What are the most important events in the history of the United States? Historians might argue about which one is the single most important, but no one would argue that the Civil War is one of the top few. And what was the defining issue of the Civil War? There is a simple one word answer: Union. The Southern states seceded from the union and formed a new country, the Confederate States of America. The war was to preserve the Union. The death toll was enormous. Over 2% of all Americans were killed. That is the equivalent of about 6.5 million people in today's USA.
I mention all of this because I just saw a poll taken of adult Americans. Twenty-four percent of those polled said that individual states had the right to secede from the United States and form a new country. Only fifty-two percent said the states did not have such a right. Another 24% were not sure.
It is hard to imagine that nearly half of the people of the country do not know a simple truth that hundreds of thousands died to establish. What have these people been taught in school? Anything?
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