Last Saturday my wife and I attended a seminar in Mechanicsville, Virginia, entitled “Restoring the Founder’s Dream,” the last of a four-part series of seminars presented by the Thomas Jefferson Center for Constitutional Studies.  I highly recommend everyone attend this seminar series if they are concerned about the direction of our country and interested in concrete steps they can take to help turn things around.  The series will begin again in January with one seminar presented roughly each quarter.  Cost is $39 for each of the single day, 9am-5pm events.  The next series will likely be presented at Randolph-Macon College (as most of the previous seminars have been held) just north of Richmond, but there is a possibility that we could have our own series here in Tidewater if there were sufficient interest.  The seminars are presented by Dr. Glenn Kimber or his associates.  Dr. Kimber is a veritable fountain of constitutional knowledge.

Seminar 1 covers the founding of America and the process of building it into the great nation we once were.  Seminar 2 examines the U.S. Constitution from the viewpoint of the Founders and the timeless principles it embodies.  Seminar 3 looks at the people, organizations and groups who have purposefully changed the direction of American in order to serve their own special self-interests.

Saturday’s seminar provided examples of some constitutional actions, such as repealing the 17^th and 25^th Amendments which would go far in restoring the Founder’s understanding of the way the document was intended to operate; but it also emphasized the importance of restoring the integrity and proper functioning of the American family.  Civil government, you see, is only one of four forms of government necessary to freedom and prosperity: the others being family government, church government and self-government.  Restoring civil government to its original operation without also addressing the others will not get us where we need to go as a nation.  For more information on the seminars, see http://www.thomasjeffersoncenter.com/

It is easy to become despondent seeing headline after headline describe the mess we are in as a nation, even more so if one has taken the time to study where we have been in earlier times of prosperity — back when we didn’t face gargantuan national debt, moral erosion, and a dysfunctional federal government.  And I’ll confess that I yield to frustration far too often, particularly when I see just how unconcerned most Americans seem to be with our situation or what they can do to help turn things around.  The public’s greatest concern during the recent government “shutdown,” beyond the annoyance of not being able to visit some of our favorite national parks and monuments, seemed to focus on whether government checks and EBT funding would continue to flow.  Sad.  The fact that few noticed the absence of nearly 17% of our government’s employees should cause us to question whether they are really that necessary.  If they were really “non-essential” shouldn’t we be able to permanently do without them without great national harm?

So, look for notices in in your area announcing the start of a TJCCS seminar series and make room in your busy schedules to attend.