HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THINK FIRST AMENDMENT GOES TOO FAR

This is scary stuff.

Wow. When I was in high school, civics was a required course for everyone, and the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Federalist Papers and other writings of the Founding Fathers were required reading. We took TESTS on them, so you bet we learned the material. Even sub-par students absorbed 70% of the material, else they couldn't pass the course and graduate. It's incomprehensible to me how anyone can expect to "spread freedom" around the world when our own young people don't understand the basics of republican government, democracy and a free society.

It's always ignorance that fuels support for regressive policies, even to the point of fascism. And "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." What a prospect for the future of America.

I just had a guy in my office telling me some sob story about our building 185 schools in Iraq; I replied, "There are a lot of places in Mississippi that could use a school building project like that." With apologies to Mississippi, it appears that the problem is much more national in scope...