Ignorance

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be!" - Thomas Jefferson.

For years now I have watched man on the street interviews and been absolutely appalled at the ignorance of the average America concerning their government, history, and heritage. Most have no idea of the structure of our government, who is who, and much less what they stand for. This last election demonstrates this in spades.

In a recent civic-literacy survey conducted by the Intercollegiate Study Institute fully 71% of the 2500 respondents who took the test flunked! The average score was 49 out of a possible 100. A solid "F". Just 2.6% got a "B", only 0.8% got an "A". And these are the people that vote! Is it any wonder that this country is in the mess it is?

What is even more disgusting is that those respondents that identified themselves as elected oficials did even worse than the average citizen, scoring an average 44%. This is indeed the blind leading the blind.

Only 21% could identify Lincoln's Gettysburg Address as the source of the words "Government of the people, by the people, and for the People. 56%, however, knew Paula Abdul was a judge on American Idol.