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You've seen all of the various memes spread like wildfire through facebook stati? You know, like, all the ladies' bra colors and which historical figure you're most like? Interesting, harmless, momentarily distracting. Have you seen this really lovely one?:
America: the only country where we have homeless without shelter, children going to bed without eating, elderly going without needed meds, and mentally ill without treatment - yet we have a benefit for the people of Haiti on 12 TV stations. 99% of people won't have the guts to copy and repost this!!
Wow. America's in bad shape, huh? We're the only country out of the world's 190-or-s0 countries with homeless people, hungry children, unmedicated elderly, and untreated mental illness! Gee...
Now, you see, statements like these are exactly why Americans are so often loathed by our fellow world citizens. I'm not saying we don't have problems here---and I'm not a big fan of letting them grow progressively worse while we spend all our time and money trying to meddle (and help) everyone else in the world---but our problems are relatively paltry. Don't sit in front of your computer facebooking thinking that you're worse off than the Haitians. While we all start drawing up our grocery lists so we can stuff our faces during the Superbowl, there are people all around the world who would give their left foot to have 1% of what we do.
Speech is Free...but not free from consequences.
10 years ago
3 comments:
Jeffrey,
Love this blog. When I first saw the FB post this morning, I couldn't believe my eyes! Why must everyone be so shortsighted and "me" oriented to the point where noone could possibly be worse off than America. For a country that often times runs on inflated egoism and misplaced patriotism-we could use a little humility and thought before we speak and comment in the social networking arena.
I agree that America is not without it's share of problems, however; I also think we spend far too much energy blaming and shuffling instead of pulling up our sleeves and offering real solutions.
As I read that FB post this morning, I listened to the story of a hotel worker who was found after 11 days under the rubble and had survived on chips and soda for the first eight days. I was in front of my computer, in my house, drinking coffee and "deciding" what to have for breakfast. It was in that moment I have never felt such gratitude for my life.
I hope others read your blog and sincerely think before they put that kind of energy and thought out into the world.
Actually, rereading the chain status, I don't think that it was created to say that we are the only country with poverty, but that we are the only country with our own poverty who went out of their way to broadcast this telethon on all major networks. The only other places it aired was on MTV UK and youtube. I am hoping this status is actually a miswritten attempt at demonstrating how generous we are as a nation. I still would never copy and post it, because it does show insensitivity to victims of a natural disaster.
We do have our own dire economic problems, but we should never let it put blinders on our eyes to those in desperate need throughout the world.
Oh, and not to mention the fact that if our government had not wasted its surplus and put us into debt in the trillions because of spending billions of dollars a month on a fabricated war, perhaps the citizens in our country would all be in a better place right now, and nobody would have to think twice about helping another country in need.
Mandylu, thanks for the kind words. It truly is sad that citizens of a wealthy nation like ours begrudge anyone who wants to help the citizens of a much more desperate nation. And Janine---in the spirit of full disclosure, Janine is my wife---I noticed that this facebook status has this double meaning, but as you noted it is still terribly shortsighted. Unfortunately, I've read a number of comments on these statuses that reveal an even more callous and unpleasant attitude.
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