Monday, March 14, 2011

Ignorance Is Bliss

On Friday, the NLRB (union controlled) ruled that a threat of physical violence by pro union supporters is NOT coercive – RedState has the complete story. Sharia4America has plans, online, to take down OUR Statue of Liberty and replace it with something they find less offensive. Al-Qaida has new magazine out for women that mixes beauty and bomb tips. A woman admitted in Wisconsin to writing and sending two death threat emails to Governor Walker and Republican Senators as well as their families. Her name is not released and she is not arrested.

But even more troubling than any of the aforementioned is Obama’s early and aggressive outreach to our kids for his 2012 re-election. He told students last week that and I quote, “We are so interested in figuring out how to get your ideas, your input, your energy’. He was speaking to student leaders from Cleveland State and nearby schools. This is not the first time and it won’t be the last. In truth, the WH has plans of at least 100 roundtables this Spring with our kids.

Why is this troubling? Well, for one thing, college kids ‘know’ everything. Just ask them. They’ve had some time away from the nest, been indoctrinated by the left as to a new and unfamiliar way of looking at things and have bought it hook line and sinker. Obama and his followers are different than most of the student’s parents – Obama uses Twitter, Skype, and Facebook, he even has a blackberry. Their parents are concerned with paying the bills, their professors are concerned with worldly things such as Global warming and leveling the playing field by ‘getting the rich’ and ‘giving to the poor’. Their professors are also busy educating our children that they know more than their parents – think Al Gore and Van Jones.

I wonder if Obama will tell the kids he targeted their aid to college – think Pell Grants. I wonder if he will tell the kids that those Stafford Loans they have, may if he gets his way, be accruing interest while they are in school rather than deferring the interest until after they graduate as has been the norm. I wonder if he’ll tell the kids he’s trying to get their country to be beholden to the government through a redistribution of wealth. I wonder if he’ll mention that he’s taxing to death the very places where their parents work, and perhaps they will be unable to attend college next year. I wonder if the kids he’s courting know any of this.

TPReview broke the story that the ISI surveyed more than 30,000 college freshmen and seniors, from 85 colleges and universities, over the past five years, to determine their levels of civic literacy. (Civic literacy is defined as proficient knowledge and understanding of America’s core history, key texts, founding principles, and enduring political and economic institutions.) The results are based on responses to a test made up of 60 straight-forward multiple choice questions, many of the questions drawn from such sources as the U.S. Citizenship Exam and the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) high school civics test.

The study’s results (posted at http://www.americancivicliteracy.org/2007/summary_summary.html) are astonishing. Given the astronomical cost of college today, one assumes that a typical college student at a typical school will depart campus with more knowledge of American history, government, foreign affairs, and economics than he or she had upon arrival. One would be wrong.
The average grade for freshmen was 51% – and for seniors 54%, a mere 3 percent increase over the course of four years of college. Both were, of course, F's.
The Founders feared that an ignorant citizenry would be swayed by demagogues, leading to the collapse of our democratic constitutional republic. Their hope of course was rooted in the belief that knowledgeable Americans would keep a mindful eye on their elected representatives.
Today our students, the future’s political leaders, businessmen/women, taxpayers, are being kept ignorant and pushed into a leftist view of the world. Coincidence? I think not. Unless things change, they will lack the ability to fulfill the essential role of informed citizens.
Bottom line: College makes you more liberal. On the other hand, actually knowing things seems to make you more conservative – and we know the government doesn’t want more conservatives running around.
The saying goes that ignorance is Bliss. I wonder if the government coined that phrase.
It’s time to get to the kids and shake them out of their liberal inspired bliss. The children are our future; they must be awakened with some cold hard facts based on history, politics and economics. We’d better make sure they know more than what Obama and his buddies are spoon feeding them on our dime and quick.
We need to put our thinking caps on and come up with a game plan to get to the kids. We MUST show them the light – we must educate them with the Truth and Fact. Any and all ideas are welcomed. 
Ignorance is not bliss - it’s our demise.