America The Ignorant

Eugene got into one of his rants with me the other night. He's very into politics and every now and then he gets on my case for not showing interest. His ENTP enjoys the lively debate but my ISFP could care less. *LOL*.

Aside from repeatedly quoting from some John Wayne movie that he smells like "lilies in the valley" (yeah that's what he said...*LOL*), he was reminding me that it's my obligation to be informed about what the government is doing.

I must admit that since Bush weasled himself into a second term of office, I've lost interest. I mean I get a chuckle out of the stories that show us what a buffoon our current president is. But otherwise I get too caught up in my own personal interests to give two hoots about D.C.

Eugene reminded me that because of this apathy by millions of Americans such as myself, the government has gotten away with a lot of injustices that otherwise might've been prevented. Biggest case in point being the war in Iraq.

Surprisingly Eugene doesn't buy conspiracy theories that 911 was concocted to get Americans to favor the war. But he does think that Bush and his department didn't take the necessary precautions needed to avoid the tragedy.

Since Eugene's a college professor, he's made the observation that foreign students know more about American politics than American students do. That's sad but true.

All you need to do is turn on Jay Leno to see the general lack of basic knowledge folks have on the most basic of questions. Stuff like who's the first president of the United States? The clips are funny but sad.

Eugene's made it his mission to get me to at least watch one 'serious' news piece a week. He's given me such links as the cost of Iraq war that displays how much money is going toward the war and where that money could've gone to instead. He gave me a link to Boston's NPR website and an interview host Tom Ashbrook gave to economist Joseph Stiglitz on globalization and what went right and wrong.

I do have to remind myself to also check out some of my fellow bloggers such as Rod and Clay Cane who share their political views & articles on current events.

I think Eugene's mission may not be impossible. Ignorance in this case is not bliss.