I'm Not Surprised

I'm really worried about myself. I am experiencing a shift into the wonderful realm of...apathy. It's truly alarming how much I just don't care. Let me explain.

This week the news from around the world was less than pleasant. In Germany the Catholic church just can't seem to keep their pants on when little boys are around. In a statement from the "Church" the archdiocese said that a priest accused of molesting boys was given therapy in 1980 and later allowed to resume pastoral duties, before committing further abuses and being prosecuted. THIS SHOULD PROVOKE SOMETHING. Rage, sadness, the instinct to protect children...something! Oh and Pope Benedict, who at the time headed the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising, approved the priest’s transfer for therapy. So, you're telling me the current Pope not only knew this guy was dangerous but allowed him to transfer and continue abuse? Some might say give him a break...he went through therapy. I say, once a pedophile always a pedophile. But alas...I really didn't care.

Next story CNN splashed across the screen was about a fifteen year old girl who took her own life back in January because of bullying at school. Pheobe Prince, who had recently moved with her family from Ireland to South Hadley, Massachusetts, hanged herself on January 14 after enduring what Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth B. Scheibel described as "a nearly three-month campaign of verbally assaultive behavior and threats of physical harm toward Phoebe, on school grounds, by several South Hadley High School students." SHOULDN'T I BE PISSED OFF? Where were the teachers? Surely somebody had to have noticed. What about other students? Did anyone report it? What bothers me about this is the fact that I stared blankly at the television and thought, "Ugh..that sucks." That's all I thought.

Then there's the new video game in Japan called RapeLay. I'm sure the title gives it away but (just to clarify) players get to sexually assault/attack a virtual girl. Players can grope their virtual subject, lift her skirt, assault her sister, invite "friends" to join in and in a series of graphic, interactive scenes, you can corner the women and rape them again and again. The game allows you to even impregnate a girl and urge her to have an abortion. You would think that as a woman I would be highly disturbed by this but what is more disturbing to me is that I just could care less. The thoughts running through my head as the reported described the violence included phrases like "Who Cares?", "I don't live in Japan or play video games..."

These are all horrible stories that should have stirred some sort of reaction or emotion. I find it more upsetting that I don't feel the need to picket something or create a group in protest or support on Facebook. All I really want to do is change the channel.

This is dangerous. I hope it's not just me. I don't know when it happened but I can say that it wasn't just overnight. Of course, maybe it's not apathy....maybe it is desensitization to the world around me. Think about it. We are slammed with violent images and sad stories from all over the globe daily thanks to 24 hour news organizations like CNN, FOX, MSNBC, etc. So what happens to your heart when you see it all the time and it isn't a shock anymore? Exactly this. You become an emotionless seemingly lazy individual without the capacity to FEEL.

The next question is how do we reverse this conditioning? Perhaps the first step is to TURN OFF the news and maybe go outside. Perhaps this weekend instead of sitting around not caring about the world around me I will do one thing to impact society in a positve way. I don't think anything will ever shock me again but maybe I can change how I react to the news around me. Is anyone else with me? Hey, why don't we start a Facebook group against not caring!

Don't laugh...it's a start!