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 CHICAGO (Reuters) – Most Americans have
an easier time naming members of the cartoon Simpson family than listing
the five freedoms granted by the nation’s founders, a survey by a museum
released on Wednesday said.
Half of 1,000 Americans randomly surveyed by the McCormick Tribune Freedom
Museum could name at least two of the five members of Fox Television’s
Simpson family, the stars of the network’s long-running show.
But just 28 percent of respondents could name more than one of the five
freedoms listed in the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment — about the
same proportion that could name all five Simpson family members or could
recall the three judges on Fox TV’s top-rated "American Idol."
Just 8 percent could recall three First Amendment freedoms.
Some participants displayed comical ignorance such as the 38 percent who
believed the right not to incriminate yourself — "taking the 5th" in
lawyer lingo — was granted by the First Amendment rather than the Fifth.
Among other rights not mentioned in the Constitution but listed by some
respondents was the right to drive and the right to have pets.
from Reuters
Well, that’s no surprise. If the Bill of Rights
featured witty dialogue and funny pictures and had been on TV in every
corner of America at least 4 times per day for the
last 25 years, you can bet your bottom dollar we’d get every one of those
suckers.
Interestingly, only one person got all five. The one
everybody forgets – freedom to petition for redress of grievances – basically
the Right to Sue, is perhaps the most germane to what we have become.
Although the right to drive is a close second…
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