Your absolutly right! it does

take more than simply showing up and punching a ballot. We are blessed in this day and age with a wealth of

information comming at us from a variety of sources.We are also blessed with a variety of different organizations

who seek to pour over all that data and find the hidden truth.And many of them do an excelent job.Our news media

used to be a good watch dog over politics,but comercialism has kinda ruined that over the last three decades.But

watchdog groups do still exist and they are a very effective way of staying informed on various issues.Most produce

monthly news letters,free of all the hype and noise created by the politicians,and these news letters can help

people to make informed decisions regarding almost any issue.

But first comes the process of learning what

America is all about.The concept of its system of government,system of laws,cultural and moral leanings and so

forth.In other words...what exactly does it take to be an ACTUAL citizen as opposed to just having been born

here?Alot of people have been born in the United States.But does that realy make them citizens?In high schools they

used to have classes called civics.Im sure we all had a class that went by that name.But in bygone years,those

civics classes were intended to teach young men and women about the price of being an American.They were taught

about the constitution and its meanings,taught about our system of goverment,the responsibilities of the citizen and

so forth.In my civics class,our teacher was a died in the wool dungeon master who expected nothing less than

perfection from his students in regards to the study of civics.And without his magic "OK" you didnt graduate high

school...PERIOD.

He regarded...and rightly so,civics to be the single most important class in the history of the

world.It was his class that was designed to prepair young people to handle thier dutys and responsabilities as

citizens and voters.The emphasis in todays public school system however has shifted considerably,and the

requirements of the typical civics class have had to be dumbed down to a point where students in most schools have a

tough time remembering the difference between the executive branch of government and the judicial branch.The

constitution is...and should always be held up as the second most sacred document in the world by American

citizens.Second only to whatever religious documents you subscribe to.

Training a citizen is hard work,and in

many ways our education system falls tragicly short of producing effective citizens.I suspect that this shortfall

isnt as much a matter of people getting dumber,as it is the powers that be not wanting too many people knowing what

they can do to make a diference.

Im gonna go eat cheetoes and watch South Park now....