Voting Day

I've just voted . . .

The wait was about 45 minutes, so that wasn't bad at all.  Now it's a waiting game to see what happens.

I love this country.  I feel proud and lucky that my ancestors fought in the American Revolution.  And I feel blessed that I have the right to vote.  Will what I vote for win?  I don't know, anything can happen, but regardless of what happens at least I put my voice out there instead of staying at home in silence.  Voting is a blessing and a right.  A gift given to us by our forebears.  No matter the outcome, I feel lucky and honored to have this freedom. 

Here are some of my favorite quotes.
I'm such a history geek; I love our American founding fathers.

“When the people fear the government there is tyranny, 

when the government fears the people there is liberty.”  ~ Thomas Jefferson

“Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”  ~ Patrick Henry

 “I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.” ~ Ronald Reagan

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”~ John Adams

“Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.” ~ John Adams

And my favorite.

“But what is liberty without wisdom and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint. Those who know what virtuous liberty is, cannot bear to see it disgraced by incapable heads, on account of their having high-sounding words in their mouths.” ~ Edmund Burke, the Father of Conservatism

God Bless America.

Sarah

David McCullough at Utah Valley University

This week marked the opening of Utah Valley Universities Center for Constitutional Studies.  To celebrate the event UVU kicked off Constitution week with the guest speaker David McCullough. 

David McCullough is best known for his work on 1776 and John Adams, and he's a two time Pulitzer Prize winner, two time winner of the National Book Award, and has a Presidential Medal of Freedom.   

His talk was amazing.  He said we're raising a generation of spectators, which is true!  We spend our days on Facebook and watching television, watching others live while we sit back, listening to the sound of time whoosh by.  We need to get out and live!  Experience!  Learn!

And we need to remember how Human history is.  These are real people, living, making history in their present with no clue how things were going to work out.  When the Founders of the United States of America signed the Declaration of Independence, each one of them knew they were committing treason with England; As far as they knew, they were going to their death with this action.      

One thing I love about our founders is that each of them were lovers of knowledge and learning, many of them collecting books (it was Benjamin Franklin who invented the Library).  And they knew their history!  Classical history (much to our benefit).

And one final thought that McCullough said that I loved: "I don't know what I think until I write."   

I first developed my love of the Constitution through my Grandpa A.  He received his Juris Doctorate in Constitutional Studies.  He loved this country, deeply, and it's a love he's passed on to my family. 

Sarah