Sometimes I ask how people can be so very "okay" with attacks, not just on the 2nd Amendment, but on all our civil rights. Since I largely grew up in and around newspapers, I thought I'd look at attitudes regarding the 1st Amendment. I came across these two pieces from 10 and 7 years ago. Now, I'm afraid I understand (and I'm more than a little depressed). My concern is based, in part, upon the relative ignorance of the population regarding our rights (First Amendment rights in this case) and by how much opinion changes immediately following a crisis (in the SOFA link compare results before and after 9/11). Read 'em yourself...and weep.
SOFA
First Amendment...
I've read few articles more scary than that one about the attitude of youths toward the First Amendment. It's not surprising, though. I've been alarmed for years at the apathy of many young people. When they come through my classes, they get my lectures about why these things matter, but I get depressed about how few appear to have got it.
ReplyDeleteThere's plenty of blame to go around. Parents don't talk about it enough with their kids, schools fail to teach it enough and popular media treats it superficially, at best. If we don't get a handle on this, I fear we are done as a free people.
ReplyDeleteThat's why I say that ultimately, the parents are responsible for their child's education. If the parent shows no interest, how in the hell can they expect their child(ren) to show interest.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how much it helps just reading to your child ten minutes a night at bedtime will do to further their education. And thirty minutes an evening helping them with their homework works wonders, too.
I agree. It's hard to overemphasize the importance of reading, including reading to your kids. And helping with their homework works wonders.
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