Forty-seven percent of Detroiters are “functionally illiterate.” Regardless of where you may live in America, the plight of those in Detroit will soon impact you. America can no longer ignore the tragedy that is Detroit—because it is spreading.

How would your life be different if you couldn’t read? For example, how would you choose your breakfast cereal if you couldn’t read the back of the box? Would you choose by picture? What if you couldn’t understand a past-due notice telling you your water was about to be cut off? Or, imagine going through life never being able to use a map—even Google maps won’t help you if you can’t read or spell the street names out.

This is the reality in Detroit today. It is a city filled with 200,000 people who can’t do too much more than print their name. In 2007, it was reported that fewer than 25 percent of incoming students graduated from high school. Sadly, almost half of those 200,000 people officially graduated from Detroit schools. That too is a tragedy. They were somehow shoved, pushed and crammed by teachers and political interests through a conveyor-belt school system that cared more about meeting graduation rates and quotas than about educating children.

These sad statistics shouldn’t really shock Americans. The plight of Detroit—the economic collapse, the graft, union selfishness—has been well known for years. But here is what should shock.

Karen Tyler-Ruiz is the director of the Detroit Regional Work Force Fund, the organization that conducted the literacy survey. In an interview with wwj Newsradio she commented that compared to “other major urban areas, we are a little bit on the high side.” For example, illiteracy in Detroit is “slightly higher” than among Washington d.c.’s urban population. And a bit higher than in Cleveland.

Here is an expert telling America that Detroit’s 47 percent illiteracy rate really isn’t any different than America’s other big cities.

Now that is shocking.

What does that say about America when so many people are so illiterate they can’t even read a short newspaper article? And more worryingly, according to Ruiz—most of Detroit’s illiterate don’t even care. Only 10 percent of the functionally illiterate have taken any steps to improve their situation.

This does not bode well for the future of America.

But whose fault is it? Is it the government’s fault that 200,000 Detroiters can barely read? Can you blame rich people for not paying enough taxes to help the illiterate? Is this a problem that can be solved by building more richly equipped schools, or paying more to attract better teachers?

I am reminded of the massive Santee Education Complex built in South Los Angeles in 2005 in order to help disadvantaged inner-city students. It was one of the most advanced, technologically equipped public schools anywhere. It had all the extras—heated Olympic-size pool, big gymnasium, rubber sports tracks, ballet studio, fully equipped chef’s kitchen and shiny new computers for the students.

But look what happened. According to the Los Angeles Times, “chaos reigned” (March 12, 2006). On the second day of classes, someone fired shots in front of the school. On the third day, a student with an ak-47 was arrested in front of the campus. Campus police said students jumped on officers and tried to steal their guns during a lunchtime brawl. Police had to use pepper spray to control the mob. School administrators have confiscated knives, brass knuckles and guns. Drug deals have occurred in classrooms. The school went on to rank number one among district high schools for crime, with 218 reports less than a half year later, including theft, assault and weapons possession.

So much for throwing money at a problem.

And America’s inner-city leaders, if anything, have in many ways only made matters worse. For all the rabble rousing, loud protesting and community organizing, all they have to show is growing populations of inner-city dwellers doomed to relying on government handouts for their sustenance. Have these leaders actually helped their people? Teenage pregnancy, divorce rates, crime, poverty and illiteracy statistics argue otherwise.

There are now 43.6 million Americans officially in poverty. That is about how many people get food debit cards from the government. One in seven Americans can only feed themselves because the government sends them money. Economists tell us that wages are stagnant, standards of living are falling, and foreigners are taking our jobs. But no wonder: Look at our workforce.

And the odds of getting shot or killed are greater in places like Detroit than in Iraq.

Does this sound like the America you used to know? Get out of your nice white or Asian middle-class neighborhood and visit an inner city—if you dare. Visit Chicago. Drive through Cleveland. Take a look at Detroit! You will be shocked and saddened by what you see.

How many of you have walked Skid Row, downtown Los Angeles? One block it is the richest of the rich. Four or five blocks away it is just row after row of cardboard boxes and port potties covering the sidewalks.

This nation is falling apart before our eyes, but most people refuse to see it. And America’s leaders pretend to be ignorant. How many leaders voice the politically incorrect truth that broken families and single parents are the cause of so many of America’s social and economic problems? It is fatherless children that largely fuel poverty problems, gang problems, drug problems, violence problems, prostitution problems, lack-of-community problems, and so on.

Although most people won’t admit it, if Detroit could just fix this one thing, many of its problems would in time fix themselves.

However, just because you don’t have a physical father present in your life doesn’t mean you can’t be a success. The cycle of broken families leading to another generation of broken families can be stopped. The cycle of illiteracy can be stopped.

Family is a God-designed institution. God intended for fathers and mothers to teach their children. God intended for each generation to increase in knowledge and understanding. Each generation of society should be improving—becoming more literate. Each generation should be becoming better educated, more productive, more prosperous and even happier.

That is how God designed it. That is how life should be for everyone. And God tells people how to accomplish this, if they would only listen to Him.

As is stated so often on theTrumpet.com, there is a cause for every effect. This world has a plethora of knowledge, but a lack of true education. You can change that in your life. Begin now by digging into your Bible daily and learning what it has to say about how to find true success. Sign up and determinedly complete the Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course (it is completely free). And put it into your schedule to watch our program each morning on our new website, Trumpetdaily.com. Let true education change your life.