By Abby Rathbun
Once again the sidewalks throughout campus are chalked with anti-abortion words.
While this article is not about being pro-life or pro-choice, it is about students caring. On April 2, the United States Supreme Court decided that carbon dioxide is indeed a pollutant and can be regulated by the EPA.
If University of Louisville students were asked about what major environmental decision was made recently, it is doubtful many would have any idea.
The media always portrays college students as the ones who protest and stand up against the establishment.
Is this the way of the last generation and the baby-boomers? Have we become a generation of apathetic, lethargic dolts?
According to the Pew research center, only 14 percent of college educated 18-29-year-olds read the newspaper daily.
Students remain uninformed not because they do not have access to information, (dorms on campus are all supplied with weekday newspapers), but simply because they do not care.
According to the same study, a quarter of all college students tune out all news media, whether it is newspaper, television or radio.
While memories of incidents like the Kent State University massacre are undesirable, images of thoughtful students banding together to voice necessary opinions were refreshing.
Pollution and environmental issues lack the immediacy and religious or moral connections that incite fervor in students.
If students at the university level do not care about the future, who will?
Students are supposed to be the bright future; however, if they are oblivious to the news and the issues, they cannot successfully lead this country into the next era.
Many U of L students would be able to tell you that the University of Florida Gators won the NCAA college basketball championship on Monday and rattle off most of the 30 teams in Major League Baseball.
However, how many students would be able to discuss Alberto Gonzalez or the release of the British soldiers who were captured in Iran?
This generation has become so accustomed to 20-second sound bites to fill them in on the news that most students believe that this is adequate or even complete.
Students need to have an opinion, but more importantly, they need to care about the world around them.
While students should care because the issues are important, there are also some practical reasons to be in the know.
In the era of Facebook and Blackberries, networking and connectivity is becoming increasingly important.
For one thing, news allows people to connect over shared knowledge.
Conversation, especially in an educational or business setting, is often centered on current events and exhibiting knowledge implies competence and respectability.
In addition, the news provides the opportunity to know what not to do.
Students need to open their minds to the greatest issues that affect our world, and one is its declining health.
