Most Americans have an easier time naming members of the cartoon Simpson family than listing the five freedoms granted by the nation's founders, a survey by a museum released on Wednesday said.
Here's a hint: one of them is not the right to own and raise pets, an error committed by one in five respondents.
Half of 1,000 Americans randomly surveyed by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum could name at least two of the five members of Fox Television's Simpson family, the stars of the network's long-running show.
But just 28 percent of respondents could name more than one of the five freedoms listed in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment -- about the same proportion that could name all five Simpson family members or could recall the three judges on Fox TV's top-rated "American Idol."
Just 8 percent could recall three First Amendment freedoms.
Two-thirds of respondents did remember freedom of speech as one of five rights in the First Amendment, but just one person accurately named all five.
"These survey results clearly demonstrate that many Americans don't have an understanding of the freedoms they regularly enjoy," said executive director Dave Anderson of the museum, which opens on April 11 in Chicago.
Freedom of religion was recalled by 24 percent, freedom of the press by 11 percent, freedom of assembly by 10 percent, and freedom to petition for redress of grievances (right to a day in court) by 1 percent.
Some participants displayed comical ignorance such as the 38 percent who believed the right not to incriminate yourself -- "taking the 5th" in lawyer lingo -- was granted by the First Amendment rather than the Fifth.
Among other rights not mentioned in the Constitution but listed by some respondents was the right to drive and the right to have pets.
The survey, conducted January 20-22, had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
In case you forgot, the Simpson clan's names are Homer (owner of that exclamation of ignorance, "D'oh"), Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie.
