Last Thursday I had a Government test over the Bill of Rights. In other words, what freedoms everyone has as an American citizen. The sad thing is my teacher was surprised by the low test scores.
Ouch.But in reality, do Americans really know what freedoms they have? Will half of the students in my class forget what the 15th Amendment is by the end of the month, or have they forgotten already? It's interesting to see how such an important part of our life is overlooked everyday.
But it's a known fact, if you're a math professor, or work on Wall Street, or own a business, you're probably not thinking about the Amendments in the Constitution. It's like how most women don't pay attention to baseball, sure, we know that it's there, but we don't really notice it. It's unethical. In fact, I would be slightly frightened if a construction worker could list the first five amendments to me.
How many of these freedoms do we take for granted? Most likely, a majority of them. I'm using freedom of speech right now, and yet some who exercise that right didn't read the fine print. Treason, slander...yeah, those are bad. I wore jeans today, just like almost everyday. My hair is down, I prayed, I decided to have pasta for lunch and didn't eat the new chicken we bought since it didn't taste good. I lived. That is basically what the amendments to the constitution are laying how, saying that we have freedom to live as we please as long as we don't harm others. Maybe that is why we overlook them, because we live everyday. Subconsciously, we know that we have freedom to put on miss-matching socks and walk backwards. We don't wonder 'Mmm, am I breaking the law by waking up today?' because we do it everyday. Odd how what most people don't do everyday is illegal. Drugs, drinking, killing, the list goes on. The major crimes are those out of ordinary, ones that we read every so often in the newspaper, yet think nothing of it. And we know that it was no question if it is or isn’t against the law. Yet we don't know which amendment it's related to, where the person extending the limits of his or her freedom. So, it wouldn't surprise me if half of my Government class forgot the 9th Amendment, or couldn't think of all of the five rights explained in the first. Personally, I'm not going to remember. I'm just going to live, which is what our founding fathers intended us to do in the first place. It's not about how much knowledge you have, but what you do with it. Just because we don’t know every right we have, doesn’t make us less of an American citizen.
I understand completely what you are saying about living with freedom and how you use the knowledge you have. But the problem we face today is the lack of knowledge or concern some Americans have. No, we should not be completely fixated on which amendment we are asserting in our daily lives, we just simply need to know what are basic rights are. Please look at my post “Great Charter of Freedoms.”
Alot of people do not know what the term "FREEDOM" really means. Some just think oh i can do as please an when i please to do it . but FREEDOM does not mean that at all!!!.
When you said that some take it for granted .. They really do . Do not care, and some dont even of understand the bill of rights. Its ashame how this generations takes it for granted we should know better too.
I just thought about this the other day. I was browsing a site with international travel information, and took a peek at Saudi Arabia's info. Women cannot buy fast food without a man present, cannot display any type of religious icon other than Islamic ones, and cannot be seen speaking with men in public. My naive mind was halfway convinced that these things were no longer happening. It's easy to forget the simple luxuries until you lose them, and even after you do the appreciation fades quickly.