Maps, Mumbles and Miss Teen South Carolina

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  09.07.07 | 12:46 PM ET

misssouthcarolinateen

I don’t want to pile on Lauren Caitlin Upton, the Miss Teen USA pageant contestant from South Carolina who botched her answer to the question, “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?” As of this morning, the video of her awkward response has been viewed more than 13 million times at YouTube. Now, the Web site Maps for US has given her assertion that “some people out there in our nation don’t have maps” some additional infamy, parodying telethons and asking people to donate maps.

The site’s About section features a video and riffs on Upton’s response:

MapsforUs.org is the online home, where people can donate maps to the citizens of the United States.

From South Africa to Iraq, the world is alarmed at the recent polls that show a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. We personally believe that it a crisis of epic proportions that US Americans are unable to do so, because some people out their in our nation don’t have maps.

And we believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere…like. Such as. And we believe you should donate maps to this cause.

So far the site has received donated maps of, among other things, the Las Vegas Strip,  the London Underground highlighted as an Emu and a video of the song Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Upton is an easy target for comedy, but, really, the whole episode just makes me cringe. It’s the video, sure, but more so those alleged 60 million Americans who can’t locate their own home country on a map. One bright spot: The Teaching Geography is Fundamental Act was reintroduced in Congress earlier this year. According to the National Council for Geographic Education, the Act could be in effect within a year.