A little Q & A to start – These are all True or False questions
- The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. (True or False)
- Barack Obama will be the 44th President so we have had 43 other Presidents. (True or False)
- Paul Revere single-handedly warned that the “British are coming.” (True or False)
- George Washington was the first elected President of the United States. (True or False)
- Washington D.C. was the first capital of the United States. (True or False)
- America is the greatest democracy on Earth. (True or False)
If you answered “False” to all of the above, you don’t have to read any further.Â
The Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. – It took several months to get all of the authors to sign The Declaration. Travel was not as easy back then and it took many months to get everyone’s signature.
Barack Obama will be the 44th President and we have had 43 other Presidents. – Mr. Obama will be the 44th President, but we have only had 42 others. Grover Cleveland has the distinction of being elected twice, but not to consecutive terms. As such he is both the 22nd and 24th President.
Paul Revere single-handedly warned that the “British are coming.” – Mr. Revere was accompanied by two other men, Dr. Samuel Prescott and William Dawes. In fact Dr. Prescott was the only one of the three that made it to Concord. Revere and Dawes were captured by the British. Maybe Revere is the one named in a famous poem (good public relations were important back then also).
George Washington was the first elected President of the United States. – There was not a general election back then, but he was “elected” at a convention. The citizens did not vote so I am sticking to my “false” claim.
Washington D.C. was the first capital of the United States. – Philadelphia was where our country’s leaders met and is generally considered the first capital. Washington D.C. was later selected due to it’s location (not too far North and not too far South). It is a federal district and is meant to be distinct from the states and to serve as the permanent national capital. The centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are located in the District.
America is the greatest democracy on Earth. – This one should have been easy. We are the United States of America not “America” and our system of government is NOT a democracy. We are a Representative Republic. In other words we elect citizens who represent us and carry out our will…the will of the people. At least that is the way it is supposed to work. I am not sure it still works that way. I often find it sad when an official in a high elected office talks about our democracy. You would think they would at least know that much.
We happen to be the GREATEST country on the planet!!!
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Hey! I actually knew that all the answers were false. You tought me well.
[…] The beginning of the newspaper story seemed fairly innocuous in that the Commonwealth Education Organization (”CEO”) contacted eighth-grade teachers to encourage their students to participate in an essay writing contest. This was to be the fourth such contest in as many years and the topic was for students to “Explain the difference between a representative republic and a democracy, comparing and contrasting both forms of government.” That seems like a good subject to challenge students to learn about our system of government. I wondered how many adults have basic knowledge about our government in an earlier posting that included a question about our democracy. […]