Summary: Important Events In American History
In today’s society young adults have been cheated out of knowledge. Most college students today do not know what happened on November 22, 1963, they classify December 7 as the day John Lennon was murdered, and the sixties were just groovy times with no threat of nuclear war that could have ended the world we know today. Students in classrooms today would laugh if their teachers told them to get under their desks quickly and put their heads between their legs because there was a threat of a nuclear attack. In the 1960’s this was an everyday occurrence for students. Our topic shows how college students today have forgotten important facts of significant events in American History. History is not the only thing young adults have forgotten about
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over the last decade. A census that was taken in November 2012 showed how adults ranging from ages 18 to 24 years of age have lost their motive to participate in democracy. The census showed that only 34% of young adults ranging from 18 to 24 years of age were registered to vote and participated in voting (Census). The numbers have not always been this low for this specific category. An article by Cheryl Russell reports that in the year of 1972, the percentage was at a much higher total of 53% went to the polls to cast their ballot (Russell). So the question is where did society fail the young adults of America? Four decades later, from half of America’s youth participating in a democratic society and now that same society is on the verge of being extinct. Young adults today are more interested in what pop culture outlets such as MTV, Twitter, Facebook, and TMZ have to say rather than what Bill O’Reilly, Anderson Cooper, Glen Beck, or Scott Pelley say on nightly news outlets. In an article by Barry Hollander, Hollander states that a knowledgeable electorate is one of the fundamental functions of a healthy democracy (Hollander). The article goes into several details about electorate’s needing several qualities to be able to function in a democratic society. These qualities are deemed as themes in the article by Hollander and are discussed throughout the article. The first theme is the establishment of well-known factors commonly known as “The usual suspects” (Hollander). These usual suspects are known to be what people perceive about public affairs such as how a democracy functions and how a government is ran. The second theme is described as showing low levels of knowledge from participants in the democratic society. Hollander describes it as not being the individuals fault for not knowing the questions the individual is being asked. Hollander states that the problem is the questions that are being asked not the answers being given. The fear is that this could threaten the systems stability in the future but that is only how some of the public perceive these statistics. A third theme argues that Americans today know less than they did decades ago. I concur with this argument because with the advancements of technology and the way media operates citizens should be more knowledgeable in the political world. The last theme shows readers correlations between politics and public affairs and how they intertwine with each other concerning political knowledge. All of these themes show correlation with each other in the roles of political knowledge. The article also discusses how media has changed with getting political information to electorates throughout the decades. Media outlets have evolved from newspapers, radios, TV’s, and now the internet has taken control of all other outlets. The internet is now the way to most successfully reach electorates because political campaigns feel as if they can correlate with their electorate personally through the internet. They also believe that their concepts and issues will be relayed to a number of electorates in a quicker amount of time. An article written by Francis Taylor describing how electronics and media play a role in politics today also coincide with political knowledge of our society. In this article, College Students and Politics, Questions are asked to include how do college students understand, define, and view politics, their political engagement, and the work of democracy? Are college students politically engaged? How do college students practice politics? How can institutions of higher education help foster greater political participation among college students? Research shows that many college students today are cynical about politics. When it comes to political participation, these same college students are apathetic. With recent years of decline of participation, there has been an increase of voting, trust in the government also in other forms of political participations by college students. There has also been a "scissor effect” meaning decline in of the political participation has coincided with a surge of volunteering and involvement in the community. There is widespread agreement in the literature about the great political potential of our generation of college students that colleges and universities need to do more to educate the next generation for democracy and provide more opportunities for political participation. The next article I will discuss concerning political knowledge is one written by Patrick Meirick and Daniel Wackman. This article relates to a media outlet such as the Jay leno show and accurately describes the lack of political knowledge among the streets of America today. The article describes a scenario in which Jay Leno asks random people on the streets “Who is the United States Vice President?” The answers he received were not accurate and was a direct correlation in the lack of political knowledge in our country today. Statistics show that “Only about a third of people are able to name both their U.S. senators, 57 percent know which party is more conservative, and 59 percent can name the party to which their governor belonged; a little more than 70 percent are able to name the vice president (Meirick&Wackman).” The fact that the Jay Leno show may make a few people on the street blush for not knowing who the vice president is comical but not having an informed citizenry is in no way comical. The process in making a political decision is very important and a citizen must have a quality background in political knowledge to make decisions that will be positive in their favor. People who are without this knowledge therefore cannot express their accurate beliefs based on this knowledge to give them what they desire in the political world. The article discusses how the lack of political knowledge affects all parties involved. Groups of people such as whites, blacks, men, women, the prosperous and poor are all affected by decisions made based upon political knowledge. Another article written by William A. Galston reiterates the facts of how the political knowledge of individuals in society has not evolved since the 1950’s (Galston). “Recent research indicates that levels of political knowledge affect the acceptance of democratic principles, attitudes toward specific issues, and political participation” (Galston). Political scientists have long before stressed the individual role in a democratic society to be the main bloodline for politics evolving. The article also stresses how the individual in a democratic society must have a sense of civic responsibility. They must know that they have a voice and their voice matters. Their input on governmental decisions within voting has a meaning on their political interests. If one is not satisfied within their political region but did not participate in voting then they have no one to blame but themselves. This is why Galston stresses the fact that political knowledge and civic education are essential parts in having a successful democratic society. In Fredrick Rudolph’s “The American College & University” he explains and emphasizes the knowledge of history with higher education. Rather than just explaining how little an individual has with just a high school degree. Rudolph explains this by saying scholars seeking higher educations in any field of study, the scholars have intriguing interest with the information around them by being in a group, teams or even know how to read documents. Rudolph cited in the 1960’s students that had the knowledge of federal documents, government reports of this time knew the importance of what was happening in the world. Not all of mass society knew this importance that made the 1960’s a very troubling time in the United States and even the hostility in the world that was happening right around people every day. The events and just the 1960’s in general were scary for the people of the United States. The Cuban Missile crisis started out the 1960’s sending the world into a great pandemic fear that the world was going to end due to nuclear war. This was at a height in the cold war and after Kennedy was assassinated nobody knew what was going to come next. Throughout the bulk of this paper facts have been stated about how political knowledge can impact the political decisions of our society. Not only does political knowledge impact society but the knowledge of past events in our country’s history could impact our future as well. In Bill O’Reilly’s book “Killing Kennedy”, O’Reilly goes into great detail about the events leading up to that sunny day in November of 1963 in Dallas, Texas. The JFK assassination is remembered by many in a very distinct way. People remember what they were wearing, where they were, and who they were with when Walter Cronkite interrupted The Bold and The Beautiful soap opera to inform the nation that the president had been shot in Dallas. The sub-title of O’Reilly’s book is titled “The End of Camelot”. Camelot was used to describe Kennedy’s time in office. The reason behind this would be the powerful name of the Kennedy’s. They were nationally known and Jackie Kennedy wanted the public to view her husband’s time in the white house in a sense of royalty and superiority. Lee Harvey Oswald stamped his mark to the end of Camelot that day in the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. The odd fact of how Little America’s youth know about this historic day in history is appalling. The way the president was murdered publically in a horrific way and how he was also a face that was recognized as a celebrity made it even more tragic. Bill O’Reilly previously wrote the book “Killing Lincoln” which was widely acclaimed and has been read by over two million readers. Throughout “Killing Kennedy” O’Reilly makes comparisons to Lincoln and Kennedy and shows how similar they were as individuals and as Presidents of the United States. Not only does he make comparisons to their presidency but also their assassinations. America’s youth today may not even know who John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald are and what impact they had on this country. The following eerie facts that link Lincoln and Kennedy are simply amazing: Lincoln was first elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Both were assassinated on a Friday, in the presence of their wives. Their successors were both southerners named Johnson who had served in the Senate. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, Lyndon Johnson in 1908. Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, while Kennedy was elected to the House in 1946. Both Men suffered the death of children while in office. Both men were assassinated by men with three names. The assassin Booth shot inside a theater and fled into a storage facility, while the assassin Oswald shot from a storage facility and fled into a theater (O’Reilly). All of these facts are not known by America’s youth and very well should be known. These events changed our country and were important on so many different levels. Political Knowledge starts at young ages in America’s youth today. The political knowledge of young adults must increase because the future of our democratic society depends on it. All of these articles, books, and sources describe the importance of political knowledge amongst a society. This knowledge is used to make political decisions that can impact a city, county, state, and country. If these decisions are not weighted with accurate political judgment the wrong people could end up in office and leave voters/non-voters unsatisfied. This would be considered an injustice to the true meaning of democracy. Because democracy is meant for the people having a voice and if the people of the nation do not take their voice seriously eventually their voice will become mute.
Reference Page
Galston, W.
A. (2001). Politcal Knowledge, Political Engagement and Civic Education. Annual Review of Political Science. 4(1), 217.
Longo, N. V., & Meyer, R. P. (2006). College Students and Politics: A Literature Review. CIRCLE Working Paper 46. Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), University of Maryland.
Reilly, B., & Dugard, M. (2012). Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Rudolph, F., & Thelin, J. (n.d.). The American College and University. Google Books. Retrieved March 14, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3se-H1Y_l7kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=free+scholarly+articles+on+history+knowledge+by+college+students&ots=7XPArsEUw8&sig=yIYANFQTzFa64gXdJoaF5bsP-z8#v=onepage&q&f=false
Russel, Cheryl. (2012). The Surprising Trends That Suggests Young People WonÕt Vote in 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/100774/young-voters-election-2012
Taylor. Francis. (2014). Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Retrieved March 12th, 2014 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media . Jan2014, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p97-113. 17p. 6
Charts.
Voting and Regisration. (2012). Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2012/tables.html
Wiley. Blackwell. (2004) Retrieved March 11th, 2014. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell) . Dec2004, Vol. 85 Issue 5, p1161-1177. 17p. 1 Diagram, 3 Charts, 1 Graph.
over the last decade. A census that was taken in November 2012 showed how adults ranging from ages 18 to 24 years of age have lost their motive to participate in democracy. The census showed that only 34% of young adults ranging from 18 to 24 years of age were registered to vote and participated in voting (Census). The numbers have not always been this low for this specific category. An article by Cheryl Russell reports that in the year of 1972, the percentage was at a much higher total of 53% went to the polls to cast their ballot (Russell). So the question is where did society fail the young adults of America? Four decades later, from half of America’s youth participating in a democratic society and now that same society is on the verge of being extinct. Young adults today are more interested in what pop culture outlets such as MTV, Twitter, Facebook, and TMZ have to say rather than what Bill O’Reilly, Anderson Cooper, Glen Beck, or Scott Pelley say on nightly news outlets. In an article by Barry Hollander, Hollander states that a knowledgeable electorate is one of the fundamental functions of a healthy democracy (Hollander). The article goes into several details about electorate’s needing several qualities to be able to function in a democratic society. These qualities are deemed as themes in the article by Hollander and are discussed throughout the article. The first theme is the establishment of well-known factors commonly known as “The usual suspects” (Hollander). These usual suspects are known to be what people perceive about public affairs such as how a democracy functions and how a government is ran. The second theme is described as showing low levels of knowledge from participants in the democratic society. Hollander describes it as not being the individuals fault for not knowing the questions the individual is being asked. Hollander states that the problem is the questions that are being asked not the answers being given. The fear is that this could threaten the systems stability in the future but that is only how some of the public perceive these statistics. A third theme argues that Americans today know less than they did decades ago. I concur with this argument because with the advancements of technology and the way media operates citizens should be more knowledgeable in the political world. The last theme shows readers correlations between politics and public affairs and how they intertwine with each other concerning political knowledge. All of these themes show correlation with each other in the roles of political knowledge. The article also discusses how media has changed with getting political information to electorates throughout the decades. Media outlets have evolved from newspapers, radios, TV’s, and now the internet has taken control of all other outlets. The internet is now the way to most successfully reach electorates because political campaigns feel as if they can correlate with their electorate personally through the internet. They also believe that their concepts and issues will be relayed to a number of electorates in a quicker amount of time. An article written by Francis Taylor describing how electronics and media play a role in politics today also coincide with political knowledge of our society. In this article, College Students and Politics, Questions are asked to include how do college students understand, define, and view politics, their political engagement, and the work of democracy? Are college students politically engaged? How do college students practice politics? How can institutions of higher education help foster greater political participation among college students? Research shows that many college students today are cynical about politics. When it comes to political participation, these same college students are apathetic. With recent years of decline of participation, there has been an increase of voting, trust in the government also in other forms of political participations by college students. There has also been a "scissor effect” meaning decline in of the political participation has coincided with a surge of volunteering and involvement in the community. There is widespread agreement in the literature about the great political potential of our generation of college students that colleges and universities need to do more to educate the next generation for democracy and provide more opportunities for political participation. The next article I will discuss concerning political knowledge is one written by Patrick Meirick and Daniel Wackman. This article relates to a media outlet such as the Jay leno show and accurately describes the lack of political knowledge among the streets of America today. The article describes a scenario in which Jay Leno asks random people on the streets “Who is the United States Vice President?” The answers he received were not accurate and was a direct correlation in the lack of political knowledge in our country today. Statistics show that “Only about a third of people are able to name both their U.S. senators, 57 percent know which party is more conservative, and 59 percent can name the party to which their governor belonged; a little more than 70 percent are able to name the vice president (Meirick&Wackman).” The fact that the Jay Leno show may make a few people on the street blush for not knowing who the vice president is comical but not having an informed citizenry is in no way comical. The process in making a political decision is very important and a citizen must have a quality background in political knowledge to make decisions that will be positive in their favor. People who are without this knowledge therefore cannot express their accurate beliefs based on this knowledge to give them what they desire in the political world. The article discusses how the lack of political knowledge affects all parties involved. Groups of people such as whites, blacks, men, women, the prosperous and poor are all affected by decisions made based upon political knowledge. Another article written by William A. Galston reiterates the facts of how the political knowledge of individuals in society has not evolved since the 1950’s (Galston). “Recent research indicates that levels of political knowledge affect the acceptance of democratic principles, attitudes toward specific issues, and political participation” (Galston). Political scientists have long before stressed the individual role in a democratic society to be the main bloodline for politics evolving. The article also stresses how the individual in a democratic society must have a sense of civic responsibility. They must know that they have a voice and their voice matters. Their input on governmental decisions within voting has a meaning on their political interests. If one is not satisfied within their political region but did not participate in voting then they have no one to blame but themselves. This is why Galston stresses the fact that political knowledge and civic education are essential parts in having a successful democratic society. In Fredrick Rudolph’s “The American College & University” he explains and emphasizes the knowledge of history with higher education. Rather than just explaining how little an individual has with just a high school degree. Rudolph explains this by saying scholars seeking higher educations in any field of study, the scholars have intriguing interest with the information around them by being in a group, teams or even know how to read documents. Rudolph cited in the 1960’s students that had the knowledge of federal documents, government reports of this time knew the importance of what was happening in the world. Not all of mass society knew this importance that made the 1960’s a very troubling time in the United States and even the hostility in the world that was happening right around people every day. The events and just the 1960’s in general were scary for the people of the United States. The Cuban Missile crisis started out the 1960’s sending the world into a great pandemic fear that the world was going to end due to nuclear war. This was at a height in the cold war and after Kennedy was assassinated nobody knew what was going to come next. Throughout the bulk of this paper facts have been stated about how political knowledge can impact the political decisions of our society. Not only does political knowledge impact society but the knowledge of past events in our country’s history could impact our future as well. In Bill O’Reilly’s book “Killing Kennedy”, O’Reilly goes into great detail about the events leading up to that sunny day in November of 1963 in Dallas, Texas. The JFK assassination is remembered by many in a very distinct way. People remember what they were wearing, where they were, and who they were with when Walter Cronkite interrupted The Bold and The Beautiful soap opera to inform the nation that the president had been shot in Dallas. The sub-title of O’Reilly’s book is titled “The End of Camelot”. Camelot was used to describe Kennedy’s time in office. The reason behind this would be the powerful name of the Kennedy’s. They were nationally known and Jackie Kennedy wanted the public to view her husband’s time in the white house in a sense of royalty and superiority. Lee Harvey Oswald stamped his mark to the end of Camelot that day in the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository building. The odd fact of how Little America’s youth know about this historic day in history is appalling. The way the president was murdered publically in a horrific way and how he was also a face that was recognized as a celebrity made it even more tragic. Bill O’Reilly previously wrote the book “Killing Lincoln” which was widely acclaimed and has been read by over two million readers. Throughout “Killing Kennedy” O’Reilly makes comparisons to Lincoln and Kennedy and shows how similar they were as individuals and as Presidents of the United States. Not only does he make comparisons to their presidency but also their assassinations. America’s youth today may not even know who John Wilkes Booth or Lee Harvey Oswald are and what impact they had on this country. The following eerie facts that link Lincoln and Kennedy are simply amazing: Lincoln was first elected in 1860, Kennedy in 1960. Both were assassinated on a Friday, in the presence of their wives. Their successors were both southerners named Johnson who had served in the Senate. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808, Lyndon Johnson in 1908. Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846, while Kennedy was elected to the House in 1946. Both Men suffered the death of children while in office. Both men were assassinated by men with three names. The assassin Booth shot inside a theater and fled into a storage facility, while the assassin Oswald shot from a storage facility and fled into a theater (O’Reilly). All of these facts are not known by America’s youth and very well should be known. These events changed our country and were important on so many different levels. Political Knowledge starts at young ages in America’s youth today. The political knowledge of young adults must increase because the future of our democratic society depends on it. All of these articles, books, and sources describe the importance of political knowledge amongst a society. This knowledge is used to make political decisions that can impact a city, county, state, and country. If these decisions are not weighted with accurate political judgment the wrong people could end up in office and leave voters/non-voters unsatisfied. This would be considered an injustice to the true meaning of democracy. Because democracy is meant for the people having a voice and if the people of the nation do not take their voice seriously eventually their voice will become mute.
Reference Page
Galston, W.
A. (2001). Politcal Knowledge, Political Engagement and Civic Education. Annual Review of Political Science. 4(1), 217.
Longo, N. V., & Meyer, R. P. (2006). College Students and Politics: A Literature Review. CIRCLE Working Paper 46. Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), University of Maryland.
Reilly, B., & Dugard, M. (2012). Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot. New York, New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
Rudolph, F., & Thelin, J. (n.d.). The American College and University. Google Books. Retrieved March 14, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3se-H1Y_l7kC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=free+scholarly+articles+on+history+knowledge+by+college+students&ots=7XPArsEUw8&sig=yIYANFQTzFa64gXdJoaF5bsP-z8#v=onepage&q&f=false
Russel, Cheryl. (2012). The Surprising Trends That Suggests Young People WonÕt Vote in 2012. Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/100774/young-voters-election-2012
Taylor. Francis. (2014). Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. Retrieved March 12th, 2014 Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media . Jan2014, Vol. 58 Issue 1, p97-113. 17p. 6
Charts.
Voting and Regisration. (2012). Retrieved March 12, 2014 from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/socdemo/voting/publications/p20/2012/tables.html
Wiley. Blackwell. (2004) Retrieved March 11th, 2014. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell) . Dec2004, Vol. 85 Issue 5, p1161-1177. 17p. 1 Diagram, 3 Charts, 1 Graph.