Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Who is Dubya?
A quiz has been going around the blogs and livejournals (I've taken it, it's the one that starts with 1. Grab the book nearest to you...). Well, in the quiz, there is a question about George Bush, asking basically what the person's opinion of him was. I noticed that several people said they didn't follow politics, and just didn't know, or really care. I've also noticed a lot, even in my honors classes, that students either know nothing about politics or don't care.
Now, I remember Kristina and I got into a fight about this a few years ago (I assumed everyone read the New York Times on a daily basis and would be ready to debate world issues by noon), but I'm going to try and bring it up again. I know that people have the right to ignore the world around them (in fact, before September 11th, I declared that college would allow me to escape the Bush administration for 4 years), but things have changed a lot in the past few years, and I think people need to start paying more attention. Let me summarize; currently we have:
1. Unfinished business in Afghanistan
2. Rebellion in Iraq
3. Questions about the administration's fight against terrorism before 9/11 (it has now been confirmed that they knew that planes were part of the plan)
4. A slowly recovering economy (although, as an econ major, I can tell you that this is completely unrelated to anything Bush did, or most presidents, for that matter, although GDP is historically greater under democratic presidencies)
5. Well, a million other things.
A million people asked me why 9/11 happened after it did... and it was hard, because none of these people had read or learned anything about the Middle-East in their lifetime. Of course, 9/11 was the direct result of Islamic fundamentalism and hatred of America, but it was also partially the result of America's ignorance of its stance in the world. Despite all this, many people still choose to ignore all of it, which lets other people take advantage of them. The Iraq war, which an increasing amount of Americans now agree was a bad idea, was supported by the majority of Americans before we dove into it. No one asked any questions about the intelligence, or the possible repercussions of the war. No one knew anything about the ethnic/religious problems in Iraq to start (the fact that the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds are impossible to make live together unless you have some evil bastard like Saddam controlling them). Meanwhile, every single expert on the Middle-East thought the war was a bad idea, but the president gets better airwaves, so we went to war.
Whether or not you are a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, etc, you need to keep up on your news, especially if you are going to vote. An uninformed vote is worse than no vote at all, so read up on news a little bit. You'll find that, once you develop an informed opinion, you vote means so much more, and you feel like you're actually participating in democracy, instead of just picking a name.
Now, I remember Kristina and I got into a fight about this a few years ago (I assumed everyone read the New York Times on a daily basis and would be ready to debate world issues by noon), but I'm going to try and bring it up again. I know that people have the right to ignore the world around them (in fact, before September 11th, I declared that college would allow me to escape the Bush administration for 4 years), but things have changed a lot in the past few years, and I think people need to start paying more attention. Let me summarize; currently we have:
1. Unfinished business in Afghanistan
2. Rebellion in Iraq
3. Questions about the administration's fight against terrorism before 9/11 (it has now been confirmed that they knew that planes were part of the plan)
4. A slowly recovering economy (although, as an econ major, I can tell you that this is completely unrelated to anything Bush did, or most presidents, for that matter, although GDP is historically greater under democratic presidencies)
5. Well, a million other things.
A million people asked me why 9/11 happened after it did... and it was hard, because none of these people had read or learned anything about the Middle-East in their lifetime. Of course, 9/11 was the direct result of Islamic fundamentalism and hatred of America, but it was also partially the result of America's ignorance of its stance in the world. Despite all this, many people still choose to ignore all of it, which lets other people take advantage of them. The Iraq war, which an increasing amount of Americans now agree was a bad idea, was supported by the majority of Americans before we dove into it. No one asked any questions about the intelligence, or the possible repercussions of the war. No one knew anything about the ethnic/religious problems in Iraq to start (the fact that the Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds are impossible to make live together unless you have some evil bastard like Saddam controlling them). Meanwhile, every single expert on the Middle-East thought the war was a bad idea, but the president gets better airwaves, so we went to war.
Whether or not you are a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian, etc, you need to keep up on your news, especially if you are going to vote. An uninformed vote is worse than no vote at all, so read up on news a little bit. You'll find that, once you develop an informed opinion, you vote means so much more, and you feel like you're actually participating in democracy, instead of just picking a name.
