardice, and ignorance.Our Founders hearkened to God. We must do the same. That means focusing on changing individual hearts. No system of government is any better or worse than the individual persons who comprise it. Help America's citizens to find their way back to truth and justice, and our government will inevitably reflect their intentions.

Until every conservative objects to the madatoryhealth insurance plan, we are wasting our time.Guns..you want guns??? Well if you can't keep from having to buy health insurance ... you are not going to keep your guns.This is tyrany.. it is unconstitutional. Obama lied during the primary and no one will hold him accountable. He said that Hillary was for mandatory health insurance and he wasn't. Am I going crazy.Am I the only one who sees this. Am I the only one to question USA TODAY poll that 56 percent of Americans want mandatory health insurance?If that was the case.. where 73 percent of democrats wanted mandatory health insurance how did HIllary lose the primary??

Once again you ruin an excellent essay by taking a few moments to needlessly hyperventilate while trashing the current administration. While no former resident of a Warsaw Pact nation, I walked the streets of East Berlin in my Class As and have awoken to the sound of North Korean propaganda on the wind over the DMZ. I have also been stationed in present-day Germany where they have many of programs you claim are going to turn us into a police state or whatever it is you're claiming. It simply is not true. They are free in their persons and still have the kind of capitalism that turns out BMWs many other consumer goods we pony up a premium for. Up to the point where you went partisan, however, you couldn't be more correct. I just think you dilute your message and color yourself a party partisan when you go off as you did. You're fond of quotes, so here's one for you: to go too far is as bad as to fall short. -- Confucius.

Our obligations extend to refusing the hand-out/bail-out mentality as well. Congress is not to blame. It is our society to which they made their recommendations to. Our leaders only made recommendations to improve areas of our lives with funding that only they can secure for us. So we elect them on this basis. Not to serve us, but to provide for us. What is so scary is that this mentality is prevalent among the masses not just the social progressives and liberals. Not only do we need the education and commitment we also need to have the courage to hand back the provisions granted us to gain back our freedoms.

Perhaps your best, Mr. Alexander. As this administration tears down the foundations upon which this still great country was built on, our enemies are gathering at the gates. I am talking about domestic(Obama and ilk) and foreign enemies. The Constitution was and is the framework for this country. Our founding fathers knew what they were doing and were willing to sacrifice back then to try and ensure the liberty and safety of this country.Tim:Yor obervations are off base and Mr. Clymer has adressed those so I will not do double duty.Except that the Constitution, though framed long ago, is even more important today than it has ever been in our nation's history. Never has there been someone like Obama and the demosocialistacratswho are so intent on usurping and trying to make the Constitution null and void. Obama and friends are making freedom out to be a dirty word, just like the word terrorist and war aginst terror. Freedom has NEVER come cheap or easy. I think the majority want freedom, Tim. The majority are waking up to the reality of what is being stolen and foistered upon the backs of the American people.If we continue down this road, things will change in this country in 2010, and beyond. This country has survived a bad and rotten presidency before, and I believe in my heart we as a country will survive this one. The damages will have to be undone, and it will take time, expense and perhaps more blood from the patriots who are willing to shed it for this country. Count me in.

I believe in life liberty and the persuit of happiness, but I believe the only liberty that truly sets us free is found in accepting Jesus Christ as our savoir and Lord.All other liberty is temporal and temporary and depending upon man and manmade laws, but the liberty in Jesus is eternal and man and his laws can not prevent it or legislate it; because it is between God and the individual.Jesus paid the debt at Calvary to offer us that freedom. I sure hope and pray that things are going well for you and Becky and your children. Love you, Alta

Your essay and your comments/conclusions are right on but your suggestion that everyone, intellectual or not, should always understand the Constitution brief as it is,is specious. I am 76 years old with a graduate degree and was educated when the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were taught not only in college and high school but even in grammer school. I have forgotten most of what I have learned as have most voters.The problem we have is that politicians legislate at will and usually in their own interests and those of their constituents but there is no entity that acts as an ombudsman for the Constitution. People think it is the Supreme Court but that is not true because the Court can only rule on what is brought before it and even then, unless the consist is strict constructionist in its make up, interprets the Constitution which creates precedents not intended by the founding fathers. Every President sets up commissions and Czars but to date no one has considered a Constitution Czar whose responsibility is to review all legislation and lower/higher court rulings to determine if it/they are constitional. It should also review all ongoing activities of the federal and state governments to determine if they are constitutional. The Federal government is strictly limited by the constition and I would estimate that the vast majority of their activities are unconstitional. For you to suggest that the average voter should be competently conversant with and proactively active regarding the constitionality of various and sundry is naive to say the least. Your essays and those of others are interesting and informative but represent just more yadda, yadda, yadda and do nothing to correct the situation. With all the billionaires we have in this country from Bill Gates on down, one would expect that they would join together to fund an entity to defend the constition and file suit where problems exist. Perhaps you could get the ball rolling????

To suggest that any thinking person take a Civics or Social Studies course reveals ignorance on both sides of the conversation. The issue is HISTORY: full, thorough, carefully-researched and replete with documentation, free of opinion-mongering, Newt Gingrich level HISTORY. It was Civics and Social Studies which gave us the post-Vietnam "I've got to feel good about myself" touchy-feely, brain-dead, imbibers of intellectual Pablum graduates of high school and college. Who among today's gradjiskrates has STUDIED WIll Durant or Bruce Catton, Thucydides, Plutarch, Josephus, Edward Gibbon, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Francis Parkman, Arnold J. Toynbee, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, the letters of Adams, Jefferson, Madison. Which of today's gradjiskrates has read Ayn Rand? (For that matter, which "professors" have read her works and letters?) The Great Books were once used as texts. Who among today's gradjiskrates has even heard of those tomes? Are you looking for the seed of America's decline into Obamaworld? Look no farther than the ignoring of anything Historical in favor of becoming Oprahfied and "feeling good."

Your "The Rights and Obligations of Liberty" should be required reading in all public schools and repeated every year beginning in middle school.I do take issue with the notion that those who have attended college or those with college degrees are the "best and the brightest". It is my experience of 60 years that I would not trust my life to the majority of college educated but would to those who are God-fearing, God-loving, skilled in fending for themselves and able to repair, rebuild and reuse. Too many "educated" people have no common sense nor can they live without the labor, knowledge and skills of the lower or uneducated since most can't do anything or don't know much of anything outside of their field of study.

Dear Peter Brock: Are you serious? A "Constitutional czar"? One man or woman to ride herd on the world's eminent document which declares freedom and prosperity for the Individual and subjugation of government to the will of We, the People? One government bureaucrat appointed by a president to oversee what dozens of political and legal geniuses struggled to bring to life? Permit me to suggest an appropriate title for your Constitutional Czar: Das Fuhrer or Citizen or Big Brother or Mustafa Mond or Beatty or Wesley Mouch. Don't know who each of them is? Perhaps if you read more and relied less on your FEELINGS...Just a suggestion.

The bottom line of human nature is: "Please take care of me, but don't tell me what to do!" And you can't have it both ways! I constantly hear people say: "I've got my rights." I don't remember the last time I heard someone say,"I've got my responsibilities." It's all about Authority/and Responsibililty. When a child is born he has zero, A/and R. His parents have 100%. The objective of successful parenting is to get the child to 100% and the parent at 0%! At 2 years old the child is demanding his authority, without any responsibility.He must be taught that whatever degree of responsibility he is willing to accept, he can have the same amount of Authority.Personal Responsibility is the major missing key.Research has shown that a large majority of todays young "men" refuse to accept any responsibility. They don't want to make commitments; they just want to have fun.I served as a Chaplain for 14 years at a Retirement Home. At the beginning, I noticed that when someone registered to be accepted, they were shown a copy of their "Rights." I asked: "Where is a copy of their "Responsibilities?" It was difficult to obtain, but was finally created and presented at the same time they received their "rights." It made a difference!One of the most effective programs today that gives parents the tools to teach these lessons to their children is: "Love and Logic." It is incredibly effective---if the parents have the courage teach it without compromise.We just need to try for more balance between A and R!

That was a great piece. We need to hold our legislators and President accountable for the oath they publically take to defend and uphold the Constitution and to educate the public to know their founding documents.

I have taught for 26 years. I am appalled by the lies that are included in the liberal textbooks, the curriculum of the mostly liberal teachers, and the total disregard for facts, truth, history, and the U.S. Constitution. I can honestly say, our educational system is totally dumbed down to the level of the worst students for fear of lawsuits, broad inclusion of students of various abilities on the same dumbed-down level, and the desire to award every lazy person who feels entitled to an university degree. Students don't read, don't write well, and study only for a specific test, afterwards everything is forgotten. There is no long-term retention of information, there is no logic, only what feels good is right. And let's not forget the accusations of racism when students fail a test or a course on the merit of their lack of knowledge or preparation. And the countless hours that we must spend defending our classroom policies, our teaching methodology, our preparation, our morality, our ethics, and in the end, administrators change grades, over the teacher's objections, to avoid lawsuits. To make matters worse, communist teachers seldom show up for class, hire graduate teaching assistants, who do their best, but their best is not good enough, while the communist teacher of record is too busy attending worthless conferences, giving workthless papers on topics that spread socialism/communism at the expense of the taxpayers. Nobody fires them because they are either very famous in academia or have tenure. Parents have no idea what kind of "education" their hard earned money is buying for their children. It is a disgrace. No wonder we are going into an abyss.

Consitutionalist Czar????Peter Brock you have partaken of too much KOOL AID or something. That is the LAST thing we need is to put so much power in one person, yet another one who is unelected and barely scrutinized. And who might that Czar be? The Rev. Wright, Louis Farrakhan, or some other dolt like this administration has appointed so far? No thanks and that is one thing we do not need. There has been enough trashing of the Constitution and what is has done for this country so far. I agree with Rifleman.Do some reading and research and forget the warm and fuzzy feelings you are obviously experiencing from too much 'hope and change.'

As a child of immigrants who came here from the destruction of WWII Europe, I was raised with an intense love and respect for all this country stood for at that time, when it was a light and hope in a world gone mad. The way it was distilled to me was that each of us has inalienable rights, but my rights end where your nose begins. So with rights come the need to exercise them responsibly and if we as a society cannot be responsible persons, regulations will be imposed on us to try and make us so. But no government can possibly address every hunan interaction fairly. So, either we learn responsibility or our decay into clamoring demand for our rights will lead to the totalitarianism we will crave to bring order to our lives.

This has to be one of your best postings.From the time of our founding fathers, America hasbeen legitimized and honored by its Documents offreedom, allowing us to pursue all the benefitsderived from the Declaration and Constitution.Indeed, the 'younger' generation, due to inadequatecivics education, has not a clue as to the grandimortance and impact that these Documents prescribe.We are a nation born of scarifice, the pursuit ofliberty and the establishment of laws, which should be our maps and guides to justice, peace, security and prosperity. In assuming this American birthright, the average citizen has tragically lost sight of the very foundations on which this nation stands.If we continue down this path of ambivalence, denialand outright shredding of our Constitution, thensurely we are doomed to moral, societal and economiccalamity. The 21st Century American Revolution is athand. Those patriotic enough to comprehend the valueof the first four paragraphs of the Declaration,should now prepare themselves for the battle, thatmust be won, if we are to preserve and protect theUnited States of America.

It would be easy to stem this tide of lost liberty if the Grand Ol Party would find themselves a viable candidate to defeat the One in 2012. There is already enough anger and angst among the electorate and there are three years to go. Can someone pass the word along?

right now we're having a nationwide debate over what kind of bandages should be made available in the ship's dispensary, while the ship is already sinking. shouldn't we be discussing how to stay afloat?

This essay, unfortunately, points out a weakness in the language used regarding Obama and his minions. Mr. Alexander, as do many of the conservative voices straining to be heard, keep referring to this administration's and this Congress's (particularly the Democrat Party's) plans and policies as "socialist." We must change our characterization from "socialist," to a more apt and accurate term of "communist." Reasons for this are legion--"spreading the wealth," "Mao is my favorite political philosopher," Bill Ayers' writings, Fidel Castro as a kindred spirit, the attacks upon free speach and the free exercise of religion--all hallmarks of communism as practiced in the 20th and 21st centuries, whereas socialism has been used as a more benevolent label: "Socialist Sweeden," "British Socialism," Canada's "socialized medicine." Were the American public told, more correctly, that Obama's Communism is on the march, there would be an increase in opposition. There is a segment of the population that says, "Socialism is sorta OK, it helps everybody equally, and if that's what we need, fine." But that same segment will raise a huge cry if what they see is "Communism." Let's get control of the language again.

Mr. Alexander, no one could have said it better. When more than half of the college graduates in this country can barely spell, it is no wonder that have no idea what the Constitution means. I love this country and have read the Constitution several times and right now, I am very afraid for my country. If the schools are not going to teach our children about the Constitution and the Rule of Law, then it is up to the parents and to all of us who believe in what it means to teach them, if they will listen. thank you for the Patriot Post, I love it and forward it to many of my friends.

Before anyone suggests that we should follow Gingrich, they should be aware that he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Can you say "New World Order?"

There was a time in the not-too-distant past when American History was a course required for all students to graduate from most of our universities. Sadly, that is no longer true.Bob McKuneRolla, MO

Seems to me you forgot to mention the "Guard" that is giving the most at this point in time in defense of this Great Nation: The National Guard and Military Reserves have made up the bulk of the fighting forces in Afghanistan, Iraq & Iran. They have given as much time away from their families & friends as the Active Duty Military Forces have. They have also lost as much in the way of life & limb. Kudos to ALL of our troops. Including our Border Patrol Officers too.

My computer has been down for a few days but this is a magnificent contribution. It reflects the problems faced by all Western liberal democracies and thanks to the liberal left, civics is no longer taught. People focus on what they can get out of government or others without learning the notion of reciprocity. Keep up the good work!

Thank you Alexander for another thoughtful and useful post. I will share it with all my friends and family. Based on the comments here, a few readers have been debating the need for a "Constitution Czar." A shame, none of those commenting seemed to "get" the heart of Mr. Alexander's post: We the People were meant to be the guardians of our Constitution. Unless we read the Constitution and our founders' thoughts on it, as well as the history and philosophy that underlie its provisions, and internalize its principles and act accordingly, we cannot properly fulfill our role as Constitutional guardians. This is our greatest obligation as free and independent people.

God bless Mark Alexander and God Bless the USA.