By Larry Molina II
Hundreds lay dead in the streets; men, women, children, infants. Their bodies left in the sun to spoil the air with the rancid rot of death. They are left twisted in form from the anguish of the chemicals that burned their skin in a torturous slow death. Mothers’ bodies found hugging their children close with their hands pressed against their children’s faces in a failed attempt to save them. Can any one of you young, brilliant college minds tell me why without a quick Google search? Perhaps only a handful at most would be able to answer. These PEOPLE do not affect you. You will never share a laugh, drink, smile, smoke, or room together they simply do not matter.
I’d wager my milk money however that plenty of you can use those young, brilliant college minds to tell of Miley Cyrus’ 2013 VMA award performance. Wasn’t that quite the spectacle? I mean geez keep that tongue in your mouth and do some squats! Cyrus is an entertainer, her music, performances, and actions capture our attention because so many enjoy what she brings to your ears and eyes. True it is unlikely that one will never share a laugh, drink, smile, smoke, or room together physically or in close quarters with Cyrus but she influences your lives through music. Therefore she matters to the average college student more than the dead Syrian children subjected to a chemical that acts as a human bug spray by their own government.
Now take that same lesson, Syrian civilians do not matter because they have no influence on our lives by the same means as the celebrity riff-raff, and then compare your father, mother, brother, sister, boyfriend, childhood best friend, co-workers, and the people in your town to Cyrus. See where this is leading? Currently there are four US Navy Destroyers parked near Syria’s waiting…. Waiting to step into a fight with a country that has chemical weapons, a navy, air force, trained military personnel and military vehicles. This will be a fight that will not be severely outmatched. Another key-point to consider is that their president, al-Assad is traveling to Russian next week to visit with another country with a strong military and failing relations with our own.
We do not care! The news media is always so brutal anyway, besides it is not our fight to begin with! Ignorance is bliss. If I close my eyes and do not see it maybe it will go anyway. If I walked through the ENMU Campus and saw a boy beating on his girl, I’d just turn away, right? It’s not my problem.
I’ve thought this for a while now, and it was really brought to light yesterday as I sat in my employee break room watching CNN waiting for Obama to bestow The Congressional Medal of Honor to Corporal Jason L. Dunham US Marines or was it Army Staff Sergeant Ty Carter? My co-workers would not know because just as I was leaving before the ceremony began, the station was flipped so they could enjoy Jerry Springer. Am I the only one who believes that the quality of television is detrimental to the public? The sheer irony that “Honey Boo Boo” is aired on The Learning Channel (THC) is outstanding to me. One must ask the question, what are the viewers learning? That being ignorant to the hostile world around you is cute? It’s ok to get plastered drunk and perform lewd sex acts in society?
In case you’re wondering, it was Staff Sergeant Carter who received the medal. Corporal Dunham received his post mortem for throwing himself over a live grenade in a self-less act to save his brothers in arms. Just like in new Captain America movie viewed and remembered by millions, only real and to be forgotten.
We are the leaders of tomorrow. Educate yourselves outside of the classroom walls so that tomorrow is better than yesterday. For the sake of mankind kind stop approaching every problem with the thought that someone else will fix it. This is your chance to learn a craft and become a symbol. Give it your all.