Thank you🌟
Some people misinterpret the protest. They see it as a protest against Trump's political philosophy (I know he doesn't have one, but the people behind him do). It's that he does not observe the rule of law, basic Constitutional norms as he tries to execute his policy.
The problem may be that civics as a course is not taught in school anymore. The history of our country, the painful steps toward forming a representative government--this is not studied anymore.
Somewhere between my generation (post WWII) and the current generation the narrative of throwing off a monarch and fighting for freedom was lost.
People are willingly handing over their autonomy to one man (well, maybe two).
Sorry for the long response, but your blog, and those pictures inspired me.
While I am a Trump supporter, I strongly agree with you that American history should be taught more than it is. Too many people don't understand that freedom was only won after a long hard battle, and that it can easily be taken away. A lot of people don't even understand what a representative form of government even is. While I mostly support what Musk is doing, I also agree that Elon Musk could become a problem since he was not actually elected. Big corporate money in politics is usually not a good idea.
Nothing wrong with being a Trump supporter. We can't all agree and I never think I have a monopoly on truth. However, I thank you for seeing the value of representative government and for appreciating the struggle of our founders to get it. What many don't realize (and you do I think) is that this government was an experiment. It was new and inspired the establishment of other representative governments across the world.
I am fiercely patriotic, not to a leader or a party, but to the idea of our government, which is defined by the Constitution.
I know one thing, when I was a kid I always found American history class and to an even greater degree, American government, to be extremely boring. I think that is part of the reason it isn't taught anymore, but the solution is to make it more interesting than to stop teaching it. One way to make it more interesting for schoolchildren I think would be to have them imagine a life without freedom, where everything they do is tightly regulated by the government. If that is true that our government was an experiment, it would make sense to help the children to understand just how groundbreaking it was. We have made significant progress making certain events in the history of science more interesting, at least for those interested in science, by dramatizing and romanticizing Galileo and making it explicit just how novel and groundbreaking his ideas were at the time. The same is also done for Roman history, where Julius Caesar is portrayed as a military strategic genius. Perhaps the same should be done for American history.
I will confess: I taught history (global, American, government). There was so much noise in my classroom that we got complaints. Not rowdy students--a rowdy teacher. I rearranged the desks to drive the point home about the three branches. I wore costumes. Believe me, nobody was bored or fell asleep in my class.
I think the key is to love what you teach. I didn't teach for long, because it takes a lot of energy to bring that level of commitment.
As I said, I love the idea of my country.
I like that
If you have time, check out my post in the StemSocial community about how blockchain can transform science and tell me what you think of it in a comment. Your science related posts are actually my favorite and I hope you write about something scientific again soon.
I read it last night as I was going to sleep (I read on my iPad). See you over there.
Yeah, I think part of what makes it so galling is that with what is effectively control of all three branches of government, they could have went by the book and gotten away with much of it but they couldn't be bother to do even that.
Civics as in "this is how government works" or civics as in "we're all inhabiting the same piece of land, how do we do that without killing one another"? The former was still taught when I was in school (millennial here) but it's hard to tell that it did much good. I think something akin to the latter was taught in the early days of this country, or at least there was a much better understanding of that at the time that is noticeably absent these days.
Ever listen to Utah Phillips? There's a quote by him, "Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free...”
People never cease to amaze me...
Don't be sorry, glad you got something out of it :)
They are making a point. They don't have to obey. They are asserting that Trump has the power all by himself.
I like that very much 🌟
If civics aren't being taught, isn't that an another argument that the Dep't of Education has failed several generations of students? I hope DOGE actually pares down the number and size of agencies wildly exceeding the delegated authority of the Constitution. And that also gives us more autonomy. I don't have high hopes that will be the outcome, unfortunately.