My boys and I are slowly working our way through The Land of Pair Play by Christian Liberty Press. We are learning so much, and although some of the material covered is new and somewhat difficult for us, we are truly enjoying learning more about American Civics and our governmental structure. I hope you will benefit from reading our Lesson from this week: “What The Nation Does For Us”
We must understand that our strong national governments most important job is to protect all of our rights of liberty and freedom. Under a weak and unstable government no man’s life or property is secure.
We have studied the beginning years in our country and read about how troubled it was just after the Revolution. Our thirteen colonies were only held together under the Articles of Confederation. Our founders realized that we needed to have a Constitution in order to have a strong union and protect the people’s liberties. Our Preamble to the Constitution states clearly:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Our national government is supposed to provide for our nation’s defense first and foremost. They must protect us from foreign invasion, command us in our battles, and speak for America among the nations of the world. Our safety and well being depends upon this. If we are a weak, divided nation, with a weak military we might be conquered, deprived of our rights and subjected to a foreign power.
The United States, as a leader of the Free World, belongs to several international groups. The United Nations, located in New York is an example of one organization that is supposed to keep the peace among nations. The United Nations was preceded by the League of Nations which was based on President Wilson’s famous Fourteen Points of 1918.
It is important to know that Woodrow Wilson was greatly influenced by a Fabian tract of 1917 called “Labour’s War Aims.” The London Fabian Society was formed in 1833, (the same year Karl Marx died), and was committed to advancing socialism gradually by passing new laws. Labour and the New Social Order became a type of “Fabian Manifesto” which had four goals. These four goals were incorporated into the League of Nations and later the United Nations in 1945. These socialist goals were as follows:
1. Establishing a minimum wage and social welfare programs
2. government ownership and control of land, utilities, transportation, mineral resources, and heavy industry
3. doing away with personal property, savings, and investment through taxation
4. disarmament, an international court, international controls, and ultimately a “one-world” government.
The United Nations has consistently served the interests of socialists and globalism since 1945, and has been a failure to the nations that yearn to be free. Most of the leaders who were responsible for establishing the United Nations in the 1940′s were committed to the goal of establishing a socialist one-world government.
The International Court of Justice was established at the Hague in the Netherlands, where 15 judges from different nations meet to resolve questions of international law.
Our National government is also called to protect us against graver forms of disorder at home. Ordinary police work is left to the States, through our local police.
We also have an organized State militia called the National Guard which the governor can call out to protect property and lives when there is disorder. During one of the hurricanes in the South the national guard were called to help the citizens of Louisiana. Some of the national guard disarmed the citizens who were trying to protect their own property. I do not believe that this should ever happen in America. In the even of a riot or other serious public disorder the State legislature may call upon the President to send troops of the national army to help. It is also the duty of the national government to see that every State has “a republican form of government.” No State should be able to set up a monarchy or tyranny…….and neither should the federal government.
It is the Presidents job to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” (art. II, Sec3) For example the president should enforce the laws already on the books to stop illegal immigration. The President should be in full support of the new Arizona law which merely mirrors the federal law. The president should not sue a state like our President is doing now…but should offer help and support. The president has the authority to send national troops to preserve order during civil disturbances.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), founded in 1908, is responsible for investigating any violation of federal law that is not assigned to another agency. The FBI helps fight crimes such as kidnapping, bank robbery, and espionage upon federal workers.
The Land of Fairplay warns us against increasing the responsibilities and activities of our national government, because this forces the federal politicians to raise taxes to the point where our whole economy will suffer. A smaller government is a better government. It must be remembered that governments do not and cannot create wealth, in fact they often destroy the means by which people create it. Therefore we must keep our State government strong and use it as much as we can. Whenever our federal government calls for new regulations and taxes, we must hesitate and heed this warning not to allow Washington more power than the Constitution has already granted.
Money– In order to buy and sell in a modern nation we must have a uniform system of money or currency. Therefore, the States are forbidden under the Constitution to coin money (Art I, Sec 10, Par 1) Only the national government has the power to print money. In 1789, the States had flooded the country with paper money that in some instances, had become worthless. It is dangerous for governments to print currency that is not backed up by gold or silver in the treasury. Now, our money is not backed up by gold but our government continues to print more and more money. Our government has also been on a spending spree that is out of control. Our economy is failing due to the bad stewardship of the current and previous administrations.
During the twentieth century, our central government has voted to take our nation’s currency off of a gold or silver standard. This is a violation of the U.S. Constitution! (Art. I, Sec. 10, Par 1) The dollar was taken off of the gold standard over a long period of time. In 1933, American’s were forced to turn in their gold coins and certificates to the Department of the Treasury. The dollar was completely removed from the gold standard in 1971, when President Nixon disallowed the converting of dollars into gold by foreign banks and governments. Later in the 1970′s folks were allowed to purchase and own gold again. It is no longer designed to be used as money though.
Why would they do such a thing? Well, these actions allowed those in Congress to spend more money on government programs without having to worry about sufficient gold or silver in the federal treasury to pay for these programs. Now we are trillions of dollars in debt. Our founders who wrote our beloved Constitution knew that it was foolish to permit the people in our Congress to print money that could not be backed up by gold or silver. Now we are are burdened with higher taxes and an unstable economy because of these representatives who did not follow the constitution. Uncontrolled government spending must be stopped before our nation’s economy is destroyed. President Bush and his administration spent too much money but now under President Obama, it almost seems as though our government is purposely committing suicide. I sometimes wonder if our President and Congress are trying to break the whole system on purpose in order to usher in a new socialist America just like Woodrow Wilson wanted to do along with the United Nations. (See Cloward & Piven)
If you are interested in more reading about other civics lessons please check out the civics section of our site. God Bless you and God Bless America…..let’s pray for her and not give up.
~Anne
