Politics & Government
Passover-Holy Week-Timeless Lessons for Americans in Story Telling
'Sometimes the Perfect is the Enemy of the Good' - Gilbert Keith Chesterton (G.K. Chesterton).
Part I of today's article is from the Daily Signal to this writer for MHProNews as the latest installment in this "Reality Check" series for this Patch. More in Part II.
Part I
Commentary
A Passover Lesson for America: Retelling the Story of Our Freedom
Find out what's happening in Lakelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Jason Bedrick | April 10, 2025
America is suffering from a cultural Alzheimer’s. An ancient Jewish ritual—the Passover seder—may hold the cure.
Find out what's happening in Lakelandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Last year, more than 7 in 10 Americans failed the basic civic literacy quiz administered annually by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Even among college students, knowledge of basic facts about American history and civics is shockingly low. The results of a recent survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni were so distressingly poor that they titled their corresponding report: “Losing America’s Memory.”
This goes beyond knowledge of mere trivia. What’s at stake is our very identity and purpose as Americans. In his classic work “After Virtue,” Alasdair MacIntyre wrote: “I can only answer the question ‘What am I do to?’ if I can answer the prior question ‘Of what story or stories do I find myself a part?’”
The stories we tell shape who we are. As the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, put it: “Identity, which is always particular, is based on story, the narrative that links me to the past, guides me in the present, and places on me responsibility for the future.”
The Biblical Roots of the American Story
Our forefathers understood this truth. Our long-standing national commitment to religious liberty, for example, stems not merely from the rational acceptance of some abstract ideal, but rather from our national story, which defines who we are and what we stand for.
Our national forefathers, the Puritans, suffered persecution for their beliefs and so they crossed an ocean seeking a home in the New World where they would have the freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience. The Puritans, in turn, drew deeply from the wellsprings of the Bible—seeing themselves as the Israelites, the king of England as the pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean as the Red Sea, and America as the new Promised Land.
Generations later, understanding the power linking the American story to the biblical story of the Exodus, Ben Franklin proposed that our national seal be an image of “Moses standing on the Shore, and extending his Hand over the Sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm Pharaoh who is sitting in an open Chariot, a Crown on his Head and a Sword in his Hand.” (Unsurprisingly, this pharaoh looked quite a bit more like King George III than Ramses II.) Underneath the image, Franklin proposed, would appear the following motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God.”
Cultural Alzheimer’s Is a Choice
Perhaps worst of all is that our cultural Alzheimer’s is a choice. “The trouble with humanity,” Richard Weaver wryly observed, “is that it forgets to read the minutes of the last meeting.” We, collectively, are failing to pass on the story of who we are to the next generation.
Radicals have convinced too many Americans that we lack a story worth telling. The supposedly “real” American story, they say, is rooted in our “original sin” of slavery, a product of our inherent and institutional racism—as if what is exceptional about America is slavery itself, and not that we fought a war to eradicate it.
The radicals want us to stop telling our story because they know it forms the basis of Americans’ commitment to our constitutional order—liberty, justice, the rule of law, limited government, natural rights, and the equal dignity of all human beings. The critical theorists know that the first step to undermining and replacing our constitutional order is persuading us that the American founding was in 1619 not 1776.
The Mandate of Moses to Remember
It is Moses who taught us that having a future depends on remembering our past.
On the eve of the Exodus, Moses commanded the Israelites to educate their children about their story, how God freed them from the house of bondage with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. As it says, “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt.’”
As Rabbi Sacks explained: “It is as if Moses were saying: ‘Forget where you came from and why, and you will eventually lose your identity, your continuity, and raison d’etre. … Forget the story of freedom and you will eventually lose freedom itself.”
This story would define who the Israelites were and what they stood for, including how they treated others. “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the soul of a stranger, since you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Moses knew that to survive as a people, the Israelites would have to be intentional about transmitting their story to succeeding generations—for it was the story that defined who they were and what they stood for. Forgetting the story would be an act of national suicide.
This is why Jews gather around the dinner table every year during Passover to retell the story of freedom. More than a just a meal, the Passover seder is designed to transmit Jewish values and identity to the children present through a combination of storytelling, songs, symbolic foods, rituals, and creative biblical exegesis. For more than 3,000 years, including nearly two millennia in exile, the Passover rituals have kept Jewish memory alive, and that has kept the Jewish people alive.
Passover’s Lesson for America
For America to survive, we must keep the American story alive. As President Ronald Reagan warned, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
In his commentary on the Passover Haggadah, Rabbi Sacks connects the Passover rituals to American civic rituals, such as presidential inaugural addresses, that give shape to America’s civil religion:
In a strange way civil religion has the same relationship to the United States as [Passover] does to the Jewish people. It is, first and foremost, not a philosophy but a story. It tells of how a persecuted group escaped from the Old World and made a hazardous journey to an unknown land, there to construct a new society, in Abraham Lincoln’s famous words, “conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Like the [Passover] story, it must be told repeatedly, as it is in every inaugural address. It defines the nation, not merely in terms of its past but also as a moral-spiritual commitment to the future.
It is no accident that the founders of America turned to the Hebrew Bible, or that successive presidents have done likewise, because there is no other text in Western literature that draws these themes—history, providence, covenant, responsibility, “the exile and the stranger,” the need to fight for freedom in every generation—together in a vision that is at once political and spiritual. Israel, ancient and modern, and the United States are the two supreme examples of societies constructed in conscious pursuit of an idea. ###/blockquoteFourth of July seder proposed by Dennis Prager. But most of all, America needs schools that are dedicated to cultural transmission. As the Phoenix Declaration observes, a “civilization survives only if it intentionally transmits its history, traditions, and values. American students must learn “the whole truth about America—its merits and failings—without obscuring that America is a great source of good in the world and that we have a tradition that is worth passing on.”
Americans today need to be intentional about transmitting the American story and American values to the next generation. That could mean new rituals, such as the Fourth of July seder proposed by Dennis Prager.
But most of all, America needs schools that are dedicated to cultural transmission. As the Phoenix Declaration observes, a “civilization survives only if it intentionally transmits its history, traditions, and values. American students must learn “the whole truth about America—its merits and failings—without obscuring that America is a great source of good in the world and that we have a tradition that is worth passing on.”
Part II - Additional Information plus other topics.
1)
https://patch.com/florida/lake...
2)
https://www.manufacturedhomepr...
3) Other topics follow. Thank you for checking in, God willing, much more to come on a range of subjects in the days ahead.
Is Decline in Christianity in U.S. Over? Pew Research Suggests It Is
Numbers of Those Praying and Attending Religious Services or Mass Have Stabilized According to Recent Findings Including a Big New Pew Study
ESG Ruling Puts New Pressure on Public Pension Funds and BlackRock
Trump Team Secures Southwest Land Border-Lowest Encounters Since 2000
Mark Weiss, JD-“The Good, The Bad And The Ugly” in Affordable Housing
Mark Weiss, J.D., is President/CEO of the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) on MHI, HUD, and MH Industry Woes
Real Reason Behind Left’s Freak-Out About the Department of Education?
Is There a Recession Ahead? John Carney's Fact-Packed Insight & Answer
---
Americans Mostly Support Trump On Deportation vs Activists Fighting it
Manzanita Miller unpacks new survey insight most 'Americans Side With Trump On Deportation—Not w/Activists Fighting For Illegals and Gangs.'
Lakeland Study Test Frank Rolfe Claim "Mobile Homes" Lower Prop Values
Hybrid Expert Human Study Combined with Multiple AI Powered Fact Checks plus 3rd Party Research Expose Disputed Claims in Critical Reporting
Manzanita Miller-Trump Tax Cut Helped Middle Class-Extension Welcomed
According to Manzanita Miller, the "Trump’s Tax Cuts Benefited The Middle-Class And That Is Why Extending Them Is Wildly Popular" LATK FEA--
New Manufactured Home Production Trend UP But Research Raises Concerns
Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) Released Jan 2025 data that reflects continued improvements since 2023 but...
VP Vance-Illegal Immigrants Squeeze U.S. Citizens from Home Ownership
Bill Wilson - "A Mistake From The Past That Can Be Avoided"
GROK Affordable Housing Crisis Thesis-‘This Ain’t Theory—it’s a Heist’
Fact Checks by Grok-Copilot-Gemini Point to Problems at Manufactured Housing Institute that help Explain 21st Century Manufactured Home Sales
---
Is Decline in Christianity in U.S. Over? Pew Research Suggests It Is
Numbers of Those Praying and Attending Religious Services or Mass Have Stabilized According to Recent Findings Including a Big New Pew Study
Feb 2025 sees Lowest Number of Border Crossings in Modern USA History
HUD Sec Scott Turner Tension with HUD Research v Local Zoning Barriers
GROK reports on "Most Comprehensive" article on Sec Turner's recent remarks to WMAL, CPAC, and on challenges to solve affordable housing.
Dems Fretting Over Billionaires Are on Billionaire Dole for Years
Audrey Streb-for DCNF and via Daily Signal: Democratic Officials that Criticized Wealthy Despite Taking Funding from Billionaires (Ouch!)
Rob Romano-Who Controls Foreign Policy? President Or District Courts?
'Sexual Deviants' in Federal Service to be Fired-per DNI Tulsi Gabbard
More on those and other topics in this eclectic "Reality Check" series here on this Patch.
Big Majority Approve DOGE-Plus Political Cartoons to Muse and Amuse
THE Reality Check-All of Us Have Been Manipulated & Lied to-E. Nickson
Dan Bongino to FBI - 'We’re About to See it All. It’s All Coming Out.'
Larry Elder on 'Supercharging the U.S. Economy' Using a Proven Method
---
Democrats and GOP both 'Underwater' in New Poll-But Guess Which Leads?
By the Numbers - Evidence of Discrimination Against Believers in God
Employees! It is ‘Not Free Market Capitalism It’s Corporate Feudalism’
HUD Sec Turner-'Corporate Takeover of Housing—A Manufactured Crisis'
'Trump Is Leading a Historic Counterrevolution Against the Deep State'
Federal Racket-Follow the Money-Tammany Hall 2.0 and Big U.S. Media
U.S. Manufactured Home Industry Production 2024 Total Up per MHARR
(Note MHARR is short for the Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform.)
‘Endemic Mismanagement of HUD Manufactured Housing Program’ Nom Turner
'Restoring and Expanding Affordable Housing Role of Manufactured Homes'–MHARR Letter Cites 2000 Reform Act, "Enhanced Preemption" Much More
Scott Turner Confirmed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development-Official HUD+Manufactured Housing Association for Regulatory Reform (MHARR) News Releases; Manufactured Home Generational Wealth
> ‘Endemic Mismanagement of HUD Manufactured Housing Program’ Nom Turner
'Restoring and Expanding Affordable Housing Role of Manufactured Homes'–MHARR Letter Cites 2000 Reform Act, "Enhanced Preemption" Much More...https://patch.com/florida/lake...
> Big Govt, Big Pharma, Big Food made Americans Overweight and Unhealthy
> Virginia Bishop for ‘Well-Regulated Borders’ Amid VP J.D. Vance Rumble
> Romano-Trump Bans DEI In Federal Govt—States And Corporations Are Next
> How Republicans Should Follow Through on Tough Talk on Immigration
> NPR=87 Registered Democrats in Editorial Positions and No Republicans
> President Donald J. Trump’s Official 'America First Priorities'
---
> Rubio Senate Replacement Ashley Moody (FL-R) Gets Key Assignments
> Trump Plan: Make America Safe, Affordable, Restore U.S. Values for All
---
> Official Manufactured Housing Production from 1995-2023-Why it Matters
> Anna Paulina Luna (FL-R) and Barry Loudermilk (GA-R) MERIT Act Insight
> Executive Orders on Investigating Biden Censorship & Weaponization
> Floridian Dr István Dobozi Strikes at Trump Again in Magyar Article (Another critical analysis - fact check).
---
> Why do Liars Lie? Why do those Engaged in Paltering and Spin Palter?
> Controversy-Manufactured Housing Institute-Lesli Gooch-Mark Bowersox
> ‘Mobile Home Values Rising Faster Than Single-Family’ House-Wow Fact$
> Realtor-What Is a Manufactured Home? The Next Step Beyond Mobile Homes
> Orlando RE Agent Smith-Younger Adults Will Need $8500 Monthly for Rent
---
> Rob Romano-Time To Declassify Everything, Or Another RussiaGate Ahead
> Contemporary Tips from Legend Paul Harvey-Surprising Rest of the Story
> Alert: Is Affordable Housing Linked Scandal at Champion Homes Brewing?
> Report: Biden-Harris Federal Agencies Spent Millions Torturing Cats
> Lesli Gooch Ph.D.-Award, Coverup, Headfake, Scandal? Rest of the Story (Manufactured Housing Institute linked)
---
> ALG Unpacks Trump Pitch to Cut Drug Costs by Cutting PBM Middleman
> Is there Evidence that God Exists? Evolution vs. Intelligent Design
> Democratic Voters-Closer Look at Biden’s Acts Before Biden-Harris Exit
> Christian Leaders-Signs of 4th 'Great Awakening' Millions go to Jesus
> Attorney John Morgan - Democrat Megadonor on Kamala Harris Campaign
---
> USA Today - David Plouffe and Dem Advisers on Kamala Harris Revelation
> Majority OK Trump Transition-Mass Deportations-Tariffs- Is it Hopeful?
> Niskanen Center Praises Manufactured Home ‘Cost Savings’ and ‘Quality’
> Alice Carter-The Northern Forum-Deporting Immigrants & Housing Crisis
> Cartoons-Kamala Day 1, DOGE the Swamp, Brainwashing, & Out In the Cold
---
> The Creepy Line-Peter Schweizer-Dr. Jordan Peterson-Dr. Robert Epstein
> Secret State Miniseries - Fictional TV Series Shed Light on Reality
> Trump Transition Team Asked to Prioritize Affordable Housing Issues
> Top 10 States for Homelessness & Top Cities for Crime=Shocking Lessons
> WashPost-American Dream Fades But Assoc CEO Mark Weiss Shows Solution
---
> Blankley-Goodbye American Dream? Only 10% Polled Can Buy a House; But
> Frank Rolfe-Special Interests ‘Don’t Want to Solve Affordable Housing'
> TARK-‘I’m a Teen and Know the Solution to Affordable Housing Crisis’
---> Renting? Rent too High? Odds Are DOJ Suit vs RealPage Matters to You
> New-Certified “Half Price Homes” - Affordable Housing Solution Redux
---
> Solution: “Would-Be Homebuyers Need 80% More Income Than 4 Years Ago”
L. A. “Tony” Kovach is a publisher who has earned multiple awards in history. He and his family live in a manufactured home on private property in Winter Haven, FL. He is the co-founder of Manufactured Home Living News.com (MHLivingNews.com) and Manufactured Home Pro News.com (MHProNews.com), trade publications serving segments of the manufactured home industry. Having worked in several segments of the manufactured home industry for over 3 decades, Kovach is a widely acknowledged and often praised expert on manufactured housing. ###
Share
