If you were
evacuated to another planet and could only take one book, upon which to
base the teaching of your family and establishing right and wrong for
your community, what would it be?
Your answer is a good indication of
what your national book might be.
Are your companion books through life
in line with your national book? What about your definitions of good and
evil? Look at your life; is it in keeping with your canon?
These questions can
be powerful as you analyze where to take the education of your children,
your students, yourself.
Perhaps the most important thing we can do to
remain free and prosperous is to clarify a national book and live by it.
From the Founding
through the end of World War II, the Bible and the Declaration were the
U.S.'s national books.
Even the great revolutions which occurred after
1945, such as increased freedom for minorities, were fueled by these two
national books.
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches center around them
and quote them extensively.
America was based on
them and became what it did because of them.
Take them away, and
America will become something very, very different.
The place to start
is with yourself.
Establish a clear canon and spend time in it every
day.
Become an expert on it, ponder it, put your life in line with it.
Teach it to your family and then others. If you are a teacher, take it
into your classroom.
If your faith
doesn't include the Bible, use the Declaration or something of equal
magnitude.
Then broaden your knowledge to the other classics which
support that central classic.
Each nation is what it is due to its
national books, and the choices you make now regarding books will have
tremendous impact on what America will be twenty, forty and even sixty
years from now.
