In 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln still saw fit to issue a Thanksgiving proclamation to the nation.  This is some of what he said, after listing the many blessings the nation had enjoyed despite the...

Over the last few days, we’ve considered the ways and circumstances in which we should give thanks.  But there’s another way that we should be thinking about Thanksgiving, and that is by asking the question: Does anybody ever thank me? Teddy Roosevelt,...

The apostle Paul instructs us to “give thanks in all circumstances.”  Can he be serious?  All circumstances?  Really? Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was arrested and thrown into a Soviet, Gulag prison.  Even though at the time he was a committed atheist, a loyal Marxist,...

In a game of cards, when someone cannot hide the fact that they have a good hand—by a smile, or the way they hold their cards, or where they fix their eyes—it is called a “tell.”  They’ve basically told everyone at the...

This is our last week before Thanksgiving Break, and so it is a good time for us to reflect on what it means to give thanks, to have gratitude. Cicero said that “[g]ratitude is not only a virtue but the...

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal….”  Do you really think that’s true, let alone self-evident? It certainly wasn’t obvious to mankind for most of human history.  Men are born with all manner of...

Yesterday we noted that the consent of the governed—the principle of democratic government—can be based on two very different foundations.  Which one we believe, matters. The Declaration’s famous claim that our Creator has endowed us with a right to “the...

The Declaration of Independence says that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.  Have you ever wondered why the people of a nation should have a say in their government?  After all, for most of history, they didn’t. ...

Yesterday was Veterans Day, a day honoring those who have fought to defend our freedom.  And over the last few weeks, some of the upper school scholars have recited portions of the Declaration of Independence—what might be called the founding...

Ronald Reagan said that “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”   Reagan’s...