The Letters of John and Abigail Adams and What it Means to Us

Reading “My Dearest Friend” has given me a particular insight into the lives of one of our Founding Fathers that one rarely comes across. John Adams served in Philadelphia and Europe at a time when letters could take weeks and months to reach their destination. They were separated on several occasions throughout John’s tenure for, in some cases, years at a time. In 1774, John’s daughter Abigail was 9 and his sons John, Charlie and Tommy were 7, 4 and 2. When he finally came home for good, They were adults who were either married with children or beginning their careers. The man missed an entire lifetime with his children and lamented about that continuously. However, he did what he did for the good of all of us - yep, I said “us”. He wrote about the generations that would come later, about his great grandchildren who would grow up in a country free from government oppression. He sacrificed because he understood that if he didn’t, then his children would have to – and that sacrifice may very well have been bigger. I think that we have forgotten that concept about making things better for our children. Sure, we go to war to fight for posterity, or to “maintain our freedom” but the fact of the matter is that our “freedom” comes from within us. It comes from the ordinary citizen making an effort to be informed and not preoccupied with their own financial bubble. Then it mandates action when something is amiss rather than the complacency that someone else will take care of it. Civic engagement is something that I believe we are all lacking in some respect, and have been for a while.

Staying engaged takes time, effort and perseverance – it isn’t easy and it isn’t something that one can do poolside for ½ hour on a Sunday afternoon – but it is so vitally important to this nation. What is happening now , with a president continuously overstepping his constitutional bounds and congress allowing him to do so, with a mass of people that are allowing their president to take them headlong into war on a continuous string of lies, one can only see that our “Democracy” faltering. It’s the PEOPLE in a Democracy that make the democracy, not the leaders and right now, the PEOPLE are anything but democratic because so many are not paying attention. Cynicism, corruption and “good ole boy” networking has literally crippled our government. So much can go on when people are ignorant of their own past and country and are not being vigilant because of it. You want to know why history is important? It gives us the knowledge base necessary to make judgements and spot infringements on the Constitution. Real knowledge, not the stuff you get from a 30 second attack ad. Right now our students are graduating without that real knowledge and the American people are anything but vigilant. Scares me to death.