What you do not know hurts our country

Ah, the old saying "what you don't know won't hurt you" is, of course, a false statement for so many reasons.  What you don't know about your health issues can kill you.  Fortunately, with healthcare more accessible here in the United States, people have a better chance of finding out if they have potential life-threatening illnesses or complications.  They can then use that information to make informed decisions about how best to move forward to take better care of themselves and manage health issues that otherwise might have gone undetected until near fatal or fatal.

Health is not the only area where knowledge is important.  Equally as important is knowing and having a basic understanding of the history of the United States, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and how government functions  Why type of government did the Constitution create?  Why are there three branches of government?  What can the executive branch do and not do?  What can the legislative branch do and not do?  What can the judicial branch do and not do?  What is judicial review and why is it important?  What is the system of checks and balances and why is it important?  How does a bill become a law?  What rights are granted to the Federal government by the Constitution?  What rights are retained by the States?

Why is knowing the answers to these questions so important?  Because not knowing them means relying on "others" to provide that information.  Too often the "sources" of such vital information are politicians and commentators who either do not know the answers themselves or willfully mislead with incorrect answers.  This, then, creates voters who are not making the best decisions for either themselves or our country.  These voters then believe that whatever the politicians and commentators say is factual.  They also believe that the only way to resolve problems is to do what these politicians and commentators say must be done, regardless of the fact that what they are being told is completely false and can not work precisely because of how the government was created by the framers of the Constitution.

Misinformed voters elect candidates who are either also misinformed and therefore incapable of making the best decisions for the country or willfully trying to put forth their own agenda which will never be best for the country.  The government created by our Constitution will never be perfect because it will always be run by imperfect people.  However, the government was designed to work best when all parties and interests strive to find that most common ground.  When all parties and interests look for and follow that path which moves the country forward together, not attempts to tear us apart and divide us into enemies.  We went down that path once before and thankfully survived to remain united.  Let us all become more informed about our government, our history, our Constitution and our Bill of Rights.  Let us then use that information to make the best choices for all of us.  We can do that.  We have the ability to do that.  We can vote and our votes count.  Let's make them informed votes!