I love reading the news, but I can't stand it. Every week it seems as if there's another story about child brides in India, child abuse in California, teen prostitution in Georgia, child labor in Pakistan, rape in England, child soldiers in Uganda, student suicide in South Korea, and don't even get me started on the young people dying in Syria. Basically, we do everything except vote. I think it's great that the stories are out there-we need to raise awareness. What infuriates me is every story is accompanied by shocked comments.
"How can that still be happening today?"
"Those people should be in jail."
"These practices should be outlawed."
"It's all Obama's fault somehow."
"No child should have to go through that."
"Horrible...just horrible."
These can't be the first shocker stories anybody else has seen, but the reactions is always the same. We know this stuff is happening, somewhere in the distant corners of the world, somewhere in the distant corners of our brains. But we treat each one as a searing new revealation and then turn around to bemoan teenagers these days, media these days, politicians these days. We have to give somebody all the blame and glory-otherwise we might actually force ourselves to stand up and do something positive. Not likely, but possible.
Why doesn't anybody acknowledge the stupidity and brutality of this world? Why do we convince ourselves youth are the acception, that problems belong to grown-ups?
I can only thing of two answers: We live euphamism and we're lazy.
"How can that still be happening today?"
"Those people should be in jail."
"These practices should be outlawed."
"It's all Obama's fault somehow."
"No child should have to go through that."
"Horrible...just horrible."
These can't be the first shocker stories anybody else has seen, but the reactions is always the same. We know this stuff is happening, somewhere in the distant corners of the world, somewhere in the distant corners of our brains. But we treat each one as a searing new revealation and then turn around to bemoan teenagers these days, media these days, politicians these days. We have to give somebody all the blame and glory-otherwise we might actually force ourselves to stand up and do something positive. Not likely, but possible.
Why doesn't anybody acknowledge the stupidity and brutality of this world? Why do we convince ourselves youth are the acception, that problems belong to grown-ups?
I can only thing of two answers: We live euphamism and we're lazy.
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