So, it's really important that all of you visit www.invisiblechildren.com, a site devoted to help the children of Uganda, where the genocide occuring is worse than anywhere else in the world, including Sudan, and www.savedarfur.org, a site devoted to helping Sudan.
On that note, this is my most recent Daily Herald article:
The pictures shocked me. In one, there was a boy who could not have been more than seven years old, and his face was covered in blood, his eyes wide with horror.
To my surprise, Deepti was apologetic
"I'm sorry; you need to do your work. I just needed to show someone."
Lake Forest College Freshman Deepti Sharma was showing me pictures of the devastation in her homeland of Nepal, a country home to political unrest that exploded in riotous protests two weeks ago.
"The situation in Nepal was always bad, but the real violence started April 6th. I found out about it through Nepalese news, which I check regularly," said Sharma. "Once I found out, I searched through the New York Times. A lot of people read the New York Times, and I wanted to see if they thought it was significant. I found it, but it was buried in the International section."
Seeing these pictures, I did not understand how the world could be so oblivious; how I could be so oblivious. But once again, Sharma was understanding.
"I don't blame Americans for not knowing about the violence in Nepal; Nepal is not necessarily politically significant in the global arena. Not knowing about Nepal is fine," said Sharma.
But she went on to say, "That is not the ignorance I am worried about. At one point I heard an American ask an international student what state Russia is in. That is not fine. Not knowing about the situation in Sudan, or Rwanda, or Uganda, or Israel and Palestine, about human rights violations around the world, is not fine."
Sharma's assessment was frighteningly accurate. Even at an institution like Lake Forest College, which prides itself on its cultural diversity, ignorance regarding international issues is pervasive. A recent talk I had with a classmate at a party helped illuminate this problem to me.
This classmate had come to college with an idealistic view of the college student as a catalyst for political and social change. She had gotten involved in the College Democrats, hoping to make a contribution, hoping to make a difference. However, her hopes were quickly quashed. At the time I talked to her, she was convinced that her efforts were fruitless because college students simply did not care.
I find this apathy to be unacceptable. Unacceptable because I believe that my classmate's initial view of a college student was not simply a romantic notion. One can simply look at incidences such as the tragedy at Kent State, when college students lost their lives while protesting the Vietnam War, to see how deeply college students once cared.
And though one hopes for better results than those at Kent State, it is right that college students should care. For better or for worse, college is a time of experimentation and self-discovery. College students are old enough to begin to understand the world around them, and young enough to not be set in their ways. In other words, there is no better group to serve as the pioneers of positive social or political change.
If, then, the most dynamic age group in the country has grown apathetic enough to destroy the hopes of my idealistic classmate, the strains of apathy in America must truly run deep. In the words of Sharma, this indifference "is not fine."
We must not hold the illusion that we have progressed enough to be comfortable in our apathy, when time after time, this illusion has been shattered. In 1993, movie audiences wept over Schindler's List, and did nothing to stop the genocide in Rwanda. In 2004, movie audiences wept over Hotel Rwanda, and did nothing to stop the genocide in Darfur.
The genocide in Darfur is, in fact, ongoing. So far, more than 400,000 have been killed. This tragedy is immeasurable.
But something can still be done. The same classmate who was positive that college students simply did not care anymore had a table outside of the cafeteria last week with postcards that students could sign as part of the "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign. These same postcards can be filled out online at www.savedarfur.org.
We must not be apathetic. We must be aware. Because it's not just Germany. Because it's not just Rwanda. Because it's not just Darfur.
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