Britney Spears and Benazir Bhutto: The Connection

Ask anyone under the age of eighteen about the newest Britney Spears debacle, or the score of last night’s Patriots game, and they’ll provide the answer undoubtedly. Question them about HIllary Clinton’s stance on abortion or the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, though, and most will come up speechless.

The lack of awareness about current events, both national and international, is frighteningly common in today’s youth. Though there is a percentage that considers themselves educated and up-to-date, the knowledge is mostly self-taught and purposefully sought out. This has come about in an age where funding for schools is dangerously low, and classes are being cut at an alarming rate. There are few courses left that focus solely on current events, being replaced instead by classes focused on American or European history. And yes, it is important to know the history of our nation and of the nations of the world, but it is also even more important to be knowledgeable about the history that is occurring now. Years from now, when the World Trade Center attack and the Iraq war are merely pages in a history book, our children will ask us about it and we’ll want to tell them the real story, and how exactly the experiences affected us. Being knowledgeable about world events today is important for the future, and for our generation to build our own history.

Fortunately, many of us know this. Though we may not be the most literate in terms of current events, today’s youth is still a generation of moral, knowledgeable people. We are faced with important decisions every day, and can only hope to have the information to back up our choices. We are intelligent and thoughtful, and have dreams to amount to something in life. Most of our decisions are neither hasty nor thoughtless, and we still believe in treasuring family and education just as much as the last generation. We have more knowledge available to us today than ever before, and try every day to apply that information to our lives. We’re witnessing milestones such as the remarkable decline of teenage pregnancy in the U.S. and the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. And as we try our hardest to learn about the present, we’ll continue to pursue a better future.

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