Literacy: How's It Going?      

   Along with her wit, Barbara Bush was known for her efforts to increase literacy, which she did. 
   
   Now, here's a test: The term Final Solution refers to:
a)  Final episode of Survivor 
b)  The president's end game for budget deficits
c)  Opponents' strategy to convince Tom Brady to retire
d)  Hitler's plan to exterminate Jewish people

   Most younger Americans would not guess d. Ignorance wins; literacy loses.

   Senior citizens know that Heir Hitler and his followers began with persecution and ended with concentration camps. German civilians either approved, or didn't know, or were afraid to speak up. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is still good reading for anyone wanting to catch up.

   Younger people, and it gets worse with millennials, aren't well nourished with history. Is it school curriculum, or what? 

   Almost half of Americans, and two-thirds of millennials surveyed, cannot name one Nazi death camp. Many guess the Jewish death toll at around 2 million. It was 6 million Jews, plus several million others who displeased the Fuhrer...one of the worst acts of genocide in human history.

   Many assume Hitler took power by force. No, Germans elected him, and many otherwise bright scientists, business leaders and military chiefs did his bidding. Germans were first with fighter jets, and tried splitting the atom before we did.

   What does it matter, today? History can and does repeat itself. National movements exist in Europe. Holocausts have occurred in Darfur, Rwanda, Sudan and Bosnia. Twenty three percent of former Marines surveyed said they would have killed Americans if their officers so ordered.

   There's a young generation sold on Bernie Sanders' socialism, not history. If a developed nation like Germany can fall to a monster - an Austrian immigrant at that - why can't it happen here? Where did Germany's Communist educators go when they fled the Nazis? 

Survey results - from a column by Daniel Ruth

      Jimmy