No horse fix tonight. I went with a distant cousin to a meeting of a local DAR chapter. DAR? Daughters of the American Revolution.
The DAR, founded in 1890 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a non-profit, non-political volunteer women’s service organization dedicated to promoting patriotism, preserving American history, and securing America’s future through better education for children.
My “cousin” and I share the same Revolutionary soldier, a private named Thomas Martin. My second “patriot” was Col. George Waller. I learned tonight that Col. Waller is my “supplement” because I qualified for the DAR with my Martin ancestor. I’ve been a member for years, but I never go to meetings because I belong to my hometown chapter in Tennessee.
The DAR’s goal are important, because if we don’t educate our children and their children about our country, who will? I fear the lack of history education in schools. Do they even teach civics? I remember every morning in elementary school reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. We also memorized the Preamble of the United States Constitution.
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Have you seen the movie Lincoln? It moved me to tears at the end. Not because of Lincoln’s death, but because he was a great man who used politics to do a great thing—Article XIII, an amendment to the Constitution: Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Go see the movie Lincoln if you haven’t. And teach your children about the greatness of your homeland.