Excerpt: 'Kids Are Americans Too'

Oct. 29, 2007 — -- Conservative talk show host and best-selling author Bill O'Reilly has penned his first book for his youngest fans.

"Kids Are Americans Too" was co-written with Charles Flowers and doles out the blunt commentary often associated with the Fox News personality.

From determining whether children can wear anti-gay T-shirts on campus to discovering whether parents have the right to eavesdrop on their kids' telephone conversations, O'Reilly aims to give children insight on their rights.

Check out an excerpt of the book below.

How Can You Be A Good American?

Being a good American starts with knowing your rights...and respecting the rights of others. And by doing the right thing when many other kids are not.

First off, your rights were not delivered by God to Moses on Mount Sinai.

That was the Ten Commandments, okay? (Hope you've heard of them.)

No, the rights you enjoy today were crafted by human hands and human minds. You have to get that straight from the start or you could go crazy. They were set down by a group of intelligent, difficult, argumentative, arrogant guys whom we officially call the "Founding Fathers." You've seen the marble busts and statues, the paintings of the very serious-looking old guys standing in great halls.

Don't be fooled by how they look.

Believe me, while they were Founding, the Fathers included brilliant thinkers, pains in the butt, more than one certifiable drunk, heroes who stood against the majority on principle, athletes (some of whom were skilled at chasing skirts), and speakers who could make the walls shake. In other words, this collection of true patriots (yes, I mean that term) was very, very human.

To repeat, you have to understand that.

See, your rights here in America were created by a wide range of people (except, owing to the times, they were all male and white). They differed because they had a diversity of human talents and human flaws. Not really so unlike the population of your school.