The Greatest Threat to America

 By Bob Ellis on June 9th, 2010

Dennis Prager is one of the relatively few people these days who understands completely what America is about, and about the responsibilities that come with being worthy of being called “an American.”

At this event at the University of Denver, Prager powerfully addresses the issue of Americanism. At the beginning of the video, he is asked to identify the single greatest threat to our country. While some people would be tempted to say “Obama,” Prager makes it clear that President Obama is not the greatest threat to our country.

I believe the greatest threat facing America–and I’ve believed this my entire adult life–is that we have not passed on what it means to be American to this generation.

He is so dead-on right! I talk every day with people who have not the slightest clue what it means to really be an American. They know how good it is to enjoy the freedom here, they know how good it is to enjoy the material prosperity we enjoy here…but they are utterly clueless as to how this great freedom and prosperity came to be, how to maintain it, or of our responsibilities as Americans to those things.

A society does not survive if it does not have a reason to survive. That’s true for individuals…where there is a why, there is a how. I hate to tell you who said it, Nietzsche, but nevertheless it remains true. We have lost the “why.” The greatest generation did not teach my generation what Americanism is. It’s not its fault; it wasn’t taught. This goes back 100 years to John Dewey, to the importation of European professors to our universities, to a whole host of issues.

The average American who deeply loves this country and even has conservative values cannot articulate what those values are. It’s no one’s fault but that is the greatest threat. When we understand this “American Trinity“–in God we trust, liberty, E Pluribus Unum–that is uniquely American, that is not European…When it is understood what America stands for, when it is understood that there is a moral dimension to a smaller government. It is not an economic question, it is a moral question. We give far more charity per capita than Europeans do. Why? Are we born better? No. The bigger the government, the worse the citizen. They are preoccupied in Europe with how much time off, where will they vacation, when will they retire. These are selfish questions; these are not altruistic questions.
So the goodness that America created is jeopardized by our not knowing what we stand for. That’s our greatest threat.

Prager has many more profound words in this video, so be sure to watch the whole thing; you owe it to yourself to watch the whole thing.  We owe it to our country, we owe it to posterity, we owe it to ourselves to learn what America is about, and then pass that on to our children and to everyone with whom we come in contact.

America is the greatest secular gift God ever gave to mankind (and even that is not truly secular). God help us not to squander that gift.

The link to this story is here: http://www.dakotavoice.com/2010/06/the-greatest-threat-to-america/