In 1630 the Puritans arrived in Massachusetts Bay, there to establish a chartered colony in British North America. The future governor John Winthrop clearly stated their purpose and mission.
“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.“
It is derived from Jesus sermon on the Mount in which He said “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill, cannot be hid.” Matthew 5:14 GNV. Since John Winthrop spoke those words many U.S. Presidents have repeated them.
President Ronald Reagan in 1989 gave his farewell address and said, ““In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”
He further warned and charged Americans that
“a better job of getting across that America is freedom-freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection. . .we’ve got to teach history based not on what’s in fashion but what’s important – why the Pilgrims came here...”
President Reagan ended his address with “goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America”
“lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let ’em know and nail ’em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.”
The legacy passed down through a people’s history and heritage is what will guide and strengthen them through trials and tribulation. It enables future generations to reach back and hold fast to the moral, cultural and historical anchors set in their past by those who went before us and empower that generation to endure and overcome.
If your history held no power, then why the great force of effort to erase it?