My Point of View by Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

Albert Lea resident Jennifer Vogt-Erickson is a member of the Freeborn County DFL Party.

Our country just celebrated its 240th birthday. It’s a remarkable feat for a daring experiment in self-government based on Enlightenment ideas. These ideas arose in England and France in the 17th and 18th centuries. See if any of these still look familiar today:

John Locke (1632-1704) championed the notion that all men are equal and have the right to their life, liberty, happiness and possessions.

Montesquieu (1689-1755) put forth the idea that government should have separation of powers, divided into legislative, executive, and judicial branches.

Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1788) philosophized that government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed.

Voltaire (1694-1778) promoted freedom of speech, the press and religion.

All these ideas should be commonplace to us, but they were radical notions at the time when Europe was ruled by monarchs who acquired their authority (sometimes absolute) from the divine right of kings–the idea that God had ordained them to lead. People questioned this arrangement at their own peril.

The Founding Fathers put themselves in mortal danger too when they signed the Declaration of Independence. Fortunately for them, the colonists won their fight for freedom from British rule and the founders’ necks were spared. Some of them went on to write the Articles of Confederation, which didn’t create a strong enough federal government, so they replaced it with the U.S. Constitution. We have operated from that document with strikingly few revisions since 1787.

Democracy in the U.S., in turn, has inspired democratic governments in many other countries. Over half the world’s population lives in at least partial democracies, and 13 percent lives in full democracies. (Since the U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population, another 8 percent outside the U.S. lives in full democracies.)

What keeps democracy strong? Education and participation. As Chief Justice Earl Warren noted in the decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, “(Education) is the foundation of good citizenship.”

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who stepped down from the Supreme Court in 2006, is concerned about the decline of civics education in public schools. She received so much civics education in school that she admits she was on the verge of tiring of it, but she laments that some states have now nearly cut it out of their curriculum.

This weakens democracy. O’Connor notes that while two-thirds of American adults could name a judge on the television show “American Idol” in 2012, only 15 percent could name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. A couple years later, voter turnout was the worst in over 70 years.

In his book “How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter,” Rick Schenkman states, “More than half of all Americans now have some college education, yet they are no more knowledgeable about civics than Americans a half-century ago, when fewer than half of all citizens even graduated from high school. What’s needed is specifically an emphasis on civics. Studies show that people who know civics are less easily manipulated by politicians.”

To paraphrase Isaac Asimov, democracy doesn’t mean that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” We have some hard questions to ask ourselves, and we must keep polishing the Enlightenment ideas we cherish.

As O’Connor notes, “The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool. It must be taught and learned anew by each generation of citizens.”

Being a woman of action, O’Connor founded iCivics, a free curriculum which now reaches four million students and teaches young people how government works at the national, state and local levels and how they can participate in it. She also travels across the country promoting civics education.

On a list of American heroes, I think Sandra Day O’Connor is right up there.

For fun (and civic necessity) here are some questions from the U.S. naturalization test to quiz yourself on. If you have kids and grandkids, ask them too. Answers are below.

1. What is the supreme law of the land?

2. Name two rights in the Declaration of Independence.

3. Who makes federal laws?

4. If the president can no longer serve during his or her term, who becomes president?

5. Who is the chief justice of the Supreme Court?

6. How old does a person have to be to vote?

7. What territory did the U.S. buy from France in 1803?

8. What was the U.S.’ main concern during the Cold War?

9. What ocean is on the east coast of the United States?

10. Why does the U.S. flag have 13 stripes?

Answers: 1) U.S. Constitution. 2) Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. 3) Congress. 4) Vice president. 5) John Roberts. 6) 18 years old. 7) Louisiana Territory. 8) Communism. 9) Atlantic Ocean. 10) To symbolize the 13 original colonies.