Mugshots has quite a few patrons for a Tuesday night. Loud rap music booms out of the corner, where nearly all of the patrons are huddled. They all stand shoulder-to-shoulder, seeing and being seen, while a vast amount of the floor space remains unused. A few smokers brave the brisk, damp air on the balcony, where shouting is not required for conversation with the person next to you.
Kacie Lundgren, a short, blonde student at East Mississippi Community College, sits at a table with friends. When asked what the biggest issue facing the country is, she pauses and flatly responds — the oil spill. Referring to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the ecological disaster has taken the same parlance of Hurricane Katrina in 2005; after a while everyone just called it “the storm,” now the BP oil spill is simply “the oil spill.”
“I went to the beach a lot during the summer. Seriously, you could tell there were lots of dead sharks and dead fish washed up everywhere, like, it was a big problem. It was gross. I really didn’t want to get in the water,” Lundgren said.
Miles Prichard, also an EMCC student, sits at the same table as Lundgren. He leans back in his chair, holding a beer. He says he doesn’t think President Obama is good at his job.
“I think the health care and the Medicare and stuff like that is wrong, personally. He said that the old people are going to have to pay for their Medicare and stuff like that, and I don’t think that’s proportional, to tell you the truth.”
Evan Johnson, a senior accounting major, says with the current political climate, the job of president would be tough for anyone. Johnson also echoed the sentiments of much of the public, which is that representatives are not doing their jobs.
“Pretty much a lot of the people that are representing on behalf of everybody else are in it for themselves and not the greater good,” Johnson said.
Johnson continued to say despite the economic malaise, it is still up to the individual to ensure their success.
The answers from these collegians, suprising at times, but many seem to echo the talking points of mainstream media. They seem to express their sentiments simply because it is what the society expects of them and what is force-fed to them whenever they fire up a television set. Their answers are sweeping and without exclusions, either for or against.
A junior marketing major, Coleman Brock’s answer sums up what appears to be this generation’s response to polical matters.
“I’m not for the health care bill. I don’t want to say anything upper class or middle class, but I wasn’t for the health care bill because I hear it’s going to hurt me. But I mean, really, most of that information is coming from my parents and people older than I am,” Brach said.
Dylan King, a junior economics major, says the political swings and unrest are the nation’s biggest problems along with the media. King’s answer succinctly describes a nation of people casting its votes against candidates or parties, rather than in favor of a candidate.
“If you think about it, last election it was all Democrat, Democrat, Democrat. This year, the Republicans are going to sweep it. I think the biggest problem to me is the media is so biased. You’ve got Fox News who’s all about Republicans, and CNN who’s all about Democrats. I just think it’s a very, very biased media, and that’s a very serious problem,” he said. “You’ve got people sitting at home watching the news and they’ve got one station and that’s all they feed from, and that’s how they vote and make their political decisions.”