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....
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