Posted on 07/04/2006 4:16:05 AM PDT by nathanbedford
DAD, WHAT'S UNABHÄNGIGKEITSTAG?
"Is that when the thirteen colonies broke away from England?" My ten year old inquired out of nowhere at 6 AM German time this morning. "Yeah, why do you want to know, eat your breakfast," I mumbled, too sleepy to be very curious. "Because I am afraid my teacher will ask me, since I am wearing this T-shirt and I'm the only American in the class." With an effort, I adjusted my gaze upward to his white T-shirt. It was brand new. Prominent on his breast was an image of the flag and below that:
OLD NAVY
FREEDOM 2005 TRADITION
Waking up now, I reflected that if the Old Navy company could so shamelessly trade on the image of the flag, it ought in decency at least amend the line below to:
FREEDOM 2005 COMMERCE
But then I thought, what could be more traditional in America than commercializing the flag?
"Waddayamean, you're the only American in class, what's that got to do with the Fourth of July?" My paternal antannae were also coming to life. I remembered that the kids had sometimes returned from Gymnasium, German high school, and recited seemingly off-hand remarks from professors disparaging America and especially George Bush. Some of the hearsay reports had been pretty rough, describing America as killing Iraqis or causing global warming and the like.
"I think he will call on me to explain the Declaration of Indepencence to the whole class," masking his apprehension. "So, what will you tell them?"
"That is how we got free of England," he replied, in German. "That's right, as far as it goes. Never mind breakfast, lets get to the computer, it time to search FreeRepublic." A few minutes later we had a copy of the declaration printed out, with the font changed to italics for psuedo verisimiltude to the venerable document.
"There is actually a couple of ideas in here that are more important than announcing our break with England," I said, highlighting with a yellow marker this passage:
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights
And this passage too:
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
"This means that who you are, what rights you have, come directly from God and not from the government. In fact, the government is there to serve you, as a child of God, not the other way around, and when the government takes away your rights, the government is not legitimate, and you can change it."
"What's legitimate?" Ah, " berechtigt," I answered. I must have gotten it right for he seemed satisfied with the translation and his Deutsch is better than mine. Handing him the printout, I said, "take this with you, read it on the bus, and when you get to class you tell them these ideas are America's gift to the world. A lot of people in Europe think your rights come from the government, not the other way around. No one had ever done this 'for real' before. Look what it says here just before where they signed it, it means they knew they were risking their lives:"
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor
"OK, dad, see ya."
An hour later, his mother asked me, "Did you give him a printout of the Declaration of Independence?" "Yup," I proudly responded.
She laughed, "He said, 'Dad really expects me to read this on the schoolbus'"
Very good.
Well - at least he's heard of it - comes time he will read it - or at least understand that some people in the past made big efforts of granting him these rights and he is not entiteled to be sloppy with them.
I think it must be hard for him sometimes to be confronted with prejudices.
Tell him it's an important thing for germany that he is (or was ?) here - and that a german guy said so. Because we should spare some time and listen to each other - especially if the so called grown ups differ.
I worked for two years in Germany at one of their research institutes as part of an engineering exchange program. Some of my older German colleagues told me they were required to learn the Gettysburg Address in the original English as part of their education. They would have attended school in the 50s and 60s. I don't think it's still part of the standard educational curriculum in Germany.
Especially in northern Germany where Catholic conservatism has little or no play. Bavaria still teaches by having resort to some methods of memorization. My kids, for example, had to write out what the teacher read by way of dictation called, diktat.
Although I am largely unfamiliar with teaching methods in the northern Länder, I am informed that left wing teaching doctrines are wholly in control. Thus, we see the Waldorf School in kindergarten all the way up through the university level utterly corrupted with the doctrines which have leached out of The Frankfurt School.
As you may know THE FRANKFURT SCHOOL was consciously founded upon the desire to install communism in Germany after the 1918 Revolution. Hitler drove it out in 1933 and its apostles found fertile ground to grow weeds in America. The antiwar movement of the 1960s, feminism, the gay rights movement, the antiwar movement, and nihilism in general, are the tools fashioned by the disciples of the Frankfurt school to open Western civilization to communism.
After the war the Communists returned to Europe where they have assumed power in most of the important institutions on the continent, including Germany. The Declaration of Independence notwithstanding, I fear we are only one election away from becoming just as blue as the Europeans.
Very instructive.
you leave us hanging like this... how did it turn out in class??? 8^)
Hmmm.... Have you been to the United States lately? BTW, I graduated Catholic School eigth grade in 1964 and only learned the Gettysburg Address on my own initiative. (I purchased a phony folded "antiqued" reproduction at a school book fair and memorized it.)
The professor, ever vigilant, observed, "I see you have Che Guevara T-shirt, do you know who he was?" "Yes," replied the 10-year-old, "he was a freedom fighter (Freiheitkempfer) and helped the poor." "Richtig," said his professor.
tell him this time... Er ist Kein Kindergarten Krieg, Er ist Vernichtungskrieg!!!
Thanks, I missed it last year!
It appears that today's Germany, like most of europe, is a combination of capitalism and socialism, with little admitted memory of the period of history from the 30's and 40's. All societies make mistakes. The USA had slavery for 78 years of our history. We admitted it and fixed it. God Blesses America everyday.
Yes, I am fully aware of the Ward Churchills in our country!
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
Yes, I saying it rather loudly and with much pride.
The Japanese, on the other hand, continue on every level to deny their atrocities.
I believe the problem in Germany is not a problem of collective amnesia which seems to afflict the Japanese but rather it is a case of having drawn the wrong lessons from the Holocaust. For example, the Germans seem to have concluded from their experience that the jingoism of the Nazi party ran out of control and therefore, not only is nationalism to be feared, but it is to be stifled. So today in Germany it is simply not politically correct to flagrantly maintain a posture of patriotism except perhaps in support of the soccer team. This leaves a gaping hole in the German psyche and leaves the nation defenseless to the sirens of oneworldism, communism, regionalism (read pan-Europeanism), global warming gremlins, and the United Nations.
In my view, it would've been better for the Germans to have concluded that their problem was nationalism gone wrong but not nationalism itself. The world seems to have no problem in applying this standard to the failures of communism. Every failure which leads to the deaths of millions and tens of millions who get caught up in one communist experiment or another has always been excused with the idea that if only the right communists were in charge we would have gained utopia.
Politician's son: DAD, WHAT'S UNABHÄNGIGKEITSTAG?
Politician: I'm glad you asked me that question!
Let me ask a gentle question to all - what do you believe in enough to sign a pledge of your life, your fortune, and your sacred honor? Not theoretically, not theatrically, and not some stupid student petition that no one ever reads, but a document that will get you impoverished, thrown in jail, or executed by people who had both means and intention of doing so?
It's a sobering question - well, it sobers me, at least - because so many of the signers sacrificed one or all of those. If we don't have the courage to do the same then we are at least obligated in decency to be worthy of the ones who did.
It is a seminal question to every American
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