Re: More on American ignorance in general

On Dec 5, 12:03 pm, "The Other Kim" <m...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Barbara wrote:
Hmm--and on Jay Leno's Battle of the Jay Walkers last night, one of
them said Canada was one of our states, and thought Alaska was part of
Canada, and was an island.

I really have to wonder about these people.  Did they sleep through
elementary school??

I have long held the opinion that one should have to take a simple
test in order to get your voting card, and you should be a taxpayer
(income tax and/or property tax) because it is the taxpayers who pay
the bills.  That's never been a popular opinion, however.

You'd be eliminating a good number of people who aren't paying taxes,
and that's the problem   My son pays neither property tax nor income tax
(yet; he's a college senior still living with us, and his income is too
low to have taxes taken), but he's old enough to go to war.  I think he
should have a say in who's running the country.  I think everyone who is
eligible should be required to vote, but that doesn't fly, either.
People can't be compelled to vote.

I blame the schools for not emphasizing history more.  History classes
were so very boring to me, but I took an elective course in, "Problems
of Democracy" and was on the Varsity Debating Team in High School for
all 4 years.  Those events have made me a history buff, but not the
required "American History" course, which also taught only the "good"
parts of our history, not the "bad" and there was a lot of "bad."  The
presidential campaign between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson made
more recent campaigns look absolutely pure!

Have you read _Lies My Teacher Told Me_?  There's a new edition out that
I should pick up and compare to the one I read a few years ago.  This
book takes a dozen commonly used high school US history texts and shreds
their approaches to some of our "mythical" stories.  I hated history in
school and only got interested in it when Ken Burns's "Civil War" was on
PBS.

I also resent the ballots being in more languages than English.  Ours
are in English, Spanish, and Creole.  A Citizen is required to speak
English to become a citizen, then why do the ballots have to be in any
other language?

I live in an area with large Hispanic, Korean, and Vietnamese
populations.  I'm sure there are ballots available in those languages as
well as English, and I have an idea why.  Most of the Hispanic, Korean,
and Vietnamese people I encounter here speak English well enough to get
along and work, but they have some difficulty reading English.  When
it's just names on a list it's not much of a problem, like the first
part of the ballot for the local, state, and federal offices, but then
we get to those damned initiatives.  Heck, I have trouble deciphering
the language used on the ballots at times.

The Other Kim
kimmeratsoylentgreenfielddotcom

Ever since I found out I was related to two signers of the Declaration
of Independence I have been devouring books on our founding fathers. I
also loved HBO's series on John Adams. I recently got a book called
founding scribblers (on newspaper writers and paparatizzi (sp?) in the
founding fathers' days). Haven't read it yet. My heirs were Francis
Lightfoot Lee (a quiet and little known man) and his brother Richard
Henry Lee (Lees of Virginia). Richard is who brought the declaration
motion to the congress as a "bill" or whatever it was to be voted on
on behalf of John Adams. They are not well known founding fathers as
they didn't do a lot. They were involved in the Stamp Act, however.
It does cause me pause that I am related to Robert E Lee since I
detest the confederate and always have. Wouldn't you know that I would
find out I am related to the head of the group I have detested for as
long as I have known of the civil war. I have always loved history. I
must have had a great teacher. I loved world and American history. I
find it fascinating but agree we have been sold a bill of goods. What
is sad, is they are currently working on changing some of it in
current books as well. My son advised me the Viet Nam war warranted
one page in their history book. I want my best friend and I to go in
and talk to the kids about it for one day. Gee, do you think they'd
let us? I doubt it. I do think it is appalling that civics has been
dropped and I also think this is because the less we know about what
is SUPPOSED TO be done the more they can get away with.

Sue the ranting one
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: As I have said many times, Confucius teaching tied China to the past
    ... you must have flunked history. ... LT Lee, your ignorance is showing. ... you are an ignorant fool. ... That was why China was tied to the past, ...
    (soc.culture.china)
  • Re: Apologising for ones ancestors
    ... English women in Australia, even after serving their time and being ... following it up with the BBC or a family history search organisation. ... America's War of Independence were shipped to England and became ... who was met by around 50 merchants ...
    (soc.genealogy.britain)
  • Re: As I have said many times, Confucius teaching tied China to the past
    ... you must have flunked history. ... LT Lee, your ignorance is showing. ... you are an ignorant fool. ... That was why China was tied to the past, ...
    (soc.culture.china)
  • Re: [CRIT] Opening
    ... "If Lee Had Lost at Gettysburg." ... Churchill, Winston S. "If Lee had not Won the Battle of Gettysburg". ... Hook's The Hero in History, ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: Big Nate, 5/16
    ... to his country, just like what happened to George H. Thomas. ... IIRC, Lee didn't really want the job with CSA, and only turned ... Note that Lee considered a traitor to his country of record, ... my History BA, yet THC has proven to be a pretty good supplement. ...
    (rec.arts.comics.strips)