"Proud to be an American"

Today as I arrived home, I found my parents in our living room with the home teachers. (Home teachers are members of our faith that visit once a month to visit, deliver a short message and offer their services if needed.) The lesson today was on our nation, and how we need to be good and active citizens. As an example of how we need to improve in our knowledge of how our great nation works he had compiled a quiz of a few of the questions on the exam taken to apply for citizenship. Of the 20 questions I missed three... to say the least I was disappointed that I missed that many. Lets see how you do.

Do you have what it takes to be a citizen of the United States?

1. How many stripes are there in the US Flag?

2. Who is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court today?

3. In what year was the Constitution written?

4. What rights were promised by the 1^st Amendment to the Constitution?

5. How many Supreme Court justices are there?

6. What are the first ten amendments to the Constitution called?

7. When was the Declaration of Independence signed?

8. Name one Amendment that guarantees voting privileges.

9. What are the original 13 colonies?

10. What do the stripes on the flag represent?

11. What is the introduction to the Constitution called?

12. How many amendments to the Constitution are there?

13. What are the constitutional requirements to become the President of the United States?

14. Who selects the Supreme Court justices?

15. How many Representatives are there in Congress?

16. Who said, “Give me liberty or give me death!”?

17. Why did the pilgrims come to America?

18. Who has the power to declare war?

19. What INS form do you have to fill out in order to apply for citizenship?

20. Name three rights given by the Bill of Rights.

America has, in the last few decades, become more and more a nation of ignorance. A friend of mine, while attending school here on a student visa, (she was from Canada) commented that American news was offensive and annoying to her because it spends half an hour talking about how the local pie shop was going out of business then, spend literally one minute "The World in a Minute" on what was going on in the world. "How arrogant and ignorant you are," she'd proclaim! I, much to my dismay, had no retort except to proclaim my own non-ignorant state.

America, this is your call out.

We need to know what is going on around us. We need to get out of our "Jay-walking' attitude where it's cool to be dumb and stupidity praised, and pay attention. Ignorance is not strength nor bliss. So here's the challenge: take the quiz, if you can't answer one or are unsure, pull yourself away from halo and research it.

Learning, it does the body good.