These are questions worth wondering about, but answers are unlikely to sprout like spring flowers eager to be picked and displayed. Only the simple minded find simple answers to such profoundly troubling and challenging questions.
Sadly, history is littered with examples of leaders and movements that cut short the wondering and searching for genuine answers to such problems, substituting gimmicks, myths and shadowboxing for real solutions. If the citizens are mentally soft, they may climb right aboard such movements without asking tough questions or wondering whether the proposals make any sense at all.
At its best, wondering combines doubting and dreaming in a powerful partnership to test value. We would hope that all of our young will acquire the inclination and the skills to wonder about the authority of a particular Web site, the reliability of information put forth by a TV or radio station and the worth of a politician’s proposal.