Absolute disgust with the state of political awareness.

[ReaderSushi]

My roommate just asked me if the twin towers collapsed in 2001...

He was being serious. He really did not know...

Osama Bin Forgetten indeed.

[bluerum]

1. Where is he from - Ohio?

[ReaderSushi]

2. NYC.

He's lives in Queens, student at Stonybrook. Why the hell is this not burned into his soul!?

[Karenca]

3. you have got to be kidding .........nt

[niyad]

4. PLEASE tell me you are makiing a really sick joke.

[upi402]

5. his new nickname;

'shortbus'

[azurnoir]

6. Did he just forget the year?

or the whole event?

[hopeisaplace]

7. You know as parent, I deal with similar things

I have four sons. Son number two is now fourteen. A good kid.
But academically he is not reaching his potential what-so-ever.
So I have stepped in to guide him, teach him how to study etc.
I try so many things to get him interested in the subjects he is
least interested in (ok, that's putting it mildly.."he hates" these
subjects)..they are History (OMG! I love history) and Geography.

Anyway, tonight while helping him prepare for a history test tomorrow,
he gives me the usual ..."I hate history", "I don't care about government"...
welllllllll, that last comment set me off something fierce...I went on about
why he needs to care about government, be informed and vote. He's sooooooo
14 (lol)...very frustrating for me. To try to get him to retain the information
I suggested he think about these people in the 1870's (Canadian History), as the
real people they were, with real families, real dreams. We were talking about
the First Nations, etc, and how the government back then (and still today I suppose)
had the goal of assimilating and isolating the First Nations People for a list
of reasons. To get him to CARE (cause so help me gawd, the words "I don't care"
I won't stand for)...I said, what if in our home right now, the government came in and
said, pack up your things...we're taking your land and home, you'll be moving to a
"reserved land" and oh by the way you will have to learn "X" religion, as this will
be your new religion..Anyway, that got through to him, he understood the injustice.

Teachers need to be paid a lot more. They need smaller class sizes. Students need
to find a reason to "care".

(didn't mean to rant...just sort of thinking and typing)

[walldude]

8. Had a relative over this weekend, she voted for Bush

and her reasoning was that with Bush she knew what she was getting. She was clueless, as most of them are. They have no time to question anything and can't be bothered to seek the truth. My question was, then why vote? I remember in 04', Trey Parker and Matt Stone catching some flack for telling people not to vote. Now I see their point, this woman was so uninformed that she had no business being in a voting booth.