If you don’t know me, you need to understand that I’m an extremely passionate person. I will stand up for myself and my beliefs, regardless of what other people may call me in hushed tones behind my back. I have been known to be heavy-handed and belligerent at times.
Lately I’ve come across one too many people who have enraged me with their comments concerning the photographs of the Syrian refugee crisis. There was a specific class period where I had to put my face in my hands and breathe deeply because I was just so upset. My classmates were lucky that the bell rang before I raised my hand to say something.
“We’ve become so desensitized to depictions of tragedy that it’s hard to care about every single thing that’s happening across the world.“
The media’s showing of tragic photos is not a new phenomenon. Dead bodies covering the battlefield at Gettysburg in 1869. A white woman yelling at one of the Little Rock Nine in 1957. Naked and burned children running away from a Vietnamese napalm attack in 1972.
I believe insulting or berating these refugees is on par with spitting on your ancestors’ graves. Someone from your own family somewhere down your lineage had to pack their bags and move to a new country, just like these people. Your great-grandfather’s great-grandfather fled religious persecution or harsh economic struggles for a land of opportunity and the hope of a greater future, just like these people. Indifference or hatred toward these refugees means indifference or hatred toward your own heritage.
How physically close does a tragedy need to be for us to become concerned? It’s only natural to care most about those who are in closest proximity to us, but even animals know how to care for their family and friends. I see humans but no humanity. The underlying sources of problems such as this refugee crisis can be projected onto any group, city or country. War, violence and granting aid to those who desperately need it are all topics that anyone can feel passionately about regardless of the setting or people involved. Rarely are issues like this secluded to one particular geographic or cultural area.
This whole issue reminds me of a quote from my favorite movie, “Her”: “The heart is not like a box that gets filled up; it expands in size the more you love.” To say there are too many people to care about all of them is to deny your potential for growth. I can personally attest that having unconditional love for all people is much easier and more satisfactory than hand-picking those you want to care about.
You uphold and praise this sacred technology when it comes to streaming “Friends” on Netflix or Facebook-stalking that cute boy that sits behind you in class, yet you criticize the internet for actually performing its functions regarding world news? There are too many suffering people shown online, but not nearly enough fashion mishaps from the red carpet.
Why do we cry so easily and heavily when we watch “The Notebook” but are reluctant to shed a single tear for people who are dealing with much greater issues than Noah and Ally? It seems that we allow ourselves to sympathize with fictional characters for a two-hour period at the time of our choosing but are inconvenienced by the issues that happen in real-time. This isn’t a problem of desensitization; it’s a problem of selfishness.
We need to remember that the pictures we see concerning global issues that happen throughout the world are not published for the sole intent of pleasing us. They are not painstakingly photographed so that our bloated American egos can keep score of how many people are less fortunate than us. Constant violence forced millions of people to leave their homeland and risk death just to be greeted by people who would not give them a place of asylum. The photographs shown on the internet or elsewhere are for the people shown in the photos themselves. They are a cry for help.
Someone needs to answer their call.
