Are we more polarized today than ever before?

One thing I get tired of hearing is people saying that we are more polarized today than ever before. We are a history of wars, and what is more polarizing than wars. You have people so polarized that they want to kill each other to get their way. We have fewer wars today than ever before, and, therefore, by default, we are less polarized today, not more.

So, you want to relate it to American history. What about the election of 1812 was between Thomas Jefferson democratic-Republicans and John Adams Federalists. Back then presidential candidates believed it was not presidential to campaign for themselves, yet their surrogates were very polarized in their comments.

They each called their opponents some vial names. Let me give you some examples. Both sides claimed that victory by the other would ruin the nation. I have heard such comments from both sides in nearly every election that I've ever participated in.

Federalists called Jefferson an undisciplined deist whose sympathy for the French revolution would bring similar bloodshed to America. Democratic-Republicans complained that the Federalists wanted the government to be too central and too powerful. They adamantly complained about the attack on individual rights by the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Adam's Federalists wanted a large central government with the government having more control over people's lives, while Jefferson's Democrats wanted a small central government in order so that the people could have control of their own lives.

The true story of Thanksgiving

There was no freedom of religion in the early 1600s. If you did not believe in the same religion that King James I wanted, and you worshiped God in the way you wanted instead of what King James wanted, you were treated as a common criminal. You were hunted down, put in prison, or even killed.

These individuals wanted to be left alone to worship the way they wanted, and in 1608 they moved out of their homeland of England to Holland. But there was much hardship in Holland too, so the Pilgrims decided to leave England for America. But they stopped back in England first to receive funding from the Virginia Company. Then in August of 1620, 102 Pilgrims set out for America in a ship called the Mayflower.

During the ride across the ocean much discussion ensued as to what form of government to create. While still on the Mayflower in 1620, the Mayflower Compact was signed, and one of the signers was William Bradford. The Pact said that all goods and services, and all land, would be owned by the mass community, and the profits would be doled out equally among the masses.

When they landed in November they found a land that was cold, shelter less, and not very welcoming. In fact, in that first harsh winter over half of the Pilgrims died. When Spring finally arrived, the Indians taught them how to build shelters and to plant corn, fish for cod, and skin beavers to be used as coats.

The fact that an Indian tribe, lead by Massosoit, was a blessing from God in itself, because without his blessing the other Indian tribes would have pulverised the Pilgrims. This was also a blessing because a pirate named black took advantage of his friendship and took many of his people.

They did better at this point, but things did not go as well as Bradford, the original governor of the community, had expected. He decided that while the Mayflower Pact sounded like a good idea, since no one owned anything, and there was no incentive to work more than the minimum, there were many crops that went unplanted, and much that wasn't taken care of, and productivity was very poor. People did whatever the minimum was needed of them, and then they quit. What the Pilgrims had created here was an early form of socialism.

By 1623 the harvest was so poor that starvation and death became a problem almost as bad as when the colonists first arrived. They had the know how and the potential for having good crops, but this wasn't happening.

Bradford realized this pact was not working. He wrote: "The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years...that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God." Yet he realized it did not work as expected.

Bradford decided to take an idea from the Bible. He gave every person a plot of land to take care of as their own. If they did well, they were able to keep part of the profits as an incentive to work hard. They were allowed to market and profit from what they sold. In effect, he turned loose the power of the marketplace. He created the worlds first capitalistic government.

The following harvest was abounding. It was not abounding because of help from the Indians, but because a socialistic government was replaced by a capitalistic one. On this, Bradford wrote: "This had very good success, for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been."

The Pilgrims did so well that they set up stands where they exchanged goods and services with the Indians, and they used profits from this to pay back their debt in England. In fact, the colony started to do so well economically that many Pilgrims decided to migrate to the colonies. This was called the Great Puritan Migration.

For helping them come up with a new system that worked to produce the bountiful crops, they decided to have a roast to give thanks to the Lord. There were some Indians at this celebration, but not as many as we and are kids are taught in school.

Now the Pilgrims were also thankful for the Indians for helping them and even protecting them. Yet that was not the main Intent of that celebration. The main intent was to thank God for teaching them an effective government.

The history books tell us that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to the Indians for helping the Pilgrims survive after that first hard winter. Sure the crops were improved that second November, but there was no celebration. There was no celebration until socialism was quashed and a capitalistic government was formed and the economy of the colony prospered. This is what the colonists celebrated on that first Thanksgiving. The date was August 9th.

However, since William Bradford's original notes were lost for many years, the story of  Indians saving colonists and this being the reason for the first Thanksgiving became common. And when Thanksgiving was made a national holiday by Congress in George Washington's first year in office, November 26 was selected as the day. And even while Bradford's journals were discovered, this false date and the false story of the first Thanksgiving were not corrected.

The unfortunate result of this fallacy not being corrected is that the lessons of Bradford were not learned. Carl Marx, Stalin, Lennon, Hitler, Mussolini, all played with various forms of socialism, and none of them worked.  Even today, in both the Europe and the United States, forms of socialism continue to exist. Perhaps if the true story of Thanksgiving were known, the failures of the past would not be repeated over and over again.

Further reading:

• Smithsonian: What as on the menu at the first Thanksgiving?

Are kids taught the whole story of American History?

Are our kids learning the truth about our founding in school? Sometimes I have to wonder. There are certain things that people do or say every day that make me wonder if they even have a clue about how and why this nation became what it is today. They don't seem to understand what makes this nation Exceptional.  

Here, I'll give you an example. On Monday Ted Cruse gave a speech announcing his candidacy for president. He talked about the Constitution and the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. The preamble, if you didn't learn it in school, goes like this: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

So, basically this is an acknowledgement by the founders of our country, declaring independence from Britain, that human rights are bestowed by God via creation, that the natural state of the human being contains God-given rights. It forms the foundation of the founding of this country.

Evidence that this hasn't been taught is when people who do talk about it are mocked and ridiculed. A perfect example comes from a Tweet by Yahoo News journalist Meredith Shiner:

Bizarre to talk about how rights are God-made and not man-made in your speech announcing a POTUS bid? When Constitution was man-made?"

Many people might miss this, especially if they hadn't been taught the true history of our founding. Yet to me this Tweet flat out shows that Shiner, a political reporter, was either not taught about the founding, or slept through that class. But, considering we see comments like this every day, I'm led to think it's simply not taught.

Surely history is taught, but things that don't support the progressive agenda are conveniently left out. Kids are simply not taught the true history of how our nation was founded. How else do you explain why people are so eager to sacrifice their liberties at the expense of moving forward their agenda? How else do you explain ignorant comments by adults who obviously graduated from American schools.

Just think of it this way. You have people like Shiner who are teaching our kids. You have people like this who are teaching adults. If all you do all day is read Yahoo News, then chances are pretty good you aren't going to learn about the true history of America. You're not going to learn it because the reporters teaching it have no clue. 

So when people who talk about the true nature of our founding the way Cruz did, people like Shiner look at them with dumbfounded expressions. Look, Shiner is a graduate of Duke University. She is well educated. But she is not well educated. This is sort of another example of how education does not make people smart, common sense does.

I would love to hear Shiner explain unalienable rights. I would like to see her reaction when I tell her that the idea that people are born with God-given rights is what separates our nation from all others. It's this idea that our Constitution was founded, and why it was written in a way to prevent our government from making any law that would "deny" these rights.

In the preamble only a few of the natural rights were listed. Jefferson didn't want to take up too much space listing them, so he wrote, "among these are..." This is because he knew that the other colonists knew what the other rights were. But, to make sure future generations didn't get confused, they listed all of them in the Bill of Rights.  (It is this truth that makes life so miserable for progressives who wish to advance their agenda, but that's a discussion for another day).

Yes, so our nation was founded on the belief that we are all born with God-given rights. No government can take these rights away, they can only be denied by government. Your right to make decisions you think are smart and some minority person in Washington thinks are stupid can be denied by a law -- but it can never be taken away from you. You can make whatever decision you want, even if it is denied. Of course if it's been denied, and you get caught, you might be punished.

I wonder if Shiner knows this. I wonder what her reaction would be to hearing this truth. She is totally clueless, and it's probably because the American School System failed her. She is probably one of many Americans taught in school that the government is better at solving problems than individuals. She is probably well educated about the theory of man-made global warming. She is probably well educated on political correctness.

She probably thinks, as too many Americans do these days, that her rights come from Washington; that everything she's allowed to do comes from the pen of man. She probably thinks that individuals need to be directed by experts in Washington. She probably thinks superior beings in Washington -- such as Duke or Harvard graduates -- need to act on our behalf to lead us in the right direction, which is whatever direction they think is right.

I wonder what Obama was taught about our history. I wonder what John Kerry was taught about our history. No, actually I don't wonder. I get a pretty good idea by listening to them talk that, even if they were privy to an accurate history, they weren't paying much attention.

The founding fathers risked everything so that Shiner could do what she does. Yet she has no clue. If such men existed today, she might think of them as extremists.

She probably thinks rights are whatever lawmakers say they are. But if that were the case, if this is what the founders thought, then this nation would not exist today. It would not be the same. Because, if that were the case, if rights came from the pen of man, the pen of man could take them away. If they are God-granted, then you always have them.

This reminds me of a story I heard once of a prisoner in a Japanese or German (I can't remember which) war camp during WWII. He was behind bars and had a gun aimed at his head, and he said to the guard, "I am more free than you right now." The enemy guard, laughed and said, "Now what would make you think that?" The U.S. prisoner said, "Because no matter what you do to me, I can still love my country."

Shiner probably wouldn't understand.

Just to make sure I am not off my rocker on this topic, I posted the following on Facebook knowing that some one would argue with me to prove my point. 

Too many kids get through the American educational system without being taught that this nation was formed based on the idea that human rights are bestowed by God via creation, and that the natural state of human beings contains God-given rights. My point is, the truth about our founding is not taught in many of those history books. So kids grow up not appreciating what American Exceptionalism really is

I received two quick responses, which included my nephew:

It's not the kids fault that we teach our kids the minimum requirements for a factory job and that we don't pay teachers enough to care as well as treat every student the same even tho every student is most definitely not the same, And standardized testing is just a joke.

And the whole "Merica" and "God" thing is just stupid.

And a cousin:

I'm confused. What do we need to teach kids about the founding fathers that we don't? 

This last one came with a link to Wikepedia: Separation of Church and State.

Yes, I do believe these comments help to prove my point: our government run school system is not doing a good job of teaching the truth about the founding of this country.  Our nation suffers as a result.

And you're welcome to disagree with me, although the consequence of doing so might prove me right

Further reading:

1. Newsbusters: Yahoo Political Reporter: Cruz Talking About God-Given Rights Is 'Bizarre'
2. RushLimbaugh.com: The Americans Who Risked Everything 
3. The decline of American History in Public Schools
4. What is American Exceptionalism
5. Transcript: Ted Cruse Speech at Liberty University
6. How do you define smart?