The tragedy of the School shooting in America raises some major issues for me. Its evil and that cannot be denied. I hear how counselling centres are being set up for everyone involved. Everyone from The President to the head of the UN speak out about the evil of it and offer their sympathies and help if needed. It grabs the world headlines and already people are telling (and selling) their stories and appearing on national TV. The debate rages on about gun control in the US. Christians are seen on TV singing worship to God and thanking him for delivering those that made it. There will soon be speaking tours and movies made.
At the same time in Darfour, Iraq and many other places in the world this is daily occurrence often on a far greater scale. There are extremely traumatised children and adults who survive but know any day this could change. there are no counselling centres, no presidential decrees, no offers of help and sympathy for other nations. Surely if the American situation rouses us to action it should continue for the least of those amongst us......the hurting, unnamed, unknown child in Darfour who at this very moment struggles with the trauma of seeing things that sound like a horror movie, wondering if they will live or die and knowing no one seems to care!
I know Jesus told us that as much as we do it to them we do it to him.
This entry was posted by Angry and Shallow, on
Wednesday, April 18, 2007.
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7:20 pm
Totally. The thing that also pisses me off about these events is the media coverage as well. You can watch mainstream news here in Australia and you'll hardly hear anything about Darfur or Afghanistan or Iraq, but 33 people get killed in the US and it's all you hear about. It really shows which lives we think have value.
9:18 am
You are so right. It's amazing how our perspective is off. So many other people die and we don't shed a tear. But Va goes down and we're all an emotional train wreck.
The message, it's okay for soldiers to die, but students? It's a no no.
6:23 pm
We need more voices like yours, especially in the U.S. I was amazed. I saw the news of the Virginia Tech shooting on Al Jazeera and thought that it was horrible. I then checked out some American news site and saw all the coverage it was getting. The very next day I saw on Al Jezeera that 170 people had died in Bahgdad. There was no response from us Americans. No outpouring of grief and compassion. No crying to God in praise and worship. Nothing but a small little story. What a shame.
9:55 pm
I totally agree with you.
Another thing that is completely upside down in all this is that the American need to "bear arms" (which incredibly is part of their constitution) comes before the need to either place regulations and restrictions around gun use.
The state of Virginia has incredibly relaxed regulations around gun use, making it easy and accessible for the people who matter (usually the wealthy member of the NRA with vested interest in the political system) without regard to the consequences this accessibility brings.
It makes me angry that the rights of certain groups in society to feel protected by possessing a firearm come before common sense and consideration for how the use of these firearms impact of other peoples lives.
This is yet another example of the power and influence, albeit corrupt, that having capital brings in the Western world, and I think that sucks.
11:35 am
I guess if there were multiple uni shootings every week over the last 30 years then we would say "yeah yeah, another murder on campus" and we would be immune to it, just like how unfortunately we seem to be immune to Dafur etc.
Right or wrong, its the way it is. And because news is meant to be news, the fact that millions are killed/starve to death etc all the time is no longer news because it's been happening for so long, and we say "yes i already KNOW that, now tell me something that will shock me so I can get all fired up about it for a week or so".
So I guess the question for me is, we are upset, and righlty so, about all the media hype about VA tech, and the little attention paid to the 170 killed in Bahgdad recently.
We are giving attention to it by blogging about it, but what else are we gonna do? What else am i gonna do about it? Nothing probably. Just complain that it's wrong and the media sucks and an injustice has yet again occured.
I dont know what the alternatives are, what can be done about it with our limited power, I'm just chewing the fat about it.
The end.
11:36 am
One thing we forget is that News is a consumer good. We choose to consume the news. If the story is immoral or out of perspective we can discontinue our consumption by turning to alternative media sources (which there are plenty of).
I have simply stopped viewing mainstream US media until the story has had enough time to blow over. I also get sick of the media's constant attemp to identify the perpetrator as someone who is "not like us" an "other" with "differneces" or "problems". When will someone with a backbone stand up and say "We are all humans, we are capable of great evil". Fro some reason we hav this need to disassociate ourselves with "evil" people, by trying to label them as outsiders with their own set of problems, that are unique to 'crazy types'. This is not loving, or honest.
It's not that I don't care, it's just that I care about other tragedies (Darfur, Bahgdad, Water Quality, Poverty) so much more.
7:20 pm
one of the big questions has always been and will always be "what can one person do in such circumstances". the media, money and power of the west means the reporting will always be biased away from the poor and suffering and as in this situation magnify our own. One thing we can do is talk about it!