September 11 -- what year? 30 percent of Americans don't know

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Some 30 percent of Americans cannot say in what year the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington took place, according to a poll published in the Washington Post newspaper.

While the country is preparing to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and shocked the world, 95 percent of Americans questioned in the poll were able to remember the month and the day of the attacks, according to Wednesday's edition of the newspaper.

But when asked what year, 30 percent could not give a correct answer.

Of that group, six percent gave an earlier year, eight percent gave a later year, and 16 percent admitted they had no idea whatsoever.

This memory black hole is essentially the problem of the older crowd: 48 percent of those who did not know were between the ages of 55 and 64, and 47 percent were older than 65, according to the poll.

The Post telephone survey was carried out July 21-24 among 1,002 randomly selected adults. The margin of error is plus or minus three percentage points


http://news.yahoo.com/s/a...NlYwM3NTc-

september wha?

Oh lord.. don't these ppl listen to the president.. he says the date every time he talks..

I agree.
I think her sunglasses were really cute.....

whoops, sorry....
thought I wandered into the Paris Hilton thread.

i think that the only reason why i remember the year is because 9/11 happened while i was on my junior year abroad.

i was in morocco and everyone wanted us to leave and do some whack ass program in england. because, you know, i took my junior year abroad in morocco so i could end up in england.


anyway, that's why i remember the date.

I guess I remember it because I got married on the 21st of Sept 2001. It sure is not because I listen to the president..

shanti0608 said:

i never listen to the president either. i'll read about it, but i have a hard time actually listening to him.

shanti0608 said:

Those same people don't know who the president is.

Nor do they know how to locate New York on a map.

i remember the date because it was the 3rd day at my then-new job. man, i can't believe it's been nearly 5 years since 9/11 (and since i started working at my current employer).

Handclapsfingasnapz said:

i know, right...i have a hard time believing it, too

Why should we know the damn year? It's 9/11, not 9/11/2001. If they wanted us to remember the year, Bush would have marketed it with the year in the title.

Seriously, it's shocking what people don't know sometimes.

Sweeny79 said:

That is the standarized test for insanity (or senility or dementia).

Sweeny79 said:

Sad but true...

applekisses said:

Well a large part of the nation is demented then.

applekisses said:

my mother teaches kids who don't know who the president is, where NY is on the map, or when their birthdays are. Many of these kids also don't have any symbol-sound correlation, which means that you could show them a letter, like 'A', and they have no idea what sound that letter represents.

it's not really their fault.

i suppose that the test you're talking about is for older people?

JasmineFire said:

That says a lot for parents these days..

JasmineFire said:

But I think statistics say that something like 50 percent of americans can't find the US on an unmarked map of the world. I don't think they all have disorders.

JasmineFire said:

Those are a couple of questions on it.

shanti0608 said:

it's the smart ones that don't listen to him

Mach said:

NDRU said:

oh lord, that statistic has to be made up... please... someone tell me that's made up... anyone??

JasmineFire said:

I've taught normal kids who didn't know that shit, their parents didn't either.

fantasyislander said:

That sounds pretty high.

shanti0608 said:

most of these kids have learning disorders of one kind or another and a few of then are developmentally delayed. Their parents are usually not much better off in that department.

for lots of these kids, their teachers never bothered to take the time to teach them because they're such a challenge to teach. where my mother lives has a rather...erm...interesting educational system.

Sweeny79 said:

pretty much everyone i know would be able to point to the USA on a map or globe, even if its unmarked.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...EQanxyZDsw

So stupid their cute

The title 'USA has some real dumb people' is a generalization. Don't include me in that because I'm damn exceptional to remembering dates.

These people could have just smoke a mojo when the phone rang. Or on some mind altering baby boom drug. I would never be a part of a survey because my number is not listed.

But, I could tell you where I was on that Tuesday morning when the plane second plane hit. Watching it live on Good Morning America in my bosses office. My mother called my job and told me to get the hell out of downtown Chicago immediately, since I worked two blocks from the Sears Tower. I was the fire marshall on my floor and told everyone that was glued to the TV to leave the building because the federal buildings across the street evacuated. I left and walked home 40 blocks praying to God I didn't hear a giant boom in Chicago.

The wierdest thing I remembered that day as I walked home, there was not a airplane in the sky. The city was a ghost town. No one was outside. It was eerie quiet.

I will never forget, Tuesday, September 11, 2001.

GaryTheNoTrashCougar said:

Not only that, old people smell funny too.

Sweeny79 said:

sounds really high, yes, but it honestly was something like that. Maybe it was 50% of US high school students can't find Mexico on an unmarked map, I suppose that would be a little easier to swallow.

Hell it could be a made up statistic, who knows?

incognito said:

i remember that day very well too.

and seriously, could you edit the title? i really hate it when other countries look at all americans as idiots. i'm damn smart!!