The American Soul: Will We Defend—and Promote—What They Fought and Died For?

Happy Constitution Day and final day of Patriots’ Week—the week from 9/11 to 9/17 when we remember, reflect and express gratitude for those who helped shape today’s America during this September season years ago.

The importance of their sacrifice was driven home again this week as we mourned another patriot, Charlie Kirk…gunned down while engaged in public debate—one of America’s most sacred rights—simply because someone disagreed with him. The outrage across the political spectrum is fully justified and heartening to see.

In fact, the Chinese concluded our religion IS our strength. In his 2011 book, Civilization: The West and the Rest, historian Niall Ferguson quotes a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Social Science, part of a group studying why the West ascended past China after the 17th century:

“At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next, we focused on your economic system. But in the past 20 years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion…that is why the West has been so powerful. The (Judeo-Christian) moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics.”

Yet how sad today, in our 250th year, commitment to faith, capitalism and America herself rates at historic lows, especially among the rising generation. Those of us who’ve been around for a while get it: one Creator showered America with blessings, which we’ve used to build the most vibrant economic system and most compassionate society the world has ever known.

Are we flawless? Of course not, we’re always striving to form ‘a more perfect Union.’ And we make lots of mistakes on our way to getting it right—that’s only human. But we’ve seen the alternative across history and around the world: authoritarian socialism fails miserably (and authoritarian regimes are the only kind to make socialism/communism work).

We assume the millennials and GenZ’ers learned their history and get it. They didn’t and they don’t. It’s now time for the rest of us to stand with our Patriots’ Week heroes and become evangelists for the American Soul.

We must honor their sacrifice and fully explain the American story, employing the same spirit popularly described by Massachusetts Senator Daniel Webster at the 1843 monument dedication to the Battle of Bunker Hill (the 250th anniversary of which was June 17th):

“When age shall lean against the base of this monument, and troops of youth shall gather round it, and the one shall speak to the other of its history…and the great and glorious events with which it is connected, there shall rise from every youthful breast, ‘Thank God, I—I also—am an American.’”

Let’s adopt this zeal to teach those who follow us the blessings they were bequeathed are real…but extremely fragile if not preserved and protected.

The promise of America remains. The American Ideal is steadfast. Our faith in God unwavering. We must believe it, promote it and fight for it.

Our September heroes showed us how and their voices echo from 1787…and 2001…and now Charlie Kirk’s in 2025.

Let us heed their call.