RE: It's Apathy and Education

[Joan Johnson <joan@altair.com>]

I am thankful for the number of young people taking time to respond to this issue via this forum. This is the kind of opportunity I did not have when I attended school.

Regarding television's contribution to campaigns: As I remember in this last election, the major networks needed to be "encouraged" to broadcast the debates and further, the numbers of sets tuned into the debates weren't all that high. In addition, the numbers of people obtaining their information from network news broadcasts also is dropping. Why might this be?

As for negative ads working: they didn't in one race in Michigan. A particularly nasty set of negative ads against Spence Abraham's opponent Debbie Stabenow aired in the final weeks of the campaign. She'd been the underdog most of the campaign. She won.

With freedom comes responsibility. We must take that responsibility seriously and not merely throw money at campaigns and candidates. One way to assist in this is to reduce the influx of money. It may not be the best solution, but it is a start.

Joan