Foundations of Liberty

I am currently taking a course on the Foundations of Liberty. It is a group of concerned citizens who get together to discuss assigned readings. The group discussions are guided by Dr. Brooks.

We had our first class last night and it was one of the best classes I have ever had the chance to attend. I'm looking forward to continuing these studies for the next year and a half. Our goal is to learn what the founder knew so we can do what they did. A big problem today is that we simply don't understand the basics of America.

If we want to make a change of the direction this country is headed then we need to start with ourselves and locally. Your voice doesn't mean much on the national or state level but by getting involved with your city you can begin to make changes. A small number of citizens and guide the direction of the city. If the city thrives then other cities will look to your city as an example and the goodness will work its way up the chains of government.

Some other things we need to do as a person and a society is to court our spouses, get out of debt, grow and harvest a garden, turn off the TV and spend time with our kids. A government will be no better than its people so we need to make sure we are good people.

There are four foundations of liberty that America has lost that made it great.
1. Private Virtue - you do what is right when no one is looking.
2. Public Virtue - voluntarily sacrifice for others around you. The key work here is voluntarily, we can be forced to do things for the greater good or we don't have liberty.
3. Widespread Education - We have lost eduction. We now teach our kids job skills and how to be a good worker bee. We are taught how to do but not how to think. Up until the early 1900s parents played a huge role in educating their children. School was a place used to teach children to think on their own while the home taught them virtues, socialization, real world business experience and basic skills such as reading and writing. During this time education was controlled locally. Once the federal government started funding schools they begin to replace what was suppose to be done by the family and stopped teaching kids how to think. Parents became much less involved during this time also. Schools use to teach who you are, not they teach you what to do (career).
4. Auxiliary Precaution - There are 12 precaution that were built into to our constitution to keep the federal government in check.
a. Legitimate Founding - Natural Laws
b. Legitimate Authority - The government can't have any authority that is not given to them by the people.
c. Legitimate Role - Government's role is to protect rights.
d. Separation of Powers
e. Checks
f. Balances
g. Federalism - Federals government gets its power from the state and the state gets its power from the people. Today we have Nationalism where the Federal power gives rights to the states.
h. Written Constitution by the people to the government.
i. Enumerated Limited Powers
j. Periodic Elections
k. Electoral College
l. Factions

The government's role is to protect our rights, not to provide stuff or to protect the people from themselves.

There were many other topics discussed and it was well worth my time to study with this group. Remember the biggest thing you can do if you are concerned about your country is to first change yourself and then get involved at the local level.