Apathy: More than anything else, this is biggest threat to the nation

You have heard people talking -- we're sure.

They lament how high school students don't seem to know anything about their country or how their government works.

And they laugh at the adults -- of voting age -- who don't even know who is serving as their president, yet who can recite the lyrics to the latest Katy Perry song or who are intimately aware of the feud between Jimmy Kimmel and Kanye West.

They are surprised by the number of people -- intelligent and successful -- who do not read and who do not follow the workings of the government to which they pay taxes and to which they entrust their future.

And maybe, regrettably, they are one of those people themselves -- using the excuse that there just isn't time in a day and that there are other, more pressing issues. That they simpy do not have time to follow the news from Washington or their town or anywhere else.

There are many reasons why apathy is dangerous, but first and foremost, it dilutes the power of the people -- the very foundation upon which this nation was built. Ignorance -- and that is what it is -- also allows governments and leaders to take over, to make decisions that lead a country in a direction others don't want to follow. It allows lines to be blurred, principles to become punchlines.

It leaves no one to take a stand, to fight for what's right and lets political correctness create a world that is so far from what the founders intended, that it is almost unrecognizable.

Great nations and civilizations were born and flourished on the wings of knowledge and learning.

In recent years, we have replaced that with apathy, "good enough" and mind-numbing television and video games.

And that is dangerous.

To become the nation we can be, we have to become readers and learners again. We have to know what is going on in our communities and be prepared to act with conviction and knowledge when the time comes to take a stand.

The voices of ignorance are loud and strong -- and they are hard to ignore. And they are guided by leaders who have agendas of their own -- a view of this nation that replaces self-reliance and industry with dependency and a war on those who have done the work and earned their way.

If we want something different, if we have principles of our own to champion, we have to listen, to learn, to speak and to act.

There are consequences to apathy -- but they are reversible. And there is still time for real hope and change.

All we have to do is put in the work.

There is simply no other choice.

Published in Editorials on October 19, 2013 10:55 PM