Are you proud to be an American? I am not asking if you participate in the continual pep rally that our nation has created in the wake of the tragedy of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. I am not asking if you fly an American flag on your front lawn or display one on your clothing. I am not asking if you watch baseball or eat apple pie. I am asking if you know why.

What I want to know is: Do you know even the tiniest thing about our nation — what it stands for, its history, and what some of the key components of our national heritage are?

Since the tragedy that befell our nation a month ago, I have been constantly amazed at the ignorance of my fellow Americans. Sure, we are donating to charity. Yes, we are listening to Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American" until our eardrums burst and bleed. Certainly, we are praying for victims and their families.

But when it comes time to pledge allegiance to the flag or sing the national anthem, many are dumfounded.

A local radio station was recently giving away concert tickets. To win, contestants were asked to sing the national anthem — or at least the first verse. It wasn't until the fourth caller that someone was able to do it. The fourth caller!

I almost started cheering out loud. It wasn't that she was on key or had a beautiful voice. But at least she knew the words. And she sang the entire song! Good for her!

Wait! There's more. During September's Miss America competition, the top five candidates were required to take a jeopardy-type quiz live on stage. The questions revolved around American history and current events.

These, of course, are things one would hope Miss America knew a little bit about. The quiz was multiple-choice, but by the way the contestants responded one could have just as easily called it multiple-guess.

The very first question was something like, "The words: 'give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses' are inscribed on what national monument?"

Of the five women, only Miss New York correctly answered that those words were associated with the Statue of Liberty.

The most popular response given was the Lincoln Memorial. The Lincoln Memorial?

These are only two examples of the lack of knowledge that is exhibited, on a daily basis, by people across this great land. I am trying to understand why that is. Please don't think I am being arrogant. Maybe it's just that not everyone had Mrs. Pat Detwiler as his or her eighth grade United States history teacher.

In her classroom, students were required to memorize all 50 states and their capitals, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Gettysburg Address and the Star Spangled Banner — every verse of the Star Spangled Banner, not just the ones we sing for our national anthem. We knew that Francis Scott Key wrote that song.

We knew that Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag. We knew that Thomas Jefferson was the author of the Declaration of Independence, as well as the third United States President and the man responsible for the Louisiana Purchase. Had I been a Miss America contestant or called in to win those concert tickets, Mrs. Detwiler would have personally given me 40 lashes if I had botched it up. Not to mention how I ashamed I would have been.

Perhaps, for some, these are things retained in the mind just long enough to pass a test. But how dumb must we look to people outside our country, not to mention inside our country, when we cannot even recite our own Pledge of Allegiance, sing our national anthem, or offer the tiniest bit of information about our national heritage? No wonder other nations turn their noses up at us. We talk about how proud we are to be Americans, and yet we don't know a heck of a lot about America.

So, please, the next time you raise a flag, remember what the stars and stripes symbolize.

The next time you go spouting off about your rights as an American, try to understand where those rights come from and why.

The next time you reflect on how proud you are to live in this country, make an effort to know a bit more about this country than you do . . . or at least to recall what your junior high history teachers tried to get to you to learn.