Don Crawford examines America’s constitutional freedoms, civic responsibility and Reagan’s warning that liberty must be defended by every generation. Listen now.
Freedom can be inherited only if it is understood, defended and passed on. In this edition of The Crawford Stand, Don challenges Americans to know their Constitution, teach it to the next generation and take seriously the duties that accompany liberty.
What does it mean to be an American — not merely by geography or citizenship paperwork, but by understanding the freedoms, responsibilities and constitutional principles that define the nation?
On this edition of The Crawford Stand, Don Crawford Sr. delivers
00:06:58 Freedom, political complacency, and the call to act
00:10:06 Family, education, and preserving liberty
SPEAKER 02 :
The Crawford Stand, with the president of Crawford Broadcasting Company, Don Crawford. With the midterm elections just over five weeks away, it cannot be stressed enough, what is at stake here in America?
SPEAKER 01 :
We the people should be today and forevermore grateful, grateful, grateful for America. We should be grateful for this great country, for the privilege of living here. Are you? and most especially for the freedoms we enjoy and so tragically take for granted so often. I do hope and pray that you do not take America for granted. If you do, it won’t be here much longer. We the people assume these freedoms every day we live. We assume we will live safely and our family and friends will be safe with us. We assume we will not be under the power of any man or woman we will not live under any coercion or constraint, and we will have the full range of choices for our lives at all times. Wow, my fellow Americans, those are really big assumptions. We assume that those freedoms, so incredibly articulated in our Constitution, will be at work in America every day. Without really knowing or understanding what those freedoms are, and how they are protected and applied. Do you know your Constitution? The vast majority of Americans do not know the Constitution or its 28 amendments and the freedoms contained therein. We assume, we assume, or we ignore, or we really don’t care. We assume dangerously, for the more we assume, and the less we know, the more these precious freedoms are in danger. We pay no attention to former President Ronald Reagan, who told us clearly the loss of these freedoms is only one generation away, and when those freedoms are lost, they are lost forever. So I ask you, my fellow Americans, might this be the generation where freedoms are so taken for granted, so assumed, that some or all will be lost? Is it? Nevertheless, we the people go on with our tragic assumptions and a lack of appreciation for real appreciation and understanding of what defines America. Perhaps more importantly, we fail to teach our children American history. We fail to teach our children the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence and everything about America which makes it different from and better than any nation in the history of mankind. Do you believe that? Are you thrilled every morning you awake that you live in America? Are you? You should be. This great country is one of a kind. So many of us do not do our share of protecting these rights and privileges and these freedoms which we have every day. We just don’t do enough. We live in America and we exercise its precious rights and freedoms, but so often without understanding and being responsible for the duties, the duties which accompany these precious rights. We owe allegiance to the flag of America. We owe it time and protection this great country. We owe it championing, and if necessary, our very lives. so we can discharge our duties as privileged citizens. And if necessary, as Jefferson said, offer our blood in sacrifice so that the tree of liberty, America itself, can be protected and refreshed. What a great statement. We the people worship as we please, or not at all. As it says, is our right in the First Amendment to the Constitution. We speak freely and we say what we please without fear of retribution or government intervention. And if something like that happens, we have our courts to protect us. And we are protected by our First Amendment to the Constitution. That is ours. It’s our right and our freedom. We print, we text, and we read, whatever we wish, protected by the First Amendment. We have the right of assembly. For Christians, that means the church. We can go to church any time we want and congregate with as many people as we wish to worship. And we have the right to petition our government, to complain, to protest. Oh, and by the way, to vote and We have the right to be active in politics. Unfortunately, too many of us do not do just that. All of these freedoms and so many more are protected by just the First Amendment of the Constitution. By the way, one more time, my fellow Americans, these constitutional rights we take for granted exist nowhere else in this world. Nowhere else. They really don’t. Some may, but most don’t. Our founding documents provide that all men and all women are created equal, under God, under God, and under our Constitution. It is our duty to protect this equality any way we can, and at all times. Equality guaranteed by our Constitution would exist everywhere in America, as Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. so well said, if we, the people, only lived up to our very own Constitution. If we did, there would be no discrimination of any kind. I tend to agree with that. Do you? It is tragic indeed when we need an incident like 9-11 in the fateful year 2001. to remind us of these freedoms, of our rights, even if this patriotic reminder existed for only a short time. Freedom, liberty, and justice for all are in our genes, part of our biological and political makeup. However, how tragic it is for us, we the people, the privileged and favored Americans, to take so much of it for granted. To my mind, that is a tragedy indeed. We can protect ourselves with weapons, protected by the Second Amendment. We have a right to a fair trial by jury. Our Constitution protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures. It provides for orderly and fair elections and transfer of political power and so many other rights, so, so, so many others. Why, I wonder, do we the people so tragically take all these freedoms for granted? Why? And we do so little, it seems, to protect and defend them. Why? We watch our beloved democracy erode. Anti-Americans head to Washington and become part of our state politics. Anti-Americans know this, know this indifference and negligence and assumption. and seize the power we abrogate, exploiting our rights and freedoms, these people do. It is now even to the point where anti-Americans are elected to high office, like Bernie Sanders, for example. He’s an avowed socialist. And New York City Mayor Mamdani, to name only a few. Each of these men is openly socialistic, and many think with communistic leanings, with the ultimate goal of destroying or at least radically changing constitutional and capitalism-oriented America and the lives you and I live. Oh, I pray that you and I wake up in time and don’t let that happen. But for now, why do we the people let that happen? Why? What do you do, really do, what action do you take, no matter how busy you are, to protect this great country in which you are privileged to live? What exactly do you do, not talk, not talk, but do? What do you do on a daily basis to protect the life, liberty, and happiness which is promised to you by the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? What do you do? Anything? Any little thing? Anything at all? This great country under God is a beacon on the hill, a light to the world, and one of a kind in all of human history. This great country changes imperceptibly every day, every day. When good men and women neglect the political arena and do nothing, the bad men and women take over. And the takeover has begun and will continue to its satanic conclusion if we the people, the beneficiaries of America, do nothing, nothing, to really, truly protect this great country. Pastors and churches must step up. Your pastor must step up, in my opinion. What do you think? Oh, they’ll say they’re not allowed. There are ways they can. The curriculum of schools must change. Oh, our public education is in disarray. The families in America must take the time. You, mother and father, you must take the time with your children to talk, to discuss America as you can, as you understand, to help them learn the Constitution and the rights and privileges we all, and especially our children, enjoy. If not, in due course, this America we know and love will change radically, as many, including me, think that change is coming soon. So once again, freedom once lost will be lost forever, forever. Please do not let that happen, my fellow citizens. If you love America, you are required to do your duty, to do something, to take action, to be involved politically as you can every day, every day. Do something if you love America. Do something, anything. if you love America or the America you assume and you purport to love and so readily take for granted will be taken over and it will be the end of all rights and freedoms. Step up, my fellow Americans. Step up, my fellow Americans. Wake up and do something today and every day for this country in which you are privileged to live and which you and I love.
SPEAKER 02 :
Your email to Mr. Crawford would be a great encouragement to him. Won’t you take just a moment and write to stand at crawfordmediagroup.net? When you do, tell Mr. Crawford on what station you hear the stand. The email address again is stand at crawfordmediagroup.net. When you want to review what you hear, go to our website, CrawfordMediaGroup.net. The Crawford Stand is a public affairs presentation of Crawford Broadcasting Company and this station, serving God and country. I’m Bill McCormick.
