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Liberty Park, USA™
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Preserving Our Heritage |
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By |
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President Ronald Reagan
Painting by
Everett Raymond Kestler |
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Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in
Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some
time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in
the past eight years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new
patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and
it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.
An informed patriotism is what we want. And are
we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what
she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35
or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very
directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the
air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you
didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood,
from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost
someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if
all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular
culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced
the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the
mid-sixties.
But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some
things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure an un-ambivalent
appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as
for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no
longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't re-institutionalized
it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is
freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And
freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs protection.
So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in
fashion but what's important--why the Pilgrims came here.... If we forget
what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the
American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American
spirit. Let's start with some basics; more attention to American history and
a greater emphasis on civic ritual.
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Painting by
Everett Raymond Kestler |
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President Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address to the
Nation (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, United
States Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1992, pp. 1721-1722.) |
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Promoting the Freedom, Sovereignty, & Independence of
America
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