Kids Are Americans Too Read Free

wait! Don’t let your eyes glaze over. It’s a fascinating story—it really is!—and I hope you read all about it someday, if you haven’t already. (Yes, I know from letters and e-mails to the Factor that some of you are just amazingly knowledgeable about history and politics, and I don’t forget that.)
    But I’m not going to tell that story in these pages.
    What I want you to think about—and it’s SADhow many adults forget this basic fact—is that your rights were written down more than two centuries ago.
    Not only were there no iPods then, there were no…Well, you name it: Look around your room, or your house, or the shopping mall. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the rest of the guys would be stunned if you somehow zipped them through time to our world today.
    And it’s not just the gadgets, look at the people. Every census shows remarkable changes in age, national heritage, language, and so forth among the Americans around you.
    This is not 1787. Back then Americans ate parsnips. Had any of those lately? Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson would not believe what we are eating today! Have a taco, boys. How about some sushi? Pizza with mozzarella?
    The point is, times have really changed in just about every way. Except, that is, for our rights. But even those are subject to new rulings based upon the modern age. And that fact can make your life confusing. New technology means kids have more access to “stuff” than any other kids in history.
    But the most important difference for you and your rights is that IDEAS have changed since 1787.
    You know some of the obvious ones. Back then, the creators of the Constitution—again, the basis for all American rights, the supreme law of the land—did not set down for women a right to vote. They also did not set down guarantees for full citizenship for African-Americans. They even allowed slavery. Not good. Andthe entire country paid the price later in the bloody Civil War.
    INTERLUDE OF RANTING: Hey, why should I respect the U.S. Constitution if it disrespects me? Huh? Am I included if I’m a woman? No way. Or if I’m African-American? No, no, no! Or if I’m not a property owner? What can that old rag mean to me in my life today?
    Okay, so that’s the puzzle right there.
    How does this old set of rules keep working?
    And does it really?
    If you watch my TV program or listen to my radio program, you know that people are arguing about that question all over the country.
    So let’s join in…
    UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
    Has your American-history teacher ever told you that dinosaurs were given a berth on Noah’s Ark during the Great Flood described in the Old Testament? Did he or she ever tell you that you belong in hell if you don’t believe in the message of Jesus?
    You are amazed by my questions. “Has O’Reilly lost his mind at last?” you ask (to yourself, I hope).
    Well, in a high school in New Jersey, an American-historyteacher said these things and many more that, you would think, have nothing to do with the official class subject. Moreover, you could say that these statements are pretty good evidence of religious fanaticism.
    How do we know for sure that the teacher said these things? Because sixteen-year-old Matthew LaClair taped these remarks in class (thereby becoming a part of American history himself). He thought it was his right to be taught American history, not fundamentalist Christian ideas.
    Can you guess what happened next? I couldn’t have. The teacher was replaced by another but assigned to teach the same subject to a new group of students. The school board banned taping in all classes without prior permission from the teacher. Some of Matthew’s classmates got angry that the tapes appeared on the Internet and on TV, in effect airing their voices without their permission. Matthew alleges that the school did not step in to keep other kids from harassing