I was driving in my car listening to the Mancow radio show on my way back from Champaign the other day, and as I was listening a Chinese immigrant from New York came on the show and was saying that all Americans are ignorant.

On some level I think he was right.

Okay, I am not trying to say that I am un-American, because I’m not. But from my observation about the people that I see in this country, whether in Charleston, Chicago, Illinois or California, myself included, we all seem to have a major case of Attention Deficient Disorder (ADD), meaning we do not have high attention spans especially when it comes to issues directly concerning ourselves.

I’ll start with an example that got my attention this weekend, gas prices. Okay, it is safe to say that everyone knows about the soaring gas prices that have been happening. In Champaign it dropped down to $3.09 and in Charleston $2.98. When I first saw these prices over the weekend I about jumped for joy. “Yeah, gas prices are going down!” But then a friend of mine who was with me said, “Do you realize that a year ago we would be curing the government if gas prices got as high as $3.09?”

My friend had a point in saying that as Americans we tend to forget things very fast, especially if it does not affect us at that moment. I mean, gas prices have been steadily going up every summer. Not a surprise to most because prices get pushed up for summer traveling season. But somehow they always seemed to be fixed in that spot.

Five years ago, gas in central Illinois was about $1.40 a gallon and I remembered people complaining because it was up from the $.90 it was at earlier that year. Then when prices went down during the winter months, people calmed down. Then when summer came, gas prices went up slightly again, $1.50 a gallon, and people complained, but they all seemed to forget about it when the winter months came and lowered prices just enough for people to get use to them. I mean I remember two summers ago cursing because gas was $2.50 a gallon, now I wish it was that low.

Why do we forget at the drop of a hat all our outrage? It seems we, as Americans, blow up at a certain topic, then after a few days we drop it for our most prevalent topic, this summer’s being Paris Hilton going to jail.

We should stick to topics that outrage us, not drop them. Maybe if people started complaining more to the government about the drastic increase of gas prices, then they would not have to worry if gas will get to $4 a gallon, something people did two summers ago about $3 a gallon.

If people keep on the trend that they are on, nothing will change. People will still be known as ignorant Americans. But maybe if we change our attitudes by paying more attention to topics and stick with them, then maybe we can redeem ourselves and become something more.