Posted: 6/18/03

Pay attention to the world, keep up with current events

By Molly Tolzmann

While flipping channels late one night, I caught the Tonight Show with Jay Leno during a ìJaywalkingî segment.

For those of you who are usual Letterman fans like me, or donít watch Leno, ìJaywalkingî is an activity which involves Leno walking the streets of Los Angeles and doling out current events questions to passersby.

The humor comes when the people respond to fairly easy questions with an answer that is not even remotely correct.

I found the segment funny as usual, but this time I stopped to think. I wondered how people could possibly be so unaware of what is going on in the country and the world around them.

They seemed to be clueless to things everyone should know. After more thought, I decided that, while I could easily answer Lenoís and similar questions, I could not seem to remember the name of the new Senate majority leader or think of anything that had happened on Wall Street lately.

On reaching these conclusions, I found myself paying more attention to the newspaper and nightly news in effort to raise my awareness of current events.

I believe that most of the problem was simply that I did not have enough time to read the paper or watch the news. This is probably an issue for many people.

I usually was at a track meet or doing homework instead of using that precious time to watch the news. However, once I made a point to make time, I could use previous knowledge to more fully understand an article or story.

Several months ago, I took advantage of FLHSís Career Day to spend the day with Rep. Rebecca Otto at the state capitol. This was an incredibly educational day that I will never forget.

Every time I read the paper, I look for things that I learned from Rep. Otto. My reading experience has certainly been made more intriguing and fun as I can now look at things with an ìI found out. . .î attitude.

Between what I learned from Rep. Otto and topics covered in my AP US History class at the high school, my renewed interest in current events is proving to be very enlightening. I can look at things that I already have some background in and recognize tactics used to sway the readerís opinion.

Finally, current events are interesting!

Now I can confidently tell you that the Senate majority leader is Bill Frist, Hairspray won big at the Tony Awards, monkeypox is spreading through the midwest, and Martha Stewartís trial is a big newsmaker.

While those featured on Leno might be especially out of it for not knowing who Dick Cheney is, they certainly show us the importance of knowing current events.

It can be difficult to follow shows like Saturday Night Live or keep up in casual conversation without a basic knowledge of what is going on in the world.

I urge you to keep up with current events. You never know when Leno or someone else will want to know something that could be found in todayís paper or on tonightís news!

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