HB 31 would counter rampant constitutional illiteracy

Rep. Wes Keller introduced House Bill 31 — The American Constitutionalism History Literacy Act — to the 28th meeting of the Alaska Legislature. I urge virtually every Alaskan to weigh in on this legislation under their dominate authority identified by Alaska Constitution Article I, Section 1 and 2. Here’s why.

The destructive results in American society from merely embedding in social studies curriculums elements of the conceptual history of our national constitution and its discipline of governing government show up nearly everywhere. Public ignorance of individual citizen power and responsibilities under our constitution is the single greatest condition that enables corruption in, and eventual overthrow of, our form of government.

To substantiate this, consider this Thomas Paine quote from the Conclusion to his “Rights of Man:” “Reason and ignorance, the opposite of each other, influence the great bulk of mankind. If either of these can be rendered sufficiently extensive in a country, the machinery of government goes easily on. Reason obeys itself; and Ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.” Thus the rationale behind the coined word “sheeple” (people acting like sheep) has been known since our nation’s founding.

To address the dangers of ignorance we Americans invest in education. One of the greatest returns educational investment delivers has always been the individual and cooperative abilities to resolve problems that hinder quality of life — individually and socially. Consequently, it is self-evident that the existence of chronically unresolved problems in our state and nation demonstrate degrees of educational fraud.

There are now chronically unresolved problems visible to everyone in Alaska and our country. Such problems currently include national bankruptcy; runaway national unemployment; national economic addiction to defense spending that makes military adventurism a necessity; a pathetic loss of ability to harness science to stimulate economic diversity; vulnerability to super-corporation bullying and blackmail because they are too big to truly enforce law on or to do without (like the oil companies in Alaska); mediocre skill development of America’s people — making corporate, business and individual welfare a necessity, etc. HB 31 addresses these attacks on our quality of life by targeting the constitutional illiteracy and the lack of discipline at using our political heritage that stimulate or propagate them.

It is easily proven that constitutional illiteracy and lack of discipline at fully using our political heritage are rampant in this country. Let me illustrate just one prominent example. Both President Bush and President Obama in speeches and conduct have asserted that the primary function (or duty) of government is to protect the American people. This sounds feel-good and compassionate doesn’t it? But protection by definition and by the realities of application inherently entails the restriction or elimination of liberty by an elite — the complete opposite of the theme of self-government embodied in Lincoln ’s phrase “government of the people, by the People, and for the People.”

Furthermore, asserting that population protection is the primary function of government completely contradicts U.S. founding documents. Example: “Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society,” from The Federalist Papers No. 51. Justice is not the savagery of retaliation, revenge, and unregulated punishment. It is the instrument developed by civilization to address righting abuses of liberty through due process and the pursuit of truth. Pursuit of happiness — an inalienable human right per the U.S. Declaration of Independence — is naturally empowered by liberty and justice operating in tandem according to U.S. founding principles. Even the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance embodies this founding idea with the phrase “with liberty and justice for all!”

So ask yourselves these questions:

• What future does this country have when even presidents show their virtual non-comprehension of essential U.S. constitutionalism and of even the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance’s meaning — and nobody calls them on it?

• What future does this country have when educators commit virtual educational treason by treating the study of the discipline of American constitutionalism as a static subject — just to enable embedding superficial coverage of it in the social studies curriculum of public schools?

• What future does this country have when the treasure of problem-solving riches, inherent in U.S. constitutionalism and our political heritage, is being treated by our state and nation —using Christ’s analogy — like pearls cast before swine?

Citizen! Can’t you hear eternity crying out to you? Please respond.

Stuart Thompson lives in Wasilla.