In the spirit of another blogger (yes, I still abhor that word) dear to my heart, I wanted to put my 2 cents worth of ranting down for those that stumble across such things.
Disclaimer: I'm going to say some fairly harsh things, and yes, I'm a little ticked about some things, and yes, I'm probably being a touch irrational. Feel free to lash out with a yay or a nay.
First and foremost: The United States of America is full of people who can be remarkably caring, wonderful individuals. As a nation, however, we are typically a group of fat, selfish, and lazy hypocrites. I fall into the latter category more than I'd like. Here's why I say this about our nation:
Take a good look at Hebrews 13:3. Just in case someone has questions about whether it's being accurately translated, here are a few other versions:
"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." NIV
"Remember the prisoners as if chained with them—those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also." NKJV
"Regard prisoners as if you were in prison with them. Look on victims of abuse as if what happened to them had happened to you." The Message
Now let's ask ourselves: Do we live up to this in our personal, daily lives? Does our local community reach out the abused and imprisoned with the compassion and unconditional selflessness required here? Does our nation exercise a foreign policy with the balls and funding to battle injustice abroad and stop bad people doing bad things?
If you're like me, the sad, shameful answers to these questions are "Sometimes" , "Not consistently," and "Not even close."
I had the wonderful privilege in college to take a mixed PolSci/History class on Genocide, and one of the professors who taught us daily was a Polish Jew who had escaped the Holocaust with his parents using false papers. To make a long story short, what I learned about genocide in that class is that after the Holocaust, the worldwide leaders (USA included) are the greatest lip service artists in the history of mankind. Our presidents, prime ministers, and chancellors have made a great habit of holding joint press conferences touting "Never again!" about genocide, about mass abuse & rape, about ethnic oppression and about caste system abuses.
Sometimes when we're feeling especially plucky or there's an imminent election somewhere, the UN might sign a resolution amounting to a giant "Tsk, tsk" for the group or nation comitting the offense. But in the end, we do very little. Maybe send some food and medical aid, maybe an investigation committee, or even issue an apology a few years after the fact for sucking so badly.
The truth is, though, it's not just the leaders and politicos that are the problem. Let's be honest: the American public has ADHD when it comes to foreign policy. If it's not "Shock and Awe" with some crafted soundbytes and people aren't cheering us in the street, we stop caring. If the babies crying on the news aren't blonde-haired and blue-eyed, then it's just another darkie who's having a bad day to us.
"C'mon, Debbie Downer, don't give us a guilt trip. We're just trying to live our lives!" we say. "C'mon, flip the channel! The game is on! Britney got a boob job! I wanna see how big!"
Does that qualify for the "Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies" award?
I'm guilty. I flip the channel too often. I get so bombarded day after day after day that it all starts to sound the same..........right? Unless.......instead of Beirut or Baghdad on fire, it's the New York skyline. Instead of five-year-old Jamal Mohammed with a blown-off limb, it's Madeleine McCann with a "Missing" poster. Then...........then we care. Then we feel empathy.
I had a chance to catch Blood Diamond on DVD the other day. Aside from being a compelling flick, it does a nice job trying to bring up these issues. How do we get the American public to care? How do we come to realize that it IS our responsibility? The last time I checked, the Declaration of Independence said this:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
One thing that sticks out to me is the all men are created equal, not merely all American men. Follow this path to the idea that all men have a right to life and to liberty. Where are we when our fellow human beings are being deprived of those rights? Where were we when Rwanda was torn in two with genocide and we watched it on CNN? Where are we now, when millions of people live in "temporary" refugee camps in Sudan? Do we remember them as if we felt their pain in our own bodies? I fail at this daily.
And in this failure I think we do a disservice to the honor of our nation (a word which is increasingly unheard in public discourse). And in this failure I think we do damage to the message of the Lord.
I don't have a ready-made solution to this. There isn't a magic solution for this emotional apathy, this disease on our nation. The only thing I can hold to is that striving to remember, care for, and help those being mistreated is not only Godly, but patriotic. It's what we should want for our children and for ourselves.
Can we find a way to fix our collective ADHD? I only hope that we don't get distracted from the idea the next time our favorite TV show is on.
-Conrad-
