Joe Lieberman: “I do so because I believe all of us--elected officials, educators, parents, the whole of our citizenry--should be…”

“I do so because I believe all of us--elected officials, educators, parents, the whole of our citizenry--should be alarmed by findings, by the Nation's growing ignorance of our past and what it implies for America's future. When we lose the memory of our past, when we lose our understanding of the remarkable individuals, events, and values that have shaped this Nation, we are losing much of what it means to be an American. We are losing touch with the civic glue that binds our diverse Nation into a single people with a common purpose. And, I fear, we are losing sight of the lessons our history teaches us and the fundamental responsibilities we share as citizens in a free democracy. Earlier this week I had the privilege of joining with my colleague from Washington, Senator Gorton, Congressman Tom Petri of Wisconsin, the leaders of the ACTA, and assemblage of distinguished historians at a press conference to underscore the import of this report. With the Fourth of July in the offing, we wanted to seize the opportunity of this moment of patriotism to in a sense play Paul Revere, and to begin ringing the alarm bells about the growing ignorance of the contributions that Revere and many other great men and women made to this Nation.”