"The American Crisis," was a series of sixteen pamphlets written by Thomas Paine between 1776 and 1783. Paine was an intellectual supporter of the American Revolution. Among his writings, he concluded: “Our citizenship in the United States is our national character…. Our great title is AMERICANS.”
Paine penned one of the most famous quotes in history and literature.
“These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be rated highly” ("The Crisis," The Pennsylvania Journal, December 23, 1776).
Has any graduate of an American University or an American High School in the last 30 years read this quote?
Very few!
Has any high school teacher or university professor read any of Thomas Paine's works?
Very few!
The facts speak loud and clear. American students, at all levels, are not being educated about America, American history, and American exceptionalism. Their instructors are unread and unschooled about American history, in addition to having an anti-American bias.
Listen to many university professors speak about America. You will suffer their anti-American rhetoric.
Today, the United States faces imperatives — national, political, and cultural — that must be addressed, if the nation is to survive as a nation-state. Culture, ethos, heritage, and language are equal parts of the foundation of any nation, with citizenship, the cornerstone.
President Theodore Roosevelt set forth his views on being an American in 1907 saying, “In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American.... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.... We have room but for one language here, and it is the English language.... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is loyalty to the American people.”
This theme of one flag, one language, and one unity was what Teddy Roosevelt preached for years.
American colonists, of all nationalities, lived an assimilated English language existence. In 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the colonies formed an independent Republic, the United States of America. It was written in English.
In 1787, the United States adopted the Constitution which embodies, “one ethos, one flag, one language, and one form of government with a valued citizenship.” It was written in English.
Do these principles survive in America today?
The current immigration chaos is the product of decades of Congressional Democrats pandering to radical anti-American interests at the expense of national values.
The nation needs realistic immigration legislation that addresses 21st century problems, rather than the 2013 proposed “comprehensive” immigration bill of non-sequitur phrases. The nation needs a bill that deals solely with the paramount immigration problem of the day — border control. Only when the borders are secured can Congress identify pathways to legalization.
There appears to be no hope of any meaningful legislation until after the 2020 national election — as Socialist-Democrats oppose any constructive legislation.
"Resist" is the Socialist Democrats only legislative agenda.
Today, July 2019, America has no defined headcount of persons illegally in our country. A question on the Census as to Citizenship fell to Socialist-Democratic resistance, a victory for anti-Americanism.
Meanwhile, elected officials such as Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rashida Tlaib, (D-MI) voice views different than those most Americans accept. Their views are certainly different from the values Thomas Paine and President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed.
Now, an American crisis continues, and the words of Pope John Paul II in 1991 ring true today: “As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open and/or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”
James H. Walsh was associate general counsel with the U.S. Department of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1983 to 1994. Read more reports from James Walsh — Click Here Now.