Apathy

I wrote this after watching the documentar, "Why We Fight" and it's my thoughts are not only the difficulty our country is in buy my own apathy.

January 17, 2007

I saw a city morgue today in Iraq. I saw the lists of the types of people killed. “Housewife, student, child, child, student, soldier, housewife.” One soldier listed amongst 15 types of people killed when the bombs exploded. It was in a documentary “Why we Fight” which examines the reasons why America went to war in Iraq. I read the death toll rising of our American soldiers at least once a week. Another one from Kaneohe Bay originally from Ohio or some state where he may have never seen the shores of Hawaii if he had never joined the military. I thank God my brother didn’t join the summer of 2006 after he graduated high school.

I have never been a political person. I am not from a political family and even as a young journalist I found following politics to be one of loopholes, well-written PR statements and greed. Honestly I believed it was easier to not pay attention to what the government leaders were saying because I thought a) it didn’t concern me half the time and b) I had no interest in their well-written PR statements. I was part of the statistic of majority of young Americans who choose not to vote. It never felt like there was anyone worthy to vote for. The choices was of one rotten apple against another. Why should I participate in choosing between rotten apples?

President Bush, the calamities and atrocities of the Iraq war and the 180-degree turnover of power from Republican to Democrat have changed that. I’m now watching the news on what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’m reading the articles that tell of the animosity towards the U.S., the increasing death toll of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians and I’m realizing…things need to change.

It’s not going to change if I continue in my own lethargic apathy of not paying attention and not voting. I believe it’s even more difficult in Hawaii to have the motivation to vote. We don’t come from a school of politics. Barely a ¼ of our student population voted in our own student government election. Many of us (myself included) have taken advantage of our laid back attitude and not concerning ourselves to much with what happens beyond our shores.

It can be pretty easy; we’re on an island farthest away from the country we are supposed to be a part of. It is harder to pay attention on a national and international scale because places like Washington D.C. and Iraq can seem worlds and worlds away. Besides we have our own issues to worry about with tuition getting paid, the rising cost to live and our own families.

But to many people have died and many of us of the younger generation have choose the route of apathy or not caring for to long. We can no longer be lethargic about the worldwide animosity towards our country, our greed for more power and the innocent dying, dead and watching their families die.

We are in a bind. We went from the world backing us on the events of 9/11 to most countries condemning our arrogance and nativity in igniting a war with the pretext we were freeing a people. A people that majority of us knew nothing about and most of us didn’t know its existence on a map.

And now the U.S. soldier death toll continues to rise along with the civilian death toll. I wonder, whom are we fighting? O.k. the terrorists, but in the process we have killed tons of more civilians for every couple of bomb-wielding, American hating individuals and the worst part is: these terrorists are killing their own people as well. So there we have it. We kill some dozens of civilians while we search for terrorists hiding amongst the towns then the terrorists kill U. S. soldiers and their own people too. What a horrific cycle. What a world we live in.

I don’t have the solutions. These are my thoughts. But one conclusion I have come to is that we do need new leaders. Leaders who do not have profit-making ties to oil, whose arrogance does not cloud their judgment to serve all Americans. We need leaders who will not put their own economic gain ahead of the decision to save lives not just of Americans but also of innocent bystanders and civilians who are in the wrong place at the wrong time around the world.

I don’t know who those leaders will be. But there is enough of a change happening a naïve, non-voting college student can sense. It started with the fumblings of President Bush on national TV, the replacement of Donald Rumsfield, the switching of power of the political parties and now we have both a black man and a woman possibly running for President of the United States.

Change is happening. Now I hope when it comes time to vote in the next Presidential election the choices will be those I will want to bite into. The least we can do is pay attention to what our potential leaders are saying and oust those who have degraded what our country has stood for.