Commentary In his eloquent and prophetic January 1989 farewell address to the nation (pdf), President Ronald Reagan gave us a somber warning, saying, “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are. I’m warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in the erosion of the American spirit.” Thirty-two years later, those words have become sadly true. With the continued erosion of the teaching of history and civics in our nation’s schools and universities, Americans have become increasingly ignorant of our nation’s founding principles. Entire generations now have no understanding of how our government works, what powers it rightly has, or how it can justly use those powers. They are also woefully ignorant of the sacrifices made to preserve our history and freedoms. And, if history is taught, it is a version that attacks and distorts our American memory, focusing only on America’s …