My teachers at Riverside and Jefferson elementary schools taught me what made our nation great was that the framers of our Constitution had the wisdom to create our government based on a common set of values. In doing so, they established a government that allowed for the development of institutions — family, schools, religions — to perpetuate those values. Among them, the dignity, equality and right of every individual to the pursuit of happiness. And like my schoolteachers, they had the perseverance to work together in spite of the many challenges they faced.

The framers believed there would always be alert and informed citizens to make sure elected leaders would govern true to those values. They also designed it so it would have the capacity to respond to change: "As new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times." (Thomas Jefferson).

Our nation has been successful because it has created institutions with common values, customs, artifacts and language that would hold it together while dealing with change. It has endured because our institutions have been able to help citizens work together for the common good. In adjusting to changes such as the agrarian and industrial revolutions, our nation experienced trying times. In both instances, social change was slow and the rest of the world had limited effect on what happened in the daily lives of people. Family, religion and schools played a major role in transmitting the basic skills and values and giving the hope needed to sustain families and to hold the nation together.

Social change of the past eras appears to have moved at a glacial pace compared to today. Now, change is dynamic, rapid and the quality of life we thought would keep improving is no longer a given. Individuals who once could count on a decent living where their children could get a good education, health care, pay the mortgage and save for retirement are struggling to survive.

We now see a divided nation, between the haves and have nots with the gap widening each day. Most disturbing is that those social institutions created to transmit the values needed to hold a society together are being eroded. The sense of family and community is changing, and the values that were taught in homes and schools are also being influenced by the Internet.

And our schools, which once provided the common place where children learned how to become socialized and live and play with one another, are now separating families by socio-economic status. We are rapidly losing our sense of community and replacing it with individualism and materialism. Wars once rallied national patriotism and common sacrifice; now, those young people fighting and their families make the only sacrifices.