Those who are ignorant of the past are condemned to repeat it, or so goes the adage. Given such reasoning what should we make of the fact that only 1 out of every 1000 (only 1/10th of 1%) Americans can name the five rights protected under the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

Perhaps what’s even most disturbing is the fact that many Americans can barely name two, or even one. Should we therefore assume that such people are not entitled to these rights? No…but it is an interesting thought to say the least and highlights the poor state of American society. According to a recent study conducted by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, only 25% of Americans can name more than one of the five rights enumerated in the First Amendment. These rights include: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion and freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

The study revealed the abyss this country has truly fallen into, revealing that more Americans could name the judges on TV’s "American Idol" than they could identify First Amendment rights. Some respondents (20%) even believed that the right to own a pet was protected under the first amendment.

What can be said for a country when popular culture, the inane and the irrelevant have more prevalence in the lives of Americans than the substantive? How can a country prosper when populated by such buffoons? The ignorance of so many not only reveals the complete and utter failure of the American educational system, but also of parents and a culture which places little value on intelligence and so much value on the trivial.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3692656.html