Current Events Checking in on the next generation of leaders. BY LINDSEY RANDALL At Sheldon High School, before the real election on Nov. 2, we had our own mock election. During the filling-out of our ballots in my class, some kids who were hardcore Bush fans asked our hybrid-driving, Kentucky-born teacher some questions: "What's Homeland Security?" and "What's a tax incentive?" Another was confused about global warming; he didn't think it was real. The same person asked what the U.N. was. The school results were in favor of John Kerry, with upward of 600 of the 1,100 votes. Though that gives some hope for the future of our country, there are still vast amounts of misconceptions about facts that should be agreed upon. To see just what the minority of my school believes, I surveyed the 23 students in my tenth grade English class. Sixteen approved of Bush, four supported Kerry and three chose the "other" category (two for Nader, one undecided). The first question I asked my classmates was easy: "Who attacked us on Sept. 11th, 2001?" More than 87 percent of the Kerry or Nader supporters, and the one person who doesn't even follow politics, knew the correct answer. Only 63 percent of Bushies were educated enough about it. Many of them thought Iraq, Saddam, or the Afghan people themselves had done so. This wasn't that surprising since, earlier in the year, one guy said, "Let's put Saddam in towers and burn 'em down ... See how he feels!" Alright, maybe that one was too hard for them. How about the original reason given to invade Iraq? Hmm ... maybe that was a bit difficult for them as well. All but five of the Bush-liking high schoolers got that question wrong. Among those, some believe that we went into a sovereign nation for reasons such as "oil." Two people on each side of the aisle wrote that. Though not the government-given reason, who are we kidding? They're probably right. While all of the girls for Kerry fancied that answer, some of the ideas brought up by followers of this president were quite different. Two of the most disturbing would have to be, "I don't care" and "To kill and make peace." Surely they jest. Another questionable answer was, "To capture Saddam and help the Afghans and save our oil supplies." I must have been too hard on them. What about WMDs — have we found them? While three out of four of my peers in the Kerry category knew we did not, about 44 percent of the Bushites thought we got those darned weapons that we heard so much about leading up to the war. One person made up their own option and circled "Dunno." The next inquiry I made was of the number of American troops who have lost their lives in Iraq. From the majority of the class came frightening answers such as "30-40," "65," and "about 500 now." In reality, 1,416 soldiers had died. A Bush-supporter surprisingly put, "5,000 compared to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis." Yeah, that doesn't really enforce your reasoning for favoring the giggling idiot. At the end of the same paper, it said, "Screw Michael Moore."   The last thing I wanted to know was how much our deficit is predicted to be by the end of the year. About half of the Dems and Republicans got it correct. When giving the answers to my peers once everyone had handed their papers in, I heard somebody profoundly utter, "Whoa," when told it will be about $427 billion. Overall, the Bushites answered correctly about half the time, Kerry people about 60 percent, and the "other" people, 75 percent accurate. While some people may call those for le Bush grossly ignorant, I prefer "factually challenged" or "sedated." Besides myself, who I did not include in any of the results, there was only one person to get everything correct: a dude for Nader. Even though my class, collectively, was fairly misinformed or simply unknowing, what made the non-Bush people vote the way they did? Perhaps their parents or FOX "News" influence them, or maybe they just like knowing they can count higher than the president. Lindsey Randall is a 10th-grade student at Sheldon High School, a vegan, and unabashed liberal. She can be reached at fille_allemande88@yahoo.com.
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