"I personally believe that US 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 and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the US should help the US or should help south africa and should help the iraq and the asian countries so we will be able to build up our future."
Wow! ...just WOW...
...and people CLAPPED for her?
It must have been out of pity. Or it could have been a recorded applause. You know how those studios work.
Still... our educations should help Iraq and Asia. I mean, duh, she totally has a point such as.
It is the stuff of nightmares. The moment when, on live national television, you are asked a question, the answer disobediently flies out of your head, and something oddly-born comes out of your mouth.
For Lauren Caitlin Upton, an apparently upbeat 18-year-old from Lexington, South Carolina, the time came on Friday evening during the tricky on-stage interview section of Miss Teen USA. Three per cent of America's television audience was watching.
The question: "Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?"
The answer (in a pleasant drawl, moments of certainty undone by drifts of nervousness):
"I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the US. should help the US, er, 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."
In case you miss it on the recording, "for our children" -- the trusty beauty-pageant / presidential sign-off -- was lost in polite applause.
But was it such a disaster? Lauren's answer went straight to YouTube and hasn't looked back, amassing more than 3.5 million viewers and 13,000 comments in just over two days. Although she finished "third runner up" (fourth was Chelsea Welch, Miss West Virginia), Lauren is now threatening to get a larger audience for her answer than the rest of the Miss Teen USA franchise put together. A weekend interview for her local paper ("Things happen for a reason... That's the way life goes") is now being followed by a series of breakfast television appearances.
We missed the rest of the Miss Teen broadcast, but among the comments on YouTube ("She's still pretty"), are assurances that Lauren faced a much harder question than her rivals. And looking up advice from "Beauty Pageant Tips, Techniques & Secrets", we think that apart from a brief stray to South Africa and the Iraq everywhere, she did a pretty good job. The textbook says:
"Be truthful. The judges usually do not have a definite answer in mind for the kind of questions asked during the onstage interview so there is no one “right” answer. Only you know the exact correct response to the question because it is your response! Be honest with the judges, use answers from within yourself and your answer will sound sincere."
Go Lauren! And why can't a fifth of Americans find the US on a world map? A National Geographic Survey of young Americans from last year doesn't have the answer, but it does throw out this interesting finding: "Given a map of a hypothetical place and told they could escape an approaching hurricane by evacuating to the northwest, one-third would travel in the wrong direction."
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
Author
Logged
