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Chastising My Fellow Americans
Seriously. I sat here for like an hour trying to think of what to write about and then I wrote some bullshit about my old bones and whatnot. Once that was done I went a-snooping through other people's diaries and...well...now I've got something to say. I realize that the Columbia tragedy on Saturday was not earth shattering. I realize that only 7 people died. Only 7 families have been affected. In the whole big scheme of things, this is like a stubbed toe in a nation dealing with the threat of cancer. (Weird metaphors are apparently my specialty). I understand that everyone has some crappy stuff going on in their lives. People's lives are tough. I get that. MY life is no walk in the park most days. There's a lot of bad shit out there and a lot of it hits the average american much closer to home than the death of 7 astronauts (who most of us didn't even know where in space to begin with) did. I get that, too. The media has sensationalized it, and beat it into the ground. In a couple more days it probably won't even be front page news anymore, but the media will milk it for everything it's worth until then. Y'know what? That's what the media does. Y'know what else? The fact that the media milks newsworthy events for everything they're worth does NOT take away from the fact that 7 people lost their lives last Saturday and now 12 children no longer have a mommy or daddy. Husbands no longer have wives, wives no longer have husbands, and parents no longer have children. This is the reality of it. Is it the risk they take going up into space? Most definitely, and they obviously knew that - as did their families. Does that make the fact that they died any less tragic? God. SHOULD it? There's a pretty good size risk to the men and women who join the military. When we lose a soldier in battle do we shrug our shoulders and say "it's their own fucking fault, they knew what they were getting into?" Do we shrug our shoulders at their families and say "well, you had to know that this was a possibility?" Good God. I'm hurting more for the callousness of my fellow Americans right now than I am for the actual tragedy that took place. How many people have to die for it to be worth it for you to mourn? How close to you do they have to be? Certainly hundreds (thousands?) of people die every day and nobody pays much attention, but does that make it right? Maybe we should. Maybe the world would be a different place if we would. Maybe the answer is *not* to close your heart to people who are hurting just because their existence makes no difference to you one way or the other. Perhaps the answer lies in opening your heart...perhaps it always has. I thought we had come so far post 9/11. It appears that we're almost right back where we started from. That, my friends, is the biggest tragedy of all. |
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