Republicans have been chiseling away at public education for decades. By dumbing down our students, we have become a nation of people where a large percentage of us cannot think critically.
School systems have been pushed to teach for the standardized tests. Kids don't learn anything that way.
Curricula have been hatcheted to destroy the brilliance of a liberal arts education that used to include English & language, math, science, written, visual and performing arts, sports, home economics, wood and metal shop as well as other disciplines.
Today, many schools have had their budgets chopped so that even sports have been cut, not to mention most of the other disciplines I cited.
Nearly half of our populace are functionally dumb. They do not know how to think or process information. For example, a friend of mine is a big-time Wall Street executive who manages a substantial company. He told me several years ago that they have to test potential new-hires under the age of 25 to determine if they know how to write a simple business letter. He said that half of the applicants get cut because of their inability to write a proper letter!
Regarding the racism, I've got next to nothing except this: It was a mistake that the leaders of the Confederacy were not severely punished for their treason against the United States of America. Many of their followers should have been equally punished. That would have sent the powerful message that treason and racism would not be part of our country.
Imagine if that had happened! Would the civil rights of all people have advanced more quickly? After all, it took another 100 years until the Civil Rights Act became law. What if that had happened earlier? Would the rights of all minority groups have advanced? I believe so.
Yet today, we have so-called Americans who embrace Nazism yet claim to be patriotic Americans!
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