In our society, and in our world, there are acts of violence and inhumanity constantly taking place. But the real issue is do we really care. I know, that from my experience attending a school enriched with opportunity to excel academically, athletically, and morally, that I sometimes turn a blind eye to these issues. This is for a number of reasons, the very fact that my parents sacrificed what they wanted so that I could have a better life, made me believe that all I needed to worry about was getting myself to a place I could be proud of. Now I'm not saying that all I cared about was myself, but if this were a year ago, and I saw someone getting beat up, odds are I wouldn't have intervened unless it was a close friend involved.
The same goes for the world, for example, when you’re sitting on the couch channel flopping and an advertisement for world vision comes on, one of two things happen. You either immediately change the channel because you’ve found yourself bored of this station and you couldn’t care less about this advertisement. Or, you continue to watch the commercial, not because you feel bad for these kids, but because you want to satisfy your conscience. In the past, I tended to watch these commercials, and if it comes across in the proper way, I’ll feel sadness for about a minute, until the main show comes back on, at which time I could forget about other people’s problems and continue to focus on satisfying myself.
All of those feelings changed about half way through this course. The more I was exposed to the reality of our world, and the constant struggle we humans face every day, commercials like these make me feel embarrassed. I can’t stand the idea that I’m sitting on that couch with all the privileges I can dream of, and the people in these commercials can’t realistically achieve one of them. This has changed the way I feel about standing up for what‘s good and true, and it will continue to be my fuel for the years to come.
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