Teaching Children the Rules
Justice doesn't grow on
trees nor does it fall out of the friendly skies.
Justice is the product of orderly
human action controlled by a set of rules.
Justice results from our
willingness to abide by rules. It cannot exist where there are no rules nor
where rules are harsh, hidden from the people, or designed to favor only a
privileged few. Justice begins with the rules that make justice possible.
 Without rules there can be no
justice, and without justice there can be no liberty.
Preservation of liberty depends
on widespread knowledge of fundamental rules.
Too few of us know even the
basics. We are too busy learning other things. We don’t take time to learn the
most important things. We put a priority on making money, acquiring marketable
skills, developing leadership capabilities. We don’t have time for the rules
of justice that make liberty possible.
Many today believe we are
beginning to lose our liberties as a direct result.
Why are we not taught the rules
of justice as children?
Take maxims of law, for example.
Here we learn fundamental rules that control governments. It is from maxims that
constitutions are built, including the Constitution of the United States and
each of our states’ constitutions, fundamentals of law that apply in every
generation to insure justice and protect liberty, principles by which we judge
our government’s action to determine if it is just or not. It is in maxims we
learn self-evident truth, the rock-solid foundation on which all legitimate
systems of law are erected.
Yet, maxims are largely unknown
in this present generation!
Consider the principles of due
process, what some people call the law of fairness. The principles of due
process have been so abused by ignorance these past 30 years that it’s
commonplace for their protections to be violated. Governments are unrestrained
where the principles of due process are forgotten or purposely hidden from the
people.
What of the rule of law? Here is
the bedrock of principle over which WWII was fought. The rule of law is the
foundation of America’s hope, yet it’s become little more than a catch
phrase bandied about by today’s politicians and media pundits who offer no
explanation whatsoever. How are children going to learn to honor law when they
aren’t being told about the rule of law or the rules of court by which alone
they can protect themselves and their posterity from tyrannical abuse?
Other principles that could
easily be taught to children include the rules by which evidence is either
admitted as reliable or excluded as questionable, rules of procedure by which
court decisions are made, rules of administration by which power is kept in
check.. All of these could be introduced in grade school and expanded upon as
children mature through secondary school where principles of our American legal
heritage can be (and should be) taught to every single child.
None of these rules and
principles is politically biased. None is governed by any religious sect or
denomination. None is the product of any private organization. Each was well
known before this present generation was born, but they are forgotten today (and
we are seeing in our daily news the widespread consequence of their being
ignored).
Isn’t it time an organization
of concerned citizens cared more for the welfare of their children and the
peaceful prosperity of future generations than for the other myriad concerns
that compete for public support?
Isn’t liberty worth more of our
effort to preserve?
Help us teach the rules of
justice to your children.
Lift the Lamp Higher!
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