9/18/2023

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal begins with the Annenberg Public Policy Center’s civics knowledge survey, which is released annually in celebration of Constitution Day. The findings of this year's survey, in which 1,482 U.S. adults were asked a series of civics questions, are distressing but not surprising: “Many Americans do not know what rights are protected under the First Amendment and a substantial number cannot name all three branches of government.” Respondents generally could list only the freedom of speech when asked about the rights protected by the First Amendment. While 66 percent of respondants could name all three branches of government, 17 percent could not name any branch, or one in six Americans. As Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of both the Annenberg Public Policy Center and the survey, stated in response to these results, “One is unlikely to cherish or work to protect freedoms one does not know one has and will have trouble holding elected and unelected leaders accountable if one does not understand the nature and prerogatives of each branch and the ways in which the power of each is kept in check.”

In remembrance of 9/11, The American Mind published two pieces that focus on different aspects of the terrorist attacks that occurred 22 years ago. First, Alexander Riley notes that the crash of Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in which passengers sacrificed themselves to avert another likely attack on the nation’s capital, was an attack on the spirit of America, the very myths that give our country its spiritual lifeblood. Next, Peachy Keenan gives a biographical account of the attacks, noting that to the surprise of her friends and family, she moved to New York in the months afterward, where she would meet the man whom she would marry. As she concludes, “Ground Zero was where my path started to take its current turn, for better or for worse.”