Assuming can be dangerous

Remember, assuming makes an a** out of you and me. So many statements include assumptions as if they are a given. Yet times change, assumptions change, and eventually acceptance of the status quo changes.

Here are some questions about our American culture’s assumptions today.

How much of our American defense budget is a jobs program? How many of our elected leaders and their hired staffs know or have education about the national defense interests and can set reasonable priorities?

Does the State Department run its own foreign policy, or follow the guidance of our elected executive and congressional leaders?

Is a college education what it used to be? Why is Columbia University called an elite university, and who says it is? Do parents get a decent return on their $39,000 a year investment in their children’s education at Columbia (or substitute what you have to earn in order to pay)? Is the main mission of educating our college children still the main mission of college faculty and staff?

Should American mainstream religions be influenced by the culture they worship in? Will other world cultures provide equal respect?

Do parents still have the primary responsibility for children’s education? Are there things that are taught in school, and things that are taught out of school?

Has the free speech idea been taken too far? Is shouting fire in a crowded theater still considered going too far? Are self-restraint and good manners still valued as part of the free speech idea?

Do words have the same value as actions? Is talking the talk valued the same as walking the walk? Do good intentions count as much as getting results? Are these opposing views taught, is how to discuss about opposing views taught, or do they have to be figured out?

Are political results more important than political process?

Does science know everything? Is the scientific method still taught, or valued?

Are public schools about an adults jobs program, or educating our children? Are local governments about an adult jobs program, or providing basic public services?

Because news is published in newsprint, on TV, or on the Internet, is it basically correct or biased? Has political opinion entered the news medias (more than in the past)? History is what is written, not what happened? People know propaganda when they see it?

There is one real reason while there are always many good reasons. For lack of knowing what to do, people do what they know. This author assumes these last two statements are correct. Do you?