SHARE:
It is an unquestionable truth,
that the body of people in every country
desire sincerely its prosperity.
—Alexander Hamilton
Big Problems
America does have problems. As the most exceptional and free nation of all time, we are headed on a path to destruction. As the pinnacle of liberty, we have been a witness to the world. Yet we are on a rapid decline. Citizens have experienced more loss of individual liberty in the past fifty years, through government intrusion and neglect, than at any other time in American history. It’s time to turn it around.
The following issues show a need for a simple solution to our current problems:
Dissatisfaction with the Role of Government
American citizens are dissatisfied with the role of the federal government. There’s an overarching arm of intrusion into individuals’ lives. The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen. As government increases, individual liberties decrease. The size and mass of the current federal government is unconstitutional. It operates as a large, slumbering giant. Simply stated, it is illegal.
Corruption
Chapman University recently released its latest survey of American concerns. A primary concern is government corruption, which includes corrupt government officials, government tracking of personal information, terrorist attacks, identity theft, potential economic collapse, and insurmountable debt. A Gallup poll in 2014 identified that 75 percent of Americans believe their government is corrupt.
Growth of Taxes
Taxes have increased dramatically. Americans pay federal income tax, state and local income taxes, sales tax, Social Security and Medicare tax, federal and state corporate income tax, property tax, fuel and gasoline tax, taxes for licenses and permits, estate taxes, import taxes, individual health-insurance mandate taxes, inheritance taxes, and the list goes on.
Declining Educational Skills
In recent years, a number of international surveys have raised alarms as the United States falls behind other countries academically. The findings represent a serious threat to the country’s future prosperity. In literacy, numeracy, and problem-solving skills, studies show that younger Americans are at or near the bottom of the standings among advanced countries.
Apathy
Only 50 percent of registered voters go to the polls. No more than about 5 percent participate in precinct-level politics, where the selection or nomination of candidates actually takes place. Why is this? Apathy. We are seeing a lack of interest, enthusiasm, and hope.
Breakdown of the Family
Fewer than half, approximately 46 percent, of children younger than eighteen years of age in the United States live in a home with two married parents in their first marriage. This is a significant change from 1960, when 73 percent of children fit this description.
Terrorism
While terrorism is a global issue, the United States has seen a sharp increase in attacks within its borders. START, the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, which is supported by Homeland Security, reports a total of 510 attacks within the United States from 1995 to 2014. In these attacks, 3,158 Americans were killed; there were 3,503 terrorist-related deaths of Americans worldwide during that period. The years 2015 and 2016 saw an additional 119 terror-related deaths on American soil. This does not include combat-related deaths.
Increase in Crime
Since 1963, there’s been a sharp rise in crime. We are removing the Ten Commandments from classroom walls, courthouses, and public life in general but then wonder why our jails are filled with people who steal and murder. We teach that humans are merely animals and then regret the societal result of humans acting like animals.
An Increase in Abortion
In 2012, 699,202 legally induced abortions were reported to the CDC from forty-nine reporting areas. The abortion rate for 2012 was 13.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged fifteen to forty-four years.
Simple Solution
The solution is to educate individuals with unrevised, accurate history on the principles of liberty. It is here and now. Educating the individual and applying principles of liberty is the first step in restoring American liberty. This is the goal of Pathway to Liberty: teaching, equipping, transforming, and restoring the American dream.
The greatest thing we can do is to relentlessly
to seek the truth and
to selflessly transmit it to youth.
—Pope John Paul II
American exceptionalism, invention, and ingenuity will preserve and advance liberty. Like a small rudder on a ship, things will begin to correct themselves. Not overnight, but in time, corrections will be made.
I will not believe our labors are lost.
I shall not die without a hope that light and liberty
are on a steady advance.
—Thomas Jefferson
We must take personal responsibility and change our thinking. It starts with me, and it starts with you.
By reforming our thinking and applying the principles of liberty to our individual lives, families, and communities, the nation will naturally be reformed. We begin individually and act locally.
America’s founders were very much aware of the relationship between education and liberty. They knew that the people could not be ignorant and free. It is imperative that we teach the next generation the principles of liberty that the United States is founded on.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,
in a state of civilization,
it expects what never was and never will be.
—Thomas Jefferson
A nation of well-informed men
who have been taught to know and price the rights
which God has given them
cannot be enslaved.
It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.
—Benjamin Franklin
Education is simply the soul of a society
as it passes from one generation to another.
Whatever the soul is like, it will have to be passed on somehow, consciously or unconsciously…
It is…the transfer of a way of life.
—G. Kay Chesterton
The vision of Pathway to Liberty is to preserve and advance liberty in the hearts of individuals and nations. We teach the intentions of the Founding Fathers using unrevised history. Principles are placed at the center of reasoning, providing a rich alternative to our current educational system.
The goals of Pathway to Liberty are strategy and mastery.
Our strategy is to educate and equip individuals in principles of liberty in order to preserve our individual as well as our civil liberties. We educate students to think, reason, and relate foundational principles to all of life. Students have a unity of ideas and a chronological timeline of people and events that bring a cohesiveness to their understanding. Preparing students for responsible servant leadership and citizenship is central.
We strive for mastery of key concepts. We emphasize American history within a world history chronology, as well as the vocabulary and key documents of liberty. Students become proficient in American principles, building a solid foundation to build on.
The establishments of our institutions forms
the most important epoch that history hath recorded…
To preserve and hand them down in their utmost purity
to the remotest of ages will require
the existence and practice of the virtues and talents
equal to those which were displayed in acquiring them.
—James Monroe
Pathway to Liberty is one of many organizations dedicated to teaching and equipping individuals in principles of liberty. Please reference www.pathwaytoliberty.com for continued education, resources and like-minded organizations.