Dude! Where's My Country?

Here's an interesting editorial I found in the Rochester, New York newspaper today:

Half of Americans age 18 to 24 can't locate New York on a map, according to a survey conducted in December and January for the National Geographic Society. Sixty percent can't find Iraq.

What's worse, most of those surveyed don't care. How many respondents thought it was important to know the location of countries in the news? Sadly, fewer than 30 percent.

It's not surprising that young people in the world's richest and most powerful country can get away with those kinds of attitudes. But it is scary.

If 30 percent of Americans believe that the world's most heavily fortified border lies between the United States and Mexico, as this survey suggests, it will be very difficult to have an intelligent national discussion about immigration policy.