We, without souls?
Not to be opinionated, but:
Lately, I've found myself trying to get a perspective on the world.
A few days ago, I opened up a local newspaper and read on one of the inside pages that the death toll in Pakistan, as a result of recent earthquakes in that region, has reached 38,000. Another story, right under that one, told of a Guatemalan town recently buried by mudslides and declared a mass grave of some 1,500 people.
I closed the newspaper.
Thirty-eight thousand people lay dead, others dying, in one small corner of the globe.
Tons of mud and rock are literally all that remains of an entire town in another corner.
The day after I read of these two catastrophic stories, I thought I should bring up the issue to some friends, to kind of vent my feelings and hopefully get support that the world wasn't ending - because, after reading about those two horrible tragedies, it really seemed like I should be looking out for the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
So I brought the issues up on three separate occasions to three separate friends and this is what each of them told me: "Who cares?"I'm not lying when I say that each of them uttered those two horrible words.
I looked at the first guy that threw out this comment with the jaw of my soul hitting my feet in disbelief.
"Who cares?" Are you serious?Last week, an earthquake hit the disputed Indian-Pakistani region of Kashmir. A few days ago, I read about the 38,000 lives lost there on an inside fold of a local newspaper. Meanwhile, the front page - with the supposedly most important items - had a story of how Kentucky's national forests are constantly in natural change. There's a story I can understand saying "Who cares?" after reading. When an entire town in Central America, a region most of us are familiar with, was buried alive, you couldn't find any information about it without first having to look for it through pages of uninteresting, random and, frankly, dumb stories. I think the front page that day had a story on a worthless UK football team losing in a worthless game. Who cares about that one? Heck, I called that at the beginning of the season.But this is different.
Before I go on, let me step outside for a second and get a perspective on the world we all live in, because, last time I checked, we cared about the fact that someone - even just one person - dies.
Hopefully, everyone at this university knows how big 38,000 is. It's about as many people as can fit in Rupp Arena and Memorial Coliseum combined, and a little more then half the fan capacity at Commonwealth stadium. That's a pretty big number.
Now imagine each and every one of those people dead. Not breathing. Not alive. Dead. Like those floating bodies you (maybe) saw on CNN after Hurricane Katrina blew New Orleans away. Katrina was a big deal, wasn't it? The death toll there was less than a thirtieth of what it is in Pakistan. But we cared there, right? It's all we heard about for a week straight.I'm kind of confused when the same amount of people who attend and work at the University of Kentucky have died in a matter of days in a region of the world, and I don't see a thing about it on the front of the local newspaper. I'm a little more confused when people who go to a university and are "educated" don't know that it even happened. It makes me a hell of a whole lot more confused - no, angry - when I explain to this ignorant "cream of America's educational crop" what has happened and they don't feel any remorse whatsoever. And we call ourselves human.
"I don't give a damn about some town that got buried," my friend told me.How can you not? People are people, no matter where they are in this world.
The fact that students at this university and the media that inform them don't care that tens of thousands of people are dead makes me think that I'm in a zombie movie and that each and every person around me is a walking, soulless, emotionless, inhuman, brainless creature. Has the world ended? Is this it? It must be when we don't care about another human being or shed a tear to the horrid situations that befall them. How can we not care?
To the newspapers and TV networks around here, I'd like to thank you for failing to do your one, simple job: to inform the public and make people understand what's important in this world.
To the boys and girls at this university who believe that the two tragic events I mentioned and the people involved with them are as meaningful as the trash you threw out last night, I'd just like to say that you are a joke to the human race you represent.
(Printed in the KY Kernel opinions section, Oct, 18, 2005, ala the University of Kentucky)
Lately, I've found myself trying to get a perspective on the world.
A few days ago, I opened up a local newspaper and read on one of the inside pages that the death toll in Pakistan, as a result of recent earthquakes in that region, has reached 38,000. Another story, right under that one, told of a Guatemalan town recently buried by mudslides and declared a mass grave of some 1,500 people.
I closed the newspaper.
Thirty-eight thousand people lay dead, others dying, in one small corner of the globe.
Tons of mud and rock are literally all that remains of an entire town in another corner.
The day after I read of these two catastrophic stories, I thought I should bring up the issue to some friends, to kind of vent my feelings and hopefully get support that the world wasn't ending - because, after reading about those two horrible tragedies, it really seemed like I should be looking out for the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
So I brought the issues up on three separate occasions to three separate friends and this is what each of them told me: "Who cares?"I'm not lying when I say that each of them uttered those two horrible words.
I looked at the first guy that threw out this comment with the jaw of my soul hitting my feet in disbelief.
"Who cares?" Are you serious?Last week, an earthquake hit the disputed Indian-Pakistani region of Kashmir. A few days ago, I read about the 38,000 lives lost there on an inside fold of a local newspaper. Meanwhile, the front page - with the supposedly most important items - had a story of how Kentucky's national forests are constantly in natural change. There's a story I can understand saying "Who cares?" after reading. When an entire town in Central America, a region most of us are familiar with, was buried alive, you couldn't find any information about it without first having to look for it through pages of uninteresting, random and, frankly, dumb stories. I think the front page that day had a story on a worthless UK football team losing in a worthless game. Who cares about that one? Heck, I called that at the beginning of the season.But this is different.
Before I go on, let me step outside for a second and get a perspective on the world we all live in, because, last time I checked, we cared about the fact that someone - even just one person - dies.
Hopefully, everyone at this university knows how big 38,000 is. It's about as many people as can fit in Rupp Arena and Memorial Coliseum combined, and a little more then half the fan capacity at Commonwealth stadium. That's a pretty big number.
Now imagine each and every one of those people dead. Not breathing. Not alive. Dead. Like those floating bodies you (maybe) saw on CNN after Hurricane Katrina blew New Orleans away. Katrina was a big deal, wasn't it? The death toll there was less than a thirtieth of what it is in Pakistan. But we cared there, right? It's all we heard about for a week straight.I'm kind of confused when the same amount of people who attend and work at the University of Kentucky have died in a matter of days in a region of the world, and I don't see a thing about it on the front of the local newspaper. I'm a little more confused when people who go to a university and are "educated" don't know that it even happened. It makes me a hell of a whole lot more confused - no, angry - when I explain to this ignorant "cream of America's educational crop" what has happened and they don't feel any remorse whatsoever. And we call ourselves human.
"I don't give a damn about some town that got buried," my friend told me.How can you not? People are people, no matter where they are in this world.
The fact that students at this university and the media that inform them don't care that tens of thousands of people are dead makes me think that I'm in a zombie movie and that each and every person around me is a walking, soulless, emotionless, inhuman, brainless creature. Has the world ended? Is this it? It must be when we don't care about another human being or shed a tear to the horrid situations that befall them. How can we not care?
To the newspapers and TV networks around here, I'd like to thank you for failing to do your one, simple job: to inform the public and make people understand what's important in this world.
To the boys and girls at this university who believe that the two tragic events I mentioned and the people involved with them are as meaningful as the trash you threw out last night, I'd just like to say that you are a joke to the human race you represent.
(Printed in the KY Kernel opinions section, Oct, 18, 2005, ala the University of Kentucky)
posted by Chris Miles at 12:03 AM
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