A great failing of our American education system is the conscious or unconscious diminution of history that led to the foundation of our Republic. America as we know it is the inheritor of an inevitable upwelling of the cry for freedom from 18th century autocratic rule.

At great personal risk philosophers such as Thomas Paine writing in the “Age of Reason” dared stand against the power of kings and the church in defense of liberty and freedom. If taught the context and significance of our founding who could forget his memorable statement: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”

Paine knew something else, he valued education of the young as the only way to assure that they understood the value of personal freedom and would be willing to stand against the tyranny of government to secure it for themselves and their families.

Paine writing in the “Age of Reason”…

“A nation under a well-regulated government, should permit none to remain uninstructed.”

But in today’s education establishment history and all that it means to us has been relegated to the shadows by those who would willingly surrender personal freedom to government. They have learned the lessons of Paine and others. In our time knowledge of the underpinnings of freedom from government has been supplanted by a carefully designed replacement history that reinforces the political beliefs of those in power.

What better than to indoctrinate our young so that they know nothing of the value of their freedom, instead teaching them of the faux salvation of government, government different from the 18th century, but with the same surrender of freedom.

The philosophers of the Age of Reason and the patriots who overcame the tyranny of the English and French monarchies haven’t disappeared. We are still blessed to have some in our midst. True, they are belittled by a media soaked in statist philosophy, but they exist none the less.

An example, you say?

A patriot is one who is willing to sacrifice something of great value, be it a job or in the case of Revolutionary times a life, for the good of the whole. For a non-elected leader to stand against a tide of media and politicians in order to defend the principles of liberty is to me the definition of courage. Just as Paine stood against the power of the autocrat is today equivalent to standing against political correctness.

Recently Louisiana’s Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley took a stance that defines his character. It would have been easy for him to accept the demands of the politically powerful to diminish our history of freedom in exchange for teaching children unsubstantiated but politically empowering Woke history. But he didn’t do that, instead he took a stand not unlike a Paine and stood his ground for freedom.

In an interview Brumley said…

“Whenever we think about America, we think about those individuals who forged their sacred honor, the Declaration of Independence, or the abolishment of slavery or suffrage or civil rights, it’s been about the quest for freedom, and so we wanted our students to understand under a freedom framework the country that we are, how great we are, and the sacrifices and the struggles that have gone into making that happen.”

Let me tell you that after my years of political service to the state I can count on the fingers of one hand the times that Patriots in our state government to speak the truth have stood against the prevailing headwinds of so much power.

The next time the media or some leftwing politicians chooses for their own benefit to tell you that only when citizens allow government to usurp their freedom can they expect to achieve the promises of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness remember these words of Dr. Brumley…

“America has been exceptional from the beginning. No one gave us our exceptionalism. That was from the beginning. “