How bad is the knowledge level of the "average U.S. citizen" regarding the history of the United States. It's pretty bad.
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This past weekend i was talking with my forty-some year old step-daughter and she asked me what started World War II. My step-daughter is the sweetest little thing, nice, with a college degree from Ball State University. After sending her a you-tube scene of James Cagney singing "Over there, the Yanks are coming", i found out my other step-daughter didn't know much about World War II either.
Now this is probably more shocking to someone old like me, who grew up with all kinds of movies regarding World War II, but Chrissy didn't even know about Normandy and D-day. Her level of knowledge was limited to the names of the wars (e.g., WW II, Korea, Vietnam) but that was about it.
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Now here is my point. If Americans don't know their history, how can they be proud of that history?
The beacon of light that shines from America is rather dim when it shines on Americans themselves.
I just spoke to someone who said that Israel controls almost the entire Middle East. I had to laugh and point out that Israel is smaller than the state of NJ. People think they are experts on the Middle East and don't know a thing about it.