WHY IMPORTANT ?    

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."  - Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States
 

"The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool.  It must be taught and learned by each new generation."  - Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court Justice