I have to write this while it’s still fresh on my mind. A few minutes ago, I felt very angry with people. All sorts of people, right-wing, left-wing…all of us. We spend so much time focusing on things that don’t really matter….(Paula Deen saying the n-word, for example) and not enough time focusing on things that are actually important. There are hate crimes in the world a lot worse than an aging southern woman fitting in with her culture (believe it or not that’s not what inspired this, but I believe it is the most applicable example I could use).
If Paula Deen used that word and then followed it with a
lynching, yeah, I’d pay attention, I’d care, but she didn’t. People die every
day, through hate crimes. It happens both inside and outside of the United
States, but we’re so bogged down with petty issues we don’t see it, recognize
it, or take the real actions to eradicate it. We’re too concerned with
political correctness or titles to notice the man who hits his wife, or the
woman who screams, yells, and emotionally abuses her family. Not only do we all
know someone affected by drunk driving, we all know someone who has driven
drunk (unless we are incredibly lucky, and if you don’t think you do, you’re
probably wrong). People are homeless on the streets of Minneapolis (and yes,
they are frequently that way of their own addictions and doing, but still, they
are human beings). There are homeless people here. Now, let’s leave the United
States.
There are people starving to death every day, adults,
children, everything. Some resort to cannibalism because they can’t think of
another way to survive. Children (little girls, mostly) are forced to cater to
the sexual whims of monsters, and are forced to live their lives abused and in
fear. Drugs destroy families. Unemployment leaves hungry mouths.
Wars rage, people steal, and yet, we’re concerned with
healthcare systems, language, and sexuality. I’m sorry, but these things seem
so unimportant to me in the big picture. I feel like my efforts (or tax money,
or even media attention) would be better spent appreciating heroes, like those
firefighters that died in Arizona, or fighting wrongs, like the human
trafficking so rampant in Africa and Asia. We could feed the hungry, build
rehabilitation, but we’re so wrapped up in our “first world problems” (silly
video, but it has a point), and our desires to be more comfortable, or to prove
we’re not racist, or that we’re accepting that we don’t really help anyone who
actually needs help. I do it just as much as anybody else, but tonight, driving
home, listening to the radio as they touted these petty issues I really
realized something: that’s not who I want to be, and, with Paula Deen for
example, I feel like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, Frankly My Dear, I don’t
Give a D***. I really don’t, it’s not important, I care about things that
really are important. Things that seem a lot more life-or-death. Things that if
I make a difference in them, I’m really going to change the world, I’m not
simply going to make it more uptight.
I guess what I’m saying is that I’m really realizing that
we, here, in the US, a lot of us, anyway, we don’t know what it’s really like
to be harassed. If the worst things are harsh words (and yes, it is a terrible
term, but forgiveness is a beautiful thing!), then we’re living pretty well. Instead
of trying to control how everyone else makes people’s lives “better” (better,
or different?), maybe we should just act ourselves. No more laws, no more
taxes, real people, making real differences. Maybe I’ll even take my own
advice, it really would be good for me.
