I sat down on my couch watching the news as my father began commenting on the clips of Donald Trump speaking at the NRA convention in my own city, Louisville. I hadn’t responded to what was being said, as I had actually forgotten to listen. My eyes were fixed on the ticker at the bottom of the screen, reading about a Doctors Without Borders convoy being stopped and harassed by gunmen, resulting in one staff member being murdered.
After I finished reading, I looked up to find my dad looking to me for a response to his comment. Honestly, to this day, I have not the faintest idea of what he asked me. I proceeded to ask him what was more important to report on: what Hillary Clinton was wearing during her campaign or who was brutally killed while transporting patients.
I think we know the obvious answer, unless you’re really into pantsuits.
Has modern America forgotten what’s happening outside of our borders? As much as I have to say about the presidential race, I wish my generation was spoon-fed tidbits of women being shot in the face because they wanted an education instead of a conservative and liberal talking over each other about government funding. I am not saying these homeland issues aren’t important, because they absolutely are. But it seems we’d rather debate what should have happened to Harambe, an endangered Silverback gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. I, as a biology major, also have many opinions on that issue.
Why don’t we mention water and air pollution on the daily? The glaciers in Iceland are almost gone, yet we continue to beat other stories to death for ratings. Viral videos of cute dogs will not make us broaden our horizons or give us any information on the outside world. Our coral reefs are nearly dead, yet we aim to make our beaches shark-free so we can swim without paranoia. It is their home, not ours.
In early April, a Kenyan college was attacked. Gunmen separated the students by religion, letting Muslims go before shooting the rest. 147 people were killed over a span of hours, and 79 were injured. Students were crawling to safety while we watched talking heads on our television screens speak of what Kim Kardashian did last week. How is that woman even famous?
The California drought barely gets air time anymore and other parts of the world are also in a severe drought. Farmers in Ethiopia have found a way to cope with their soil erosion and lack of rainfall. The Ebola virus has been rampant since the 1980s—why did we start caring only when it came to U.S. soil? Aren’t all lives of equal importance? The United States claims to be helping, and yes, we are the most charitable country in the world, but our people remain uninformed. Our government’s money does nothing without any knowledge behind it.
The media has told us what foods to eat, what’s safe and what’s not. It makes the common flu sound like an epidemic. People won’t vaccinate their children because they believe it causes autism. It makes us scared to leave our own homes. News flash: not all GMOs are bad; if we didn’t breed our strains of plants, we’d be eating corn (maize) the size of our index fingers.
There’s a world out there for us to learn about and explore. Don’t be scared, but we must be informed.
