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Printer-Friendly ModeCollege students ignore important political issues
September 24, 2007 —
The other day I was watching one of those shows which features a person, usually a comedian, that goes out into crowded urban areas armed only with a microphone and a camera and asks everyday Americans basic questions about their fine country and how it works.
For instance, the comedian goes out and asks people if they can recite the Pledge of Allegiance or name the current Vice President of the United States. Sometimes these people start singing the Star Spangled Banner instead of the Pledge, and for some reason they still assume Al Gore to be the vice president. Of course, because the responses these people give are typically ignorant - at best - these street shows are usually dubbed as "funny."
To me, this paradigm of ignorance isn't funny. It's downright frightening, and what's worse is that it's mirrored all over the United States.
What does it say about the condition of our country if people can't recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but have somehow managed to memorize the theme to "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?" What sort of future can I hope for my children to exist in when civic responsibility takes a back seat to keg parties?
Furthermore, what kind of future can we look forward to when our country is ran by a generation of males who wear "popped" collars and females who wear those obscene bug-eyed sunglasses? Can we really trust people who act as a veritable herd of fashion sheep to lead our country into an era of free thought?
This isn't to say that all people who wear "popped" collars or those bug-eyed glasses are ignorant, however. No, I'm simply implying that perhaps the American populace, in particular college students, are focused more so on what they're going to wear while going out to the clubs rather than focusing on something worthwhile, such as keeping up on current events, like al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urging the Muslim people worldwide to carry out a jihad against Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharaff.
An event like this could bring more chaos to a country already on the brink of war with neighboring India, and yet there seems to be little concern over these issues from America's college community. Oddly enough, this sort of news is only a click away on the internet, yet for some reason most of my peers would rather waste an hour looking up sports stats and checking their Myspace accounts.
Also, most of the college students I speak to about current issues are only vaguely aware of domestic issues like what's happening in Lansing with the state budget crisis, and what's worse is they are only slightly less ignorant of what's happening at the federal level in Washington D.C.
Sadly, our University is no exception. For instance, during the past week, any person walking around SVSU's campus would have been able to see campaign signs painted on dorm windows, urging people to vote for a particular person for Homecoming Court. I certainly don't remember there being such a massive campus interest in an election during the 2004 Presidential race, and the few outlets of political interest that I found to exist involved people who were voting for John Kerry, the democrat, only because the incumbent, George W. Bush, was from Texas.
I, for one, have had enough of seeing a vast majority of my generation ignore vital political topics. It seems they pay more attention to tabloid pictures of Paris Hilton being dragged off to jail, as opposed to actual news coverage of American soldiers coming back from Iraq in body bags. In fact, what's worse is that I doubt a great number of my peers could find Iraq on a world map.
Fortunately, something tells me that members of my generation aren't entirely geographically illiterate. After all, many of them know that Canada borders the United States. If all else fails, at least they know where to find Cancun on a map.