Education… or the Lack Thereof

What a country I reside in!! I am constantly forced to remind myself that we are an ignorant society. It’s not so much that people are willfully ignorant, it’s that our education system is horribly sad. People forget that the quality of our universities does not reflect the sad quality of our primary education. Primary education in the USA is largely indoctrination. Don’t believe me? Try reading “Lies My Teacher Told Me” or “A Peoples History of the United States” with an open mind.
A friend visiting our home made the comment the one day that people suspected of crimes against children should be made to take truth serum. I pointed out that the 5th amendment prohibits forced self incrimination. She stated that the law should be changed when children are involved. I then reminded her that it would take a constitutional amendment to accomplish that. I couldn’t get upset with her ignorance. The sad truth is that most citizens don’t understand much about our government or constitution. This is not their fault. This is the fault of our sad system of education.
Not long ago our Supreme Court struck down a prohibition against corporation’s rights to influence campaigns. This was stupidly said to be a defense of the freedom of speech. I could complain about the right wing balance of the current court but I will refrain, except to point out that the law struck down was 103 years old and signed into law by Teddy Roosevelt. I bring this up because a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey has proposed a constitutional amendment to specifically allow congress to regulate the speech of corporations. Republican Congressman Sensenbrenner responded that it would be the first time the Bill of Rights would be amended and he believed that a very bad precedent to set.
Now why would I bring this up? What side do I fall on? Going back to my original complaint about the state of our education… the problem with the proposed amendment is not that it would alter the Bill of Rights (and therefore would never stand a chance of passing) the problem is that it does not address the core issue. The only reason this even came before the Court is a longstanding gross misinterpretation of the 14th Amendment. For those of you who are not up to speed the 14th Amendment, it was written to allow former slaves to enjoy the full rights of citizenship. After passage, a number of cases brought before the Supreme Court established that Corporations were in a legal sense, people! Now I don’t know about you, but to me this is asinine! The logical fix for the recent Court decision is not to amend the bill of Rights. The PROPER fix is to define “Person” for the purposes of the 14th Amendment.
Now I find myself at an impasse. Is the Democratic Congresswoman from New Jersey a simple product of the American educational system? Or did she propose this misguided amendment knowing full well that it would not gain any real traction and in fact did not impact the root cause of the inequity? Why not, it allows her to pretend she is addressing a problem without any real shot at changing the status quo. Wow, I must confess I’m torn between my contempt for the American primary education system and my contempt for the motivation of American politicians. Such is my dilemma!