There's yet another survey out there proving once again how disconnected Americans are from what living in a participatory democracy means. A new study by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found "more people could name the three "American Idol" judges than identify three First Amendment rights."
More people polled could name the members of the Simpson family than they could the five freedoms
guaranteed by the First Amendment.
"The study .... found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."
Last May, a survey conducted by The University of Connecticut’s Department of Public Policy reported only 14 percent of Americans named freedom of the press as a right in the First Amendment, while 22 percent felt that the government should be able to censor newspapers.
So why are the Simpsons (Homer, Bart, Jessica and Ashlee) more important than freedom of speech, religion, press,
assembly and petition for redress of grievances?
Maybe it's because most Americans have never lived in a country where the government has had the power to spy on its people without a court-ordered warrant or prevented the press from covering the return of soldiers killed in a foreign conflict?
The moral to this story is sobering --- Ignorance can only be Bliss when constitutionally guaranteed freedoms are understood, exercised and protected by the people for the people.