You all had a good laugh at the expense of Miss South Carolina * when she was forced to improvise on the touchy problem of a fifth of Americans being unable locate the U.S. on a map.
Well, we could use her now.
You see, if one-fifth of Americans can’t find the U.S. on a map, how many Americans couldn’t find Turkey on a map? Probably a lot more fifths! (Or would that be a lot fewer?)
The way Miss South Carolina explains it, she feels the reason “U.S. Americans” can’t find the U.S.A., (and, by implication, countries nobody’s ever heard of like Turkey, Iraq, or Iran,), is “because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps.”
She makes a great point, and gets it across with incredible poise, in my estimation. I have reason to believe, for instance, that neither Nancy Pelosi nor Tom Lantos, nor the other sponsors of the House resolution condemning Turkey for the Armenian genocide of 1915, don’t have maps.
If they did, they could not possibly believe that launching a diplomatic insult at Turkey--an insult guaranteed to draw retaliation from the Turkish government in the form of a denial of cooperation with us-- could possibly be a good idea right now.
If Ms. Pelosi had a map, she would realize that Turkey shares borders with both Iraq and Iran, two countries of immediate critical concern to the United States, now and into the indefinite future, and in one of which we are actually fighting a war. Lacking maps, she can't be blamed for not knowing that our Turkish bases and supply routes--both strategically irreplaceable--depend on Turkish cooperation--cooperation she and her House colleagues are awfully anxious to fritter away on this untimely resolution.
We know that Ms. Pelosi, (whom the Wall Street Journal refers to as “Secretary of State Pelosi”), must at least have some maps, at least maps of Africa, because she says her genocide resolution “is about the Ottoman Empire," last seen more than 85 years ago. "Genocide still exists," insists Ms. Pelosi. "We saw it in Rwanda; we see it now in Darfur." She also must know a few things about world history, since she's heard of the Ottomans. But if she had maps she'd know that condemning a 90-year old genocide in Turkey won't do any good for people in Darfur or Rwanda.
Fortunately, both Ms. Pelosi and Miss South Carolina share identical desires “to build up our future for our children,” in the case of the latter, by providing "U.S. Americans" with more maps. (We're still waiting to find out how Ms. Pelosi expects to do it).
I really do think Miss South Carolina's got something there. We should take a lesson from her, and get some maps of the Middle East and Turkey to Ms. Pelosi and her colleagues as soon as possible.
Before three-fifths of Congress tears down the future for our children any worse.
*JUDGE: Recent polls have shown that a fifth of Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?
MISS SOUTH CAROLINA: I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq -- everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should... our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. -- or should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for our children.
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