Dear Future President,

From doing pageantry and being active in the Miss America organization, I have studied many different events occurring in the world. My sister, who was a former Miss North Dakota and I would have conversations and debates about the economic crisis in Venezuela, the refugees flooding in from the Middle East, the collapse of Greece, and more political things, such as whether or not we should take in refugees, send troops to wars, immigration policies, and even our own national debt. However, it took me by surprise to see that my peers know nothing about certain issues in the world, and it pained me to see that they don’t care. I then began doing more research and was completely shocked to find out that so many of our citizens are oblivious to the world surrounding us. U.S citizens need to know what is happening outside and inside of our county.

I have done some research online and have found some polls taken in California. There were 510 people who participated. Two-thirds of the 510 people did not know about the earthquake in Pakistan in 2004, or the recent one in Japan that has taken several thousands of lives. Six out of ten people, this is including children and adults, can’t find Iraq on a map. These polls show that people are completely oblivious to anything outside of our country, and this has to change.

Now the polls in the previous paragraph are minor facts. Something that I have discovered personally is that many of our citizens aren’t seeing, nor caring about real issues in the world. This generation is so involved in the media, and care much more about Twitter than Syrian refugees being killed for their beliefs and persecuted for where they are from. They care more about Snapchat than the economic crisis in Venezuela and Greece. They care more about Instagram than the developing countries in the eastern hemisphere with the diseases and poverty that are killing over 10,000 people a day. Maybe it is because they can't use a filter to cover up the carnage. Our citizens have to be more aware of what is actually going on around us.

We should be teaching world events in our schools. Let's have students read articles about current events and watch the news. Also, having teachers discuss and relate to the ongoing action in our world. Doing more news reports of world events locally or posting more on social media so teens and young adults see it would be a step in the right direction. Having our citizens know more about what is actually going on around us can actually bring out the best in people. People would most likely start to care, see something that actually catches their attention, and do something about it.

So, future president, are you willing to help our generation become better people so that we can have a better nation? I hope so; our generation needs you.

Sincerely,

Aimee W.