apathy.

Why is nothing changing? Why are we not, as a nation, stepping up and helping? Why are people uninterested in the millions who suffer without a voice?

These are some of the questions I’ve been asking myself today. We live in a world where people would rather cast there eyes the other way then even keep themselves informed of what’s going on beyond the realm of celebrities and gossip. Maybe it is because when we look to the bright lights of Hollywood we seem to get lost in all the glitz and glamour that is lacking in our own lives. Today I am taking an honest look at the way things are and things in the world are not okay. How can I sit back and gorge myself with knowledge about Robert Pattinson, Lindsay Lohan, and Brad Pitt with the numerous atrocities going on right now. DARFUR is a serious issue, HUMAN TRAFFICKING is a serious issue, HOMELESSNESS is a serious issue, but we choose to sweep these things under the rug and then dust off our hands as if we have somehow tidied up through our ignorance.

I am one of the biggest offenders of my own frustrations. My eyes were only opened upon reading a blog that Jon Foreman posted on his MySpace about human trafficking a little over a year ago. Before I read that I honestly had no idea about almost any human rights issues in the world. I lived for the celebrity gossip of People Magazine. It was a slap in my face when I uncovered these gross injustices. Not that I still don’t enjoy the occasional celebrity gossip but now I'm trying to fill my brain with the masses of information on human rights being spread around virally mostly through grassroots movements.

Darfur is heavy on my heart today. "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." - Mother Theresa. Every human being deserves the basic rights that we so freely take for granted. We complain about hard times when we all have our computers and laptops and cell phones and cars when these people literally have nothing and seemingly no way out. Yet we sit back and put them in a glass box and say “Well it’s incredibly sad but what does it have to do with me?” It has everything to do with us; if one of us is hurting or enslaved then we are all hurting and enslaved. We, as human beings, are one unit, one family. Maybe if we looked at it that way the world would be a very different place where we were quicker to show love and mercy than dole out judgment and punishment. How can I be free when my brothers and sisters rights have been taken away? We should not be okay with any member of our family suffering.

Maybe I care too much about too many issues. It may seem to some like I’m all over the place but id rather be involved in too many something’s than sit idly back and do nothing. The truth is I am broken hearted over humanity. After discovering all this information I was so sure that if I shared this news with others they would join me in my outrage and we would start a revolution and change the way the world was for the people who can’t stand up and change it for themselves. Sadly my findings seemed to fall upon deaf ears. Beyond my immediate family, almost everyone's eyes would glaze over and it was the same responses, “I don’t really have any extra time or money", "times are already hard enough, I don’t have the energy to care about another thing", "I have too much going on right now". How can we say this when in Sudan there are 500,000 dead and 2,500,000 people displaced along with rape, murders, bombings and violence. I don’t want to come off self-righteous because I am as broken and messed up as they come. My goal is that through sharing some of my frustrations people may become inspired to get involved in something bigger than them. Just like Jon Foreman venting his frustrations inspired me to do so.

I believe in God and I believe in mercy and justice which may seem contradictory but I believe actually walk hand in hand. Mercy by way of opening our hearts to those less fortunate than us and showing them compassion and love and justice by way of standing up against those wrongdoings against our family. That is where my hope lays for the future. Maybe I’m just being an idealist but I still have hope for a world that can change.