Yankee ignorance is still alive and thriving
A few days ago, Time came out with a poll that suggested one in five Americans believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim, thanks in part to the non-story of the mosque near ground zero being in the news every night for the past month. Having Hussein as a middle name probably doesn’t help.
Of course the truth is: Obama is a devout Christian who prays on a daily basis and goes to church. During his campaign two years ago, he even got into a little trouble because of the inflammatory remarks by his former pastor the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
How soon we forget, another poll released recently claimed only 34% of Americans believe Obama is actually a Christian. How uninformed must one be to not even know the faith of one’s leader?
Most people will agree that one on one; Americans are a kind and generous people, but as a society the word that best describes them is ignorant. I’m not sure what started them on this path of ignorance (other than their government brainwashing them over the centuries to believe in nothing but God and Country). I find it perplexing that their lack of knowledge is just as domestic as it is foreign.
For example, during this past July holiday weekend, a poll was done that concluded that a staggering 55% of Americans believed that the declaration of independence was signed on July 4th. In fact, July 4th is actually the date in 1776 when the Continental Congress approved the Declaration. It was officially signed on August 2nd.
I recently read an article in the Huffington Post that listed some mind boggling facts about some crazy Yankee beliefs and lack of knowledge. The first and most shocking was that 20% of Americans could not identify their own country on a map; the United States as big as it is could not be recognized.
Another fact I found sad, but amusing, was that another 20% still believe the sun revolves around the earth, something science has abandoned since the seventeenth century.
The U.S. being the religious country that it is, it’s not surprising to learn that a quarter of Americans now believe that 9/11 was predicted in the Book of Revelation and one in five trusts that the world will end in their lifetime.
A couple other odds and ends I found interesting was that a fifth of Americans believe that alien abductions happen, 20% believe that witches are real and 15-20% of the population believe that it’s “ok” to urinate in the swimming pool (yes, that’s right).
So after two hundred plus years, it’s clear that the United States still suffers from an abundance of ignorance, but where does it come from? Is it hate? 33% percent think there should be a ban on allowing a Muslim to become President. Is it a poor school system? Only 10% know what radiation is. Or is it simply apathy?
Maybe it’s just plain stupidity; 19% of Americans believe that George W. Bush was a great president.
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all. – John F. Kennedy
