Consider Further

Too often I think that Americans, in general, recognize or only slightly pay attention to the tragedy and sufferings of people both here and abroad. When we see the poor people in Africa, we say “that’s so sad.” When we walk the streets of Washington DC and see homeless people fighting for a bench to sleep on we think “what a shame.” When we see suffering, it’s like we pity the sufferers for about five seconds and then forget that our pity didn’t end or help their suffering; yet we move on without doing much about it.

This notion is actually the big picture of the point that I was trying to make with my last blog “Wristbands.” It is as though we feel we’ve done someone a great service by buying a $2.97 bracelet, and we’ve got the proof of our benevolence on our wrists for the world to see. So we buy the bracelet, deem ourselves a “good person,” and only remember the purpose of the bracelet for the five seconds after someone asks us “what does that color stand for?”

I mean, why should we care much more than that? We’ve already done our part, right? We bought the $2.84 bracelet, which donated that money to XYZ charity that helps QRS sufferers; we’ve done our part!

Too often we do the minimum (which I suppose is better than nothing) and easily forget the ruthlessness of the tribulations that people go through. Honestly, when was the last time you really thought about the Tsunami (tell the truth!)? When did you last consider the devastation that the Tsunami is? Sure, you may have attended a Tsunami relief banquet that cost you $25 a ticket, or maybe you prayed at your particular place of worship for the victims during the 3 and ½ week period that the media was sensationalizing the tragedy, and you might have even gone on the internet to see if you could match up missing people with their families. But today, it’s back to life as usual. Not another dollar donated, no more prayers uttered. Out of sight, out of mind.

The greatest natural disaster in modern history, over 250,000 dead, not 3 months old, and we’ve already forgotten it. And what we’ve forgotten in 3 months will take “them” 5, maybe 10 years to rebuild. Yet now, during the course of the week, you’re lucky if you hear any of the 24 hour news stations mention the Tsunami.

And I’m not saying that we all need to put our lives on hold to go to Indonesia and help with the relief effort. Neither am I saying that you should donate your life savings to any particular cause. There are indeed limitations to what each individual can do, and certainly boundaries to what each person should do. Everyone has their own bag of problems to deal with and goals to strive towards. So by no means am I condemning anyone for only attending that $25 Tsunami relief banquet. In fact, I applaud such behavior. However, I hope that attending meant more to you than just the opportunity to garner acclaim for being a “good person,” and that you realize the tragedy didn’t stop with the last dance of that night.

I am also saying that if you truly care and remain aware/conscious, whenever you have the opportunity to help out, you will. And helping out will consists of more than joining a fad that has more to do with vanity than the cause it represents, and you will go beyond superficial pity when considering the severity of another’s suffering.

In our capitalistic, self-centered, apathetic society, so many injustices or crimes or tragedies go unnoticed; and even when a tragedy is so big that we can’t ignore it, it’s as though we also take that opportunity to further our personal agendas as opposed to truly helping with the situation. That’s why you get news stations that try to get a reporter so deep into the midst of a tragedy; so they can run a commercial the week later that says “when the meteor hit, WE were there.”

It seems to be the American way: long periods of apathy and ignorance, a brief period of awareness, concern and beneficence (often in order to evince our goodness), and then the cycle starts all over again.

But I know we can be better than that!

-Maelstrom