Just two days after the Boston Marathon bombing, and now, an explosion in a plant in Texas.
The two are probably completely unrelated as far as how they both started (or at least, I hope so. I would hate for this to be a widespread attack...), but they are both tragedies that hurt us deeply. Only 2 days after losing 3, and placing over 120 more in the hospital, we now lost, potentially, 15 more, and placed another 180 people in the hospital. I can't take this carnage anymore.
But we're all here, sitting in our desks (or if you're like me, you clutter your desk and work from bed), riding our cars, going to work and/or school, eating three meals a day (or more), having healthcare located close by, and so much more. Our lives are so comfortable compared to most. And yes, these are tragedies, but there are tragedies happening all over the world EVERY SINGLE DAY.
In Iraq this past week, there were also bombings, and they killed about 46 people.
Yesterday, a bomb went off in Bangalore, India and injured 16 people.
Last Sunday, at least 20 people died in Somalia due to a bombing at the Capital.
Later that same day, a car bomb went off inside a government building, killing at least three and injuring another three.
In Syria, some fighter jets bombed cities, killing roughly two dozen civilians.
There are a million displaced people in Syria due to the fighting going on, over half of them are children.
In Venezuela, so far, 7 people have died and 61 have been reported injured, because of an election.
Two weeks ago, there was an ambush in South Sudan that killed another dozen people, at least 7 of them being civilians.
In Egypt, a cathedral was held in siege for 5 days, with Muslims and police officers attacking the Christians inside.
In Mozambique, 4 people were killed in a skirmish in attempts of freeing party members that were taken during a raid.
There are wars all over the globe now. I don't know all of them, but just to name a few: Mali, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many more.
In Greece, migrant workers on a strawberry farm have been working for the past 6 months without any form of payment. When a group of 200 went to go ask for payment, the foreman opened fire and wounded 27 of the workers, one of them now in critical condition, and hurt another 33 in the scuffle.
In 2007, during the Kenyan elections, over 1,000 people were killed. This year brought about a new election, with fear of the same thing happening again. While this election had a much lower death toll, there were still a few dozen people killed in reaction to the election tensions.
Earlier this year, a fire broke out in Brasil, killing 232 people, with over 100 people in the hospitals.
Since November of 2011, there have been 791 violent episodes in Damascus, many of which have resulted in casualties.
In Nigeria, more than 10,000 people were made homeless last month due to the government plowing through their homes. At least one million civilians have been made homeless through similar actions by the government over the past year.
And the list goes on and on and on and on and on.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of tragedies happening every day. Murders, rapes, children suffering from malnutrition and dying from starvation, slavery, and so much more goes on around us every day, and we don't see it. The media doesn't give it enough coverage, and we don't pay enough attention to it. It takes an enormous tragedy like a bomb or a fire that hurts hundreds in a short period of time for us to look around us and see these things happening.
This time last year everyone was preaching Kony 2012 because someone made a cute video that stirred up our emotions. By the end of the year, no one even thought about Kony, and I bet that most of the people who bought bumper stickers and posters and pins don't even know the status of Kony and his army of child soldiers right now. It takes so much to get us to pay attention, and so little for us to lose focus. Two weeks from now, most people won't even have the marathon cross their minds.
It's sad, it really is. How can we claim to be passionate about human rights and stopping tragedies and suffering, if we can't focus on an issue for longer than the next big thing? If the Grammy's or some other big event were this weekend, we'd forget about Boston by Monday. All those Pray for Boston hashtags would be forgotten, and it would be like it never happened. Except, of course, for the people directly affected by it.
It's so easy to sit comfortable at our desks and couches and cars, and go out to eat at nice restaurants and be a jerk to the person at the drive thru window. It's easy to hashtag something or send your condolences for people. It's easy to SAY you're a good person, or it's easy to SAY that you're humanitarian and you care about everything. But when do those things that you SAY you are and you do, actually become who you are?
