Hopefully, that moment of realization won't come too late in our lives. One thing history can and should teach us, is who we are as a people and a nation. As Americans, we have a long and proud history. Americans enjoy freedom unprecedented since man first banded together in clans and the guy with the biggest club got to be boss. But this freedom was purchased at a high price.
History is the receipt for that purchase.
Each generation of Americans needs to know about those generations that went before it. As the prize of American citizenship is handed to them, they need to have read the receipt that accounts for the price paid for their freedom. They also need to read the fine print at the bottom of the receipt that states that each payment made in the past was only an installment, and that their generation's payment is coming due. If we ever rear a generation that is unwilling to make its payment, America, as we know her, is finished. In this touchy-feely age of inclusiveness, where we refuse to draw lines of good and bad for fear of offending other cultures and peoples across the world, we need to make sure that young Americans still learn to appreciate the greatness that is America and the American system of government.