Happy Late Independence Day!

Okay, so I know I promised to write often, and I haven't been consistent. I was crazy busy this weekend (I know, excuses, excuses, excuses--but they're actually true this time) and I can't believe I passed up our Nation's birthday without even a word to my awesome followers (okay--so it's only just my mom *wink*).

This year I am feeling even more passion for our amazing country, our incredible Founding Fathers, and especially our wonderful troops that have given, and still continue, to give up their lives for defending the freedoms we have become so accustom to enjoying.

More than ever I feel our precious constitution is under attack from enemy's far and near. You can't turn on a news station or switch to an Internet site where you don't hear about radicals (in our own nation, government, etc...) debating whether or not our constitution is even relevant anymore.

To quote ABC News John Donovan this weekend:

The reality is that the framers – posed in paintings as though frozen on an American Olympus – they were not gods, they were guys – guys who didn’t give women the vote and let slavery stand for the time being and who, by the way, were trying to create at the time a stronger central government, of course not too strong, leaving to us a Constitution that we could fix, as needed, – sorry, make that amend – which we’ve now done 27 times.

But you see, what Donovan does not understand, is that our Founding Fathers were brilliant enough to create a document that could expand over time. The amendment procedure was crucial to the Constitution, and was utilized early on to create the Bill of Rights. And it was through that process that women were given the right to vote.

People also continue in ignorance regarding the three-fifths compromise. Many try to use that section of the Constitution — which counted slaves as three-fifths a person — to show the founders were decidedly pro-slavery. But that actually, the controversial segment was used to help defeat slavery. That’s because the slave states wanted to count the slaves as full people in order to gain more power. But if that happened, it could have had severe consequences in enshrining slavery in the country forever. Which would have NOT been what our Founding Fathers had envisioned for our wonderful country. So the “compromise” was reached to only count the slaves as three-fifths a person, thus creating a more even balance of power.

Yeah, I've been there too, asking the same question you are right now--why do I even really care about this?

Well, please indulge me as over the coming days I try and help you understand why a blonde from Taylorsville Utah, who didn't even graduate from college, and had to be coaxed by her mother to try and get a good grade in high school history class (promising that one day I'd care) now cares so passionately about history (not just this countries) and how it is immensely important to our future as a nation, religious institution, and most importantly--our family. 

Would love to hear your thoughts....

Erin Apelu