Franklin Connection - Serving Franklin County, WA

When Americans go to the polls, we most often don’t know who or what we are voting for. We have little knowledge of candidates or of history, problems our founding fathers and mothers did not have.

Our ancestors read serious books of political science, history, and law, and read sophisticated newspapers daily. Not even our college graduates do these things today.

What those books would teach us is a sense of responsibility to participate in government well beyond just voting.

Turning the country over to the American electorate every two and four years is analogous to asking elementary school children to direct their own education. Our children would end up playing in sandboxes all day long. Their parents, unfortunately, are playing in adult-size sandboxes. We complain about the other party, but we have no workable solutions or ethical candidates in our own party.

University professors need to put on adult continuing education programs to enlighten us. Instead, they are shut up in their offices acting like unapproachable lords of all knowledge.

Kimball Shinkoskey