As We Celebrate Freedom, Let’s Keep the American Spirit Alive
Commentary
In his eloquent and prophetic January 1989 farewell address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan gave us a somber warning, saying, “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in the erosion of the American spirit.”
In many ways, Reagan’s words echo the words of another former president, James Madison, the author of the U.S. Constitution, who said, “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge … is the only guardian of true liberty,” and “It is universally admitted that a well instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.”…