A good education is priceless. A good education will keep you from saying or believing something stupid. Not always, but often enough. A good, well-rounded education gives you the ability to find things out for yourself rather than have them told to you by someone else. And people will tell you any and everything, regardless if it is true or not.

What the political process in this country has degraded to is this: Politicians and their supporters are telling lies and unless YOU do the research to uncover the truth, you may never know you've been lied to. Take Abraham Lincoln. We all know President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and freed the slaves. But did you know the document freed the slaves only in the 10 states that made up the Confederacy? You might believe the Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery or at least made it illegal. It did not. The 13th Amendment to the Constitution, adopted some two year AFTER the Emancipation Proclamation, made owning a slave illegal. It was adopted in December 1865, some 8 months after Lincoln was killed.  President Lincoln also signed into law the Revenue Act of 1861 which was the first income tax in American history!

I'm providing this brief history lesson because some Republicans will tell you they are the party of Lincoln; the anti-slavery party. Well, that's not exactly true. The Emancipation Proclamation was an Executive Order, not a law against slavery. President Lincoln first threatened the southern states that he would free their slaves if they did not return to the Union. They did not, so he issued the order, thus freeing the slaves in the South, and ONLY in the South. No justice for all. The Executive Order that is the Emancipation Proclamation could have encompassed every state, but it did not. 

Once at war, President Lincoln signed the first income tax into law to help pay for the war. The Revenue Act of 1861 was supposed to be a TEMPORARY tax. It was to last for only 5 years, until 1866. Well, here we are 146 years later and still paying income tax, thanks in part to Republican President William Taft, who proposed the idea of a corporate income tax in 1909 after the Supreme Court struck down parts of a previous law on income taxes. Imagine that, the party of lower taxes actually CREATED personal and corporate income taxes. 

So, what have we learned today? First, freeing the slaves in the southern states had more to do with winning a war than equality. Second, taxing the citizens on their personal income was a great way to pay for a war..  In fact, Republicans liked it so much, another Republican President, this time Taft, proposed a corporate tax in 1909, after the Supreme Court ruled certain provisions of the 1894 tax law to be unconstitutional. 

But.... to be fair (and balanced), 18 Democratic Senators almost prevented the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from becoming law. In fact, more Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Democrats in both the House and Senate. 

If you take the time to research and discover the history and uncover the facts, you are less likely to be swayed by some political ad or speech. You will be able to recognize fact from fiction and be able to defend your position much like Mayor Reed did recently on a network political show; with full knowledge and the facts. A smart voter is a very sharp thorn in the side of a wayward politician. Remember, they work FOR us and if they aren't doing the job you want done, you don't have to rehire them. You can RETIRE them!