American History

Reflections On The Pearl Harbor Anniversary

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The History Channel tonight presented an exceptional two hour program on the 24 hours after Pearl Harbor, and how Franklin D. Roosevelt learned about and handled the matter up to the declaration of war on Japan precisely a day after the attack.

It made this author wonder about how much is taught about Pearl Harbor in the schools of America. This is such a path breaking event, a turning point in our history, unmatched since the attack on Fort Sumter which stared the Civil War, and only matched since by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

How many students would know what Pearl Harbor represents, and would know that Japan was the nation which attacked us? How many would realize the importance of World War II, and know all the “players” in that war, including FDR, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito?

It is horrifying to think of the historical ignorance of America, not only of this event, but of all of the events and facts of American history and government which are needed for citizens to be knowledgeable enough to be good citizens and intelligent voters!

Education MUST be the prime way for this country to prosper and advance into the future, but instead, we are seeing educational cutbacks all over the nation!

This is, therefore, a time to mourn, not just for the victims of Pearl Harbor, but for ourselves as a nation which is poorly informed, which affects our politics and our hopes for a better America in the future!

Texas Governor Rick Perry And The Christian Right: Reason To Oppose Him For the Presidency!

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Texas Governor Rick Perry has been flirting with running for the Presidency, and while the author has previously stated his belief that he will NOT run, there is certainly a very good reason to oppose him IF he indeed decides to run!

That reason, among others, is that the Christian Right is rallying to his support, and that is bad news for those who believe in separation of church and state, and an open minded attitude on the issue of abortion rights, gay rights, immigrant rights, and keeping religion out of government!

Among those supporting Perry if he runs are: Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; David Barton, the Texas self trained historian who has distorted American history, including inaccuracies on Thomas Jefferson’s views on religion, and opposition to deficit spending, a graduated income tax, minimum wage, and global warming; and San Antonio pastor John Hagee, whose hateful views caused John McCain to reject his endorsement in 2008.

The goal of an election for President is NOT to elect a Christian government, but rather a government that promotes the long held tradition of the separation of church and state!

Perry, who succeeded George W. Bush as President, has much the same swagger as Bush, but he is making Bush look more moderate by comparison, and although he would never have been Governor of Texas if Bush had not gone to the White House, he is actively separating himself from Bush and his family, who have never been thrilled by Perry as Governor of the Lone Star state.

Hard to believe, but in so many ways, Perry would actually be WORSE than George W. Bush, which shows just how far downhill the Republican Party has descended, if it is even slightly considering Perry for the Presidency!

Since this entry is about religion and Perry, let us finish this entry saying about his potential candidacy: God forbid!

The Republican War Against Science And History

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The Republican Party has become a “KNOW NOTHING” party, encouraging the population to believe myth and fable as fact.

In the field of science, the Republicans deny climate change is going on, despite harsh environmental conditions, including floods, fires, and tornadoes, along with extremes of temperature at all points of the year.

They also deny evolution, and instead profess the concept that the earth is about 6,000 years old, and that mankind walked with dinosaurs, the concept of creationism or intelligent design, with most Republicans arguing that it should be taught alongside evolution, even though creationism is a religious belief with no evidence of being scientific.

At the same time, Republicans love to argue their own version of history and government, totally distorting the Founding Fathers, the Civil War, the history of American capitalism, the role of American religion, American foreign policy, and Ronald Reagan! It is literally embarrassing how often Republican Presidential candidates and congressional and state Republicans misread history, and show their total ignorance and prejudice toward women, African Americans, immigrants, and labor!

The Republicans are busy spreading a propaganda view of human knowledge, and in the process, undermining America’s greatness! Knowledge is supposed to be power, but to the GOP, knowledge is a enemy of their distorted agenda to mislead the American people!

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute And Civic Literacy Testing

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The Intercollegiate Studies Institute is an organization which promotes civic literacy among the American people.

In a survey done in 2008, it was discovered that the average American taking a 33 question test scored 49 percent, and more shockingly, college educators only scored 55 percent! But those in public office scored lower than the average citizen, only 44 percent!

The test deals with American history, government, and economics, and it demonstrates how poorly our citizenry is knowledgeable about its own institutions and traditions.

79 percent of those in public office did not know that an official establishment of religion is banned in the Bill of Rights! 43 percent do not know the purpose of the Electoral College! 54 percent do not know that the power to declare war resides in the Congress! 27 percent cannot name one right or freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment! And 49 percent cannot name the three branches of government!

The author of this blog is proud to announce that he got a 90.91 percent result, 30 out of 33, matching his son David, on the exam, with both of us somewhat stumped by economics questions, but fortunately, only three of them!

By the way, IF such an exam was given to Rick Santorum, who this week condemned liberals for the poor knowledge of American history in America, it seems certain he might not even score the average of 49 percent of the typical American citizen who participated in the exam in 2008 or the average of 44 percent of officeholders. And it is clear that Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin would also fail miserably. Instead of them all blaming liberals, who have promoted an expansion of the American history curriculum to cover the history of minorities, women, and labor, from just the usual white male leaders of government and great business capitalists constantly idealized by conservatives, they might finally learn the truth and complete story of American history!

Ignorance Of American History Pervasive Among American Students! But The Same In World Civilizations and Science!

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A new national study demonstrates what has long been known: America’s students are terribly ignorant and clueless about American history–its personalities, principles, accomplishments, and failures! This was demonstrated by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, called America’s Report Card.

22 percent of fourth graders, 18 percent of eighth graders, and 13 percent of high school seniors showed real understanding of the concepts and the important facts and principles of our nation’s historical tradition.

But it is not just American history, but also understanding of world civilizations and foreign lands that is a problem.

Also, the knowledge of science is abysmal, with many students having no understanding of the physical and biological sciences, with religion having a greater hold and acceptance than the realities of science, so that there are millions of young Americans who have no understanding of evolution or the natural sciences and climate change.

Very small percentages go into the sciences or engineering or technology fields, forcing American companies to recruit students from India, China and elsewhere to fill their needs for trained scientists.

With the emphasis on basic reading, writing, and math skills, but without very good returns even on those subjects, America’s children are being cheated out of what is MOST important: a broad General Knowledge base by the time they have left high school in America!

Rick Santorum: An Embarrassment And A Fool Of A Candidate For President!

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The Republican Party has a group of Presidential or probable Presidential candidates who are embarrassments and fools at the same time, and anyone who is rational, knows who they are: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum!

All have made unbelievable statements based on nothing but ignorance and propaganda, and all are expecting the nation to consider them seriously for President, with any of the four being a total disaster were they to seize control of the party apparatus for the 2012 election!

The latest blunder is that of Santorum, who already has a horrible reputation as a “holier than thou” social conservative, who is seen as the biggest of all enemies of the gay community since the Lawrence V. Texas Supreme Court decision, and has had the misfortune of a gay activist, Dan Savage, spreading a new meaning of his last name, referring to anal sex.

As a family values candidate, however, Santorum has the responsibility to be accurate in his statements, and he is, instead, reckless in his assertions.

His newest error of many is his assertion that June 6, 1944, the day of the D Day invasion at Normandy, France, which led to the end of World War II in Europe within a year, was based on fighting for freedom, which includes the defeat of “ObamaCare”!

What an outrage, and a sign of yet ANOTHER GOP candidate for President who is ignorant or reckless with American history, joining Palin, Bachmann, and Gingrich!

It is sad that every time Santorum opens his mouth, stupidity and ignorance show through, and he has no shame in any of the rhetoric he utters!

The battle for the Republican Presidential nomination is going to be a long, difficult road with many outrages ahead until maybe sanity rules by early to mid 2012, instead of the four fools mentioned above!

Sarah Palin: Ignorance Of American History Reaffirmed!

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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who has just finished a so called Heritage Tour of historic sites, and in the process stole the thunder of Mitt Romney on the day of his Presidential candidacy announcement in New Hampshire, has proved once again what a fool and idiot she is, and how poorly educated she really is!

Having already made many statements in the past that are totally false, including that the Russians won the space race for the moon in the 1960s, now Palin has claimed that Paul Revere conducted his famous ride in April 1775 to warn the British of the patriots being ready to fight for their freedom!

What a preposterous statement, totally untrue, and verified by historians, including Douglas Brinkley, and yet she continues to insist that she is correct, and knows her American history!

One has to wonder how such an individual, who comes across as a moron, has any possibility of winning the GOP nomination, when even if one disagrees with Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Jon Huntsman, the serious candidates in the race, at least one can respect their views and knowledge, even if one cannot see supporting them for President. At least one can imagine any of the above three as potential Presidents, which cannot be said for Palin, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum, all of whom have made preposterous, loony, crazy statements that are, factually, totally incorrect!

If Sarah Palin claims to understand American history, then it might be a statement on how history is taught in Alaska!

Americans Cannot Pass Citizenship Tests, But Are Critical Of Immigrants Who CAN Pass Citizenship Tests!

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Many Americans are quick to be nativists, to believe that America should only be for Americans, meaning that we should not allow immigrants into our country, as they, supposedly, cannot be Americanized.

But while many Americans have these prejudiced, often racist, attitudes, many Americans cannot pass a basic citizenship test that immigrants MUST pass to become citizens!

Quick to judge others, these bigots are not informed enough about their own country, but seem to think it is perfectly alright to be ignorant, simply by the fact that they were born in this country!

Imagine if we were to say that if you do not know the history and government of the country in which you were born, that you should lose your citizenship rights, as a basic part of citizenship should be to have an intelligent understanding of the heritage and traditions of your homeland!

Before any citizen should be judging immigrants, better to look in the mirror and improve oneself! And doing so would also improve ability to vote intelligently and understand the issues that government must deal with every day, rather than simply being ignorant and apathetic, as if they are birthrights!

Newsweek and The Daily Beast polled 1,000 Americans on ten random questions from the 100 that make up the list of questions of the US Citizenship test given to immigrants applying for citizenship.

38 percent failed to gain even six correct out of the random ten questions!

29 percent could not name Joe Biden as Vice President of the United States!

73 percent did not understand the concept of the Cold War as a half century conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union!

44 percent did not know that the first ten amendments to the Constitution are the Bill of Rights, our basic civil liberties that very few nations possess!

Six percent did not know that July 4 is Independence Day, absolutely unbelievable!

The knowledge of international affairs is absolutely abysmal, but realize that many Republicans act as if the United States is so wonderful and special that it cannot learn anything from “old Europe” or any other parts of the world!

What causes this tragedy about lack of knowledge of the government and history of America? Among the crucial factors are a very inequitable and inadequate education system; and the extreme inequities of wealth, with the top 400 households having more money than the bottom 60 percent combined!

We have a small percentage of Americans who are very tuned in and understand government and history, while a very large number of Americans have no clue at all! This is a danger to American democracy, as education enlightens us, and ignorance breeds further ignorance!

Rick Santorum Joins Michele Bachmann And Sarah Palin: Ignorant And Stupid On The Constitution And American History!

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Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has joined the school of ignorant and stupid Presidential possibilities for the Republican Party!

Santorum criticized President John F. Kennedy for his speech in Houston during the 1960 Presidential campaign, where Kennedy declared his belief in the total separation of church and state, in order to allay fears of having a Catholic President. He made it clear that he might be a Catholic, but he would not allow the Catholic Church to dictate what he said or did in office. Indeed, he followed through on that completely!

But Santorum, himself Catholic, said Kennedy was wrong in so stating that belief, and that Kennedy was radical in promoting that view.

Santorum finished by declaring that Thomas Jefferson is “spinning in his grave” over this idea of separation of church and state.

And in so stating this, Santorum comes across as totally ignorant and stupid, and lacking in knowledge of the Founding Fathers, who definitely promoted separation of church and state, particularly Jefferson, who rejected traditional Christianity and became a Deist, which did not believe in organized religion!

More than ever, the GOP has troubles with candidates who have no clue as to our Constitution or history of the nation! This is, to say the least, a major embarrassment! First Sarah Palin, then Michele Bachmann, now Rick Santorum!

Michele Bachmann’s Ignorance Of American History And The Constitution!

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Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a potential Presidential candidate for 2012, has made a total fool of herself recently, displaying her total ignorance of American history and the Constitution.

It makes one wonder what kind of staff she has in her House of Representatives offices, that they did not stop her from making the tremendous blunders she committed, which make her look ridiculous and ignorant, dangerous for a potential Presidential candidate.

We would have thought that Sarah Palin was the only ignorant Republican considering a run for the White House. But Michele Bachmann, at least on paper, is more educated, including a law degree from Oral Roberts University! However, it has not helped to make her an informed person!

But that may be the problem. Having a degree from an evangelical religiously based law school would seem to many to be suspect, that they make up their own history and concepts of what the law and the Constitution is!

Bachmann has claimed that the Founding Fathers ended slavery, even though the Constitution includes two slavery compromises, and the Civil War was waged under Abraham Lincoln on the issue of slavery and its expansion.

She most recently went to New Hampshire, the site of the first primary in March 2012, and congratulated them on being the site of the first shots of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord, failing to recognize that these sites are located in Massachusetts!

It is obvious she had a poor legal education, has a poor historical knowledge base, less than immigrants who have to pass a test to become citizens, and an inferior staff that lacks the knowledge and ability to protect their boss by being able to inform her of the truth and the facts before she speaks anywhere, and proceeds to make a total fool of herself!

It is not just her extreme right wing views that are a problem for Michele Bachmann; it is also her stupidity and ignorance!