Our Rights
My government professor talked about this study today. I tried to remember the best I could, but I might be off on a detail or two. I’m going to ask him for the source next class.
This survey was recently given to 900 randomly selected American citizens:
1) If the following bill was proposed by congress, would you want it to pass?
“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.”
2) If you would not want it to pass, why not?
2/3 of respondants said they would vote against the bill. Some commonly given reasons:
*33% were concerned that if the bill passed, it would lead to increased use of marijuana. (wtf?!?)
*26% said they would vote against it because it must be the work of some radical student group.
When questioned afterward, only 18% of the participants could correctly identify the ‘bill” as the 1st amendment to our constitution.
Now folks, this isn’t just some apocryphal anecdote - this was a real survey (I will post the source as soon as I get it). I can barely get my mind around this. I’ve always suspected our society is going downhill, but here is proof. The evident stupidity is bad enough, but on top of that the responses suggest such a bizzare, warped view of reality..
I did some research and discovered an official group that gives surveys on the Bill of Rights to high school students. Apparently 53% of current high school students think all magazine and newspaper articles should have to be checked and approved by the government before getting published. What the hell? Half of our students believe in universal government censorship???
I’ve been planning to teach English, but maybe I should teach Government instead. Or maybe Critical Thinking. Or maybe just Thinking. I’m terrified of the future…