An Ivy League graduate headed to law
school, with eyes on becoming her state’s first female governor, Miss
North Dakota Cara Mund knew the importance of answering a question
head-on.
So when judges at the Miss America
competition asked her whether President Donald Trump was wrong to
withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords that seek to
rein in greenhouse gas emissions, she did not hesitate.
“It’s a bad decision,” she said during
Sunday night’s nationally televised finale. “There is evidence that
climate change is existing, and we need to be at that table.”
That answer helped her win the crown as Miss America 2018 at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.
Meeting with reporters afterward, Mund said she wanted first and foremost to give a real answer to the question.
Miss North Dakota Cara Mund reacts after
being named Miss America during Miss America 2018 pageant, Sunday,
Sept. 10, 2017, in Atlantic City, N.J. (Noah K. Murray/Associated Press)
“I wasn’t really afraid if my opinion
wasn’t the opinion of my judges,” she said. “Miss America needs to have
an opinion and she needs to know what’s happening in the current
climate.”
On Monday, after taking the winner’s
traditional morning-after dip in the Atlantic City surf, Mund reiterated
that the U.S. should be part of the talks on greenhouse gases, which
contribute to global warming.
“My onstage question answer was just my
personal opinion,” she told The Associated Press. “I think everyone has a
right to think what they want.
But it’s important to have a spot at the
negotiating table. This isn’t necessarily: ‘Does climate change exist
or not?’ but rather the fact that we’re going to keep our Earth clean
for future generations, and I just think it’s really important that we
have a seat there. To pull out, I think, is just really unfortunate.”
No comments:
Post a Comment