Freedom of What?
A couple of day ago Slashdot pointed out an article entitled
Freedom of What? in which High school students were
questioned about
The Bill of Rights. I found the results totally shocking so I
thought I'd just stick my 2 cents here.
I almost fell out of my chair in disbelief when I read that one in three
students said the 1st amendment went to far. Equally disheartening is that
only about half of them claimed that the press should be able to publish freely
without government approval.
Just so we are clear, here is the exact text of the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition
the government for a redress of grievances.
What the
hell is going on in schools? When did they stop teaching
basic history? And when did so much of our youth decide to become little
pre-communists? Even worse, when did we let them become pre-communists?
I mean, this is the The Bill of Rights here. It does not go
"to far" in anything. This document is what sets us apart from other countries
and defines our identity as a nation. To undermine it or not care about it is
ludicrous and invites disaster.
And what is this garbage about government regulating the press? When I went to
school we were taught that the press is there to help balance government by
keeping the people informed of what the government was up to. If the government
starts controlling the press then it will hide all the things that it doesn't
want the people to see. It's called self preservation and the freedom of the
press is supposed to avoid that situation.
Another one to think about is that only 83% of the kids interviewed said that
people should be allowed to express unpopular views. That's lower than the 97%
of teachers and 99% of principals. OK, so we shouldn't be allowed to express
our beliefs? Hello Big Brother. Or, what if the popular belief wrong? At one
point it was believed the world was flat which it clearly is not. It took
someone to express an unpopular view to eventually discover the truth.
I've learned one small thing with this subject though. I'm going to be sure to
take an active part in educating my daughters about the Constitution of the
United States and the Bill of Rights. I won't let them fall to a level of
apathy that causes them to take their rights for granted or make them treat the
founding principles of our nation with indifference.