hyphenated twentysomething

Do you know your freedoms?

An interesting, yet not shocking, article about the ignorance of constitutional rights is in the Chicago Tribune today (the link I’ve provided though is from Yahoo news so that you don’t have to subscribe to read it).

In the article titled, “Study: Few Americans know 1st Amendment”, marketing firm, McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, conducted a study on 1,000 participants to find a larger percentage of Americans know the five characters of the TV show “The Simpsons” than the five freedoms granted by the First Amendment. Now, to me that’s not shocking at all. I mean I’m sure even half of my friends (as smart and knowledge as they may be) may not be able to bust out all five freedoms (which by the way are: speech, religion, press, assembly, and petition for redress of grievances) in a moment’s notice. Heck, even I forgot the last one-petition for redress of grievances.

But I what I found really funny, incredulous, and rather depressing is that people actually thought that our forefathers had been smart enough to add this particular right: the right to own a pet (no, I’m not even kidding):

“It also showed that people misidentified First Amendment rights. About one in five people thought the right to own a pet was protected, and 38 percent said they believed the right against self-incrimination contained in the Fifth Amendment was a First Amendment right, the survey found.”

I realize that this article merely states what many us already know. Pop culture and entertainment knowledge often trumps political, historical knowledge. And of course, it is always easier to remember little factoids about sports or our favorite TV shows than all that boring stuff you had sit through in school. But it still concerns me how unaware or ignorant we are about our constitutional rights as citizens. I mean if we don’t know our rights, and especially the freedoms afforded to us by the 1st amendment, how can we expect ourselves to fight for them, or use them to our advantage?

Often times, as I think about having a future career in the legal profession, I think I could really benefit people like our parents, family members, and others in the South-Asian community (who either have recently immigrated or who have been living in America for a few decades) to become aware of the freedoms and rights they are given by becoming American citizens. Many parents who immigrated here are still learning to become comfortable and empowered with their citizenship even after so many years. And many times they just really want to stay under the radar in fear of harassment from the government and the police, especially after 9/11. In my naïve mind, I used to think that that was just among the immigrant community, and in particular the South-Asian community because they did not see a notable presence in the government that would provide assistance to their needs, concerns, and desires. Nevertheless, after reading this article and many others with similar themes, I realize that Americans, as a whole, too often take their rights for granted. Hopefully, lawyers, teachers, journalists other communicators, and we as citizens ourselves can do something to change this not only within immigrant communities but also nationwide. Some day, my friend, some day.

posted by payal @ 2:46 PM