What, Me Worry?: The extent of apathy in our society
Students: This is a message from one concerned Canadian to all of you - your country is under siege by terrorists. They live next door to you; they teach at your school; they sit next to you in class, they've even managed to infiltrate our government — but wait!
Before you start ostracizing your neighbourhood Muslims, stop and take a look around you. They aren't organized, and they're not a visible minority that you can pick on.
The villain is within all of us. The enemy is apathy, and this parasite is poisoning our country slowly and with deliberation from the inside, making our thoughts black and spiteful, and often muddled. The enemies are you and I, and the silence is deafening.
Education doesn't end when you graduate from high school, college, or university. This is only one of many beginnings. You must realize that throughout your life you will directly and/or inadvertently influence the opinions of others.
An offhanded racial slur could be the poison pill that twists the fate of someone younger and more impressionable. It is in this way that we continue to breed hatred, violence, bigotry, and greed. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm no better than anyone else, but I'm learning, constantly educating myself, asking questions and demanding answers of not only those around me but myself as well.
Canadians have grown too comfortable and detached, too numb. In the twenty-first century we have the Internet, and the Internet is the greatest thing to happen to humankind since the condom.
Now the world is quite literally at your fingertips whether you want it or not. You actually have to work hard to stay ignorant these days. In about three seconds you can ask your new friend in China what it's like having your Google results filtered by a government watchdog. You could ask someone in a third world country what it's like watching your own child starve to death or - no wait you couldn't that's right. So why is it that you ask nothing? Why it that you wait until your social group says it's acceptable to endorse or support a cause? It's called critical thinking and in my mind it can not be held in high enough regard.
Question your ethics; where did you get them? Are they the ultimate truths just because you received them from your parents, or even worse, from your church?
Think logically, if someone makes love to someone else's butt, does it really affect you? Is it really any of your business? Does this not happen quite often in male-female marriages as well? I'll let you in on a little secret, it does. Should we ban straight marriage then to be fair?
When I was nineteen I thought I was being fair in saying that gay sex was none of my business, and that gay marriage was as well. Gay parents adopting children though, that's going a little far. It's not fair for the children. What an ignorant little fool I was - how many of you were raised solely by your mother or father, in a so called “broken” home? Are you ok? Do you need psychological help? Well, it's quite possible that you do, but does that have anything to do with coming from a home with only a male or female influence? Be honest with yourself, of course it doesn't. So what's wrong with there being two males or two females instead of one? It adds character....
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
Before you start ostracizing your neighbourhood Muslims, stop and take a look around you. They aren't organized, and they're not a visible minority that you can pick on.
The villain is within all of us. The enemy is apathy, and this parasite is poisoning our country slowly and with deliberation from the inside, making our thoughts black and spiteful, and often muddled. The enemies are you and I, and the silence is deafening.
Education doesn't end when you graduate from high school, college, or university. This is only one of many beginnings. You must realize that throughout your life you will directly and/or inadvertently influence the opinions of others.
An offhanded racial slur could be the poison pill that twists the fate of someone younger and more impressionable. It is in this way that we continue to breed hatred, violence, bigotry, and greed. Don't get me wrong, I know I'm no better than anyone else, but I'm learning, constantly educating myself, asking questions and demanding answers of not only those around me but myself as well.
Canadians have grown too comfortable and detached, too numb. In the twenty-first century we have the Internet, and the Internet is the greatest thing to happen to humankind since the condom.
Now the world is quite literally at your fingertips whether you want it or not. You actually have to work hard to stay ignorant these days. In about three seconds you can ask your new friend in China what it's like having your Google results filtered by a government watchdog. You could ask someone in a third world country what it's like watching your own child starve to death or - no wait you couldn't that's right. So why is it that you ask nothing? Why it that you wait until your social group says it's acceptable to endorse or support a cause? It's called critical thinking and in my mind it can not be held in high enough regard.
Question your ethics; where did you get them? Are they the ultimate truths just because you received them from your parents, or even worse, from your church?
Think logically, if someone makes love to someone else's butt, does it really affect you? Is it really any of your business? Does this not happen quite often in male-female marriages as well? I'll let you in on a little secret, it does. Should we ban straight marriage then to be fair?
When I was nineteen I thought I was being fair in saying that gay sex was none of my business, and that gay marriage was as well. Gay parents adopting children though, that's going a little far. It's not fair for the children. What an ignorant little fool I was - how many of you were raised solely by your mother or father, in a so called “broken” home? Are you ok? Do you need psychological help? Well, it's quite possible that you do, but does that have anything to do with coming from a home with only a male or female influence? Be honest with yourself, of course it doesn't. So what's wrong with there being two males or two females instead of one? It adds character....
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
