The real birth of our nation

I continue to read reports of young Americans who romance the socialist or even communist form of government.

In fact, it was reported in the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s “Annual Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism,” 58 percent of the up-and-coming generation opted for one of the three systems, compared to 42 percent who said they were in favor of capitalism. Now do you want to talk about how our education system has failed us?

Interestingly, and most likely not by random chance, I learned of this report on July 2. Folks who are better at history than those polled above know that the Constitution was first ratified on July 2, 1788. I often think that people believe we celebrate the birth of our nation on July 4 each year with a huge void about the toil those 12 years must have brought about in establishing the supreme law of the land. I can’t leave out the fact that it was not until Dec 15, 1791, that the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution.

While I in no way dispute that there are a number of young folks who ignorantly believe that socialism or even communism is the preferred path, I do question the reporting of such information. At the same time, there is also a huge group of young people that I encounter that would be on the opposite end of the spectrum.

For example, I just finished my Rural Route Radio program interview with 17-year-old Weston Jones from Oklahoma. Weston and 400 other young men attended Boys State for one week. Weston indicated to me that overwhelming the young men who attended this educational activity were conservative.

For those that may not be familiar Boys State, and its parallel program Girls State, both are sponsored by the American Legion. Directly from their website I find their beginning to be quite interesting.

A participatory program in which students become part of the operation of local, county and state government, Boys State was founded in 1935 to counter the socialism-inspired Young Pioneer Camps. The program was the idea of two Illinois Legionnaires, Hayes Kennedy and Harold Card, who organized the first Boys State at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

So the reality is that life is cyclical. The one foundation that we have is this document called the U.S. Constitution. I have been inspired in so many ways by the young folks that I have the opportunity to meet along the journey such as Weston Jones.

Weston continues to carry 20 to 30 pocket constitutions with him in all of his travels, engaging in conversations about the foundation of our country. In fact, he has handed out several hundred now and has recipients sign a pledge that they will read it. That has worked for me, as I now read my pocket constitution on every flight I take.

Let’s think about where we’ve been and where we are headed as we recently celebrated the birth of the greatest form of government ever assembled—the representative republic called the United States of America. I wish to remind folks of the founding fathers desire to create a limited government by the people and for the people. Through complacency we have obviously allowed that to erode.

I think I can speak for Weston Jones when we jointly ask you, “What are you doing today to spread the information about preserving the true freedom God gave us and the founding fathers worked to preserve?”

Editor’s note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].