The first entry in National Review’s “The Week” from sometime around 1990 listed ten or so former Soviet bloc countries that recently had shed the yoke of communist repression. And it made a simple statement:
“It must be nice to live in a country where you get freer every day.”
The idea behind the 13th Amendment Freedom Week is simple and profound:** let’s celebrate the event that delivered America’s promise to everyone by celebrating ratification of the 13th Amendment**. In the process, we can begin to move many African-Americans away from victimization and toward a fuller appreciation of the blessings of liberty.
In the Introduction to The 13th Amendment Freedom Week Manual, Mr. Haqq writes:
This endeavor is also being undertaken to help black people in America see and understand their history in a clearer and more positive perspective. It represents a different perspective than just simply the negative, horrific, and traumatizing experiences that are presented to the world, which seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Presenting black history in this light, without the appropriate balance of the good that that many (black and white) individuals contributes to black people’s freedom and advancement by sacrifice and death is to risk developing and perpetuating a defeatist “victimization complex,” full of anger, hatred, and revenge.
Mr. Haqq’s initiative would make the first week of December, 13th Amendment Freedom Week. Each year,
Here’s how Freedom Week goes:
Day One: Abolitionists Day. Celebrates the heroes, black and white, who worked to end the sin of slavery in America
Day Two: Forms of Government: Takes time to remind ourselves that a democratic-republic is the worst form of government . . . except for all the others.
Day Three: Economics Systems: Reflects on the immense freedom offered by our traditional free market system and reminds of the horrors that await us should we continue down the path to economic slavery of communism, fascism, or socialism.
Day Four: U.S. Constitution and other Documents. Educates about the power of a document that limits the power of government to those permitted by a free people.
Day Five: Genealogy and Awards: Activities to discover our personal place in history and how liberty has blessed us and our family.
Day Six: Celebrations: Celebrates freedom and liberty. You’ve heard of Christmas in July? This is like 4th of July in December. (Who doesn’t love fireworks?)
Day Seven: Guiding Principles for Reflection and Contemplation: Thanks to God for giving us our freedom, and prayers that we can keep it.
Quite honestly, this is about the best idea I’ve heard of in a long time. I’d love to help promote Freedom Week, beginning in December 2012.
I think Mr. Haqq is right. The civil rights industry and the public education system have prepared blacks to be helpless victims, intellectually denying them the freedoms fought and earned for all Americans through the centuries.
Meanwhile, too many whites avoid race altogether. We expect blacks (and others) adopt our appreciation for America’s freedom history without bothering to put that history into a context and perspective that transcends decades of leftist propaganda and brainwashing.
Mr. Haqq understands this.
[T]hey [whites] did not want to offend one another by telling the truth, or to do anything for the benefit of black people understanding their own positive role in history.
From our founding to the 13th Amendment we were getting freer every day. Since then, we’ve lost more and more power to a despotic government in Washington. This gradual enslavement damages blacks and whites alike. Could Freedom Week unite Americans to re-assert our God-given liberty? Don’t those who understand the joy of liberty have a morally duty to share the wonders that liberty? If so, aren’t we further obliged to be relentless in our search for words and activities that allow our message to be received?
What do you think? Should St. Louis Tea Party Coalition make The 13th Amendment Freedom Week a major push following the election?
I really want to hear your thoughts on 13th Amendment Freedom Week in the comments below.