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This Speakout has not been edited.

In the July 4, 2007 editorial “The nation’s birthday-Adams foresaw nature of the celebration", you present us with a few words from the founders that portray the nation’s mindset at the time. Now, fast forward 231 years later, and those words have become lost or forgotten on our citizens.

On Sean Hannity’s daytime radio talk show he does a “man on the street” segment where he sends an intern down to the streets of New York and asks passers-by a series of questions about our government. On Tuesday’s show he asked some basic Fourth of July questions. I used to be amazed by the lack of knowledge of the common citizen, but anymore it’s just dull-surprise.

The questions he presented were as follows: 1) What is July 4th? Answer: Independence day 2) Who did we win our Independence from? Answer: England 3) What was the name of the war we fought to win our independence? Answer: Revolutionary war 4) Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? Answer: Thomas Jefferson

All pretty basic questions, right? Of course, you have to wonder if it’s all staged, and if the people were hand-picked before they get on the air.

Anyway, out of the four of five citizens quizzed, all got the first question correct, but only one person could answer the next two, and no one got the last one. So I used the same questions and asked several of my customers through out the day and was not surprised to see the same results that Hannity got.

Hannity’s last question to them was whether they vote Democrat or Republican. Of course, being in New York it’s an obvious answer. But the people I asked are all pretty much Republican. So it doesn’t really matter based on party lines who could answer the questions or not. Nobody seems to know their history any longer, which is sad.

We obviously do not make it a priority to teach American history in our schools, and by the people I talked too, it just isn’t that important. Men like John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington along with the brave men and women of early America, fought and gave their lives for what we have today; FREEDOM. Do we not owe them respect for all eternity, at least one day every year, the knowledge that we know where we came from, and the sacrifices made?
So, let us not forget. Set down your iphone and your latte and read a book on what was done to create this great and wonderful country we live in.

Sacrifice just a little of your time to learning what gives you the ability to live free. Outside of the problems in the world today, and the growing pains of our past, we still live in the greatest country ever constructed by the human mind. We owe it to future generations to keep our history alive.

READER COMMENTS

Good going, Tom, but I'm afraid you used too many polisyliable words. Judging from the replies of many of the readers, I think you need to restate your ideas in words that they can understand. Use more words like "Duh, like and (references to bodily functions)" Scary, isn't it?

Tom, I think you need to define "freedom". Laws and restrictions is a pretty broad based subject. Which laws and/or restrictions bother you?

What freedoms have you personally lost?

The education establishment had little to do with uncovering some of the unsavory aspects of the founding fathers , that was the work of historians, and in one case, the mans decendants.

What we have in America is a capitalist/republic with social programs and laws and restrictions on those who would abuse the socioeconomic system.

America is not based upon a cult of personalities. No matter how worthy the ff, they are not the country.

Anonymous writes, regarding Sean Hannity's man-on-the-street interviews "Of course, you have to wonder if it’s all staged, and if the people were hand-picked before they get on the air." Gee, ya think so?

Is Sean Hannity a Catholic? Does Dick Cheney **** in the woods?

Or as the children say, Duh!

Of course you'd probably get extra points if you answered "Ronald Reagan" to questions 1 and 4 and "liberals" for number 2.

I agree. It is essential that people understand the principles of this great nation. That freedom is a new concept in history. But it has been the intention of the education establishment to "contextualize" the framers of this nation. That means we apply tabloid journalism: Jefferson had sex with slaves, Franklin dalied with prostitiutes, Washington was a slaver. All this was true, but the intent of tabloid history is to denigrate the words and ideas of these people. Ad hominum history disregards the feats and focuses on sin. That way todays youth will not question federalism, social collectivism, the accelerated generation of laws and restrictions...and ask, "what happened to freedom?"

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