Canada's next to Vietnam isn't it?

Stardate 5703.05

There have always been jokes about Americans and their apparent inability to see beyond their own borders, not knowing where difficult to find places like Iraq and, er, Canada are... Well now there is proof, and it even extends inside their own borders! It seems that the no-child left behind policy left out Geography as a core study.

WASHINGTON - Despite the wall-to-wall coverage of the damage from Hurricane Katrina, nearly one-third of young Americans recently polled couldn’t locate Louisiana on a map and nearly half were unable to identify Mississippi.

Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 fared even worse with foreign locations: six in 10 couldn’t find Iraq, according to a Roper poll conducted for National Geographic.

Wow. I wonder how many young folks sign up for the military without actually knowign where they are going? What is really sad is that I am starting to see this with our own kids up here. Many have little interest in events beyond their immediate locations... and it is too bad considering how technology opens the world up to all of us!