Just picture it. You get up in the morning and join the rest of your family in the kitchen. There they are, drinking their coffee, eating their breakfast, talking about Bill Maher and Ben Affleck, same old. Your older brother is running late. He grabs his stuff and says goodbye. You never see him again.
He didn´t commit any crime. He wasn´t on anyone’s Wanted list. He isn´t a terrorist. He is just a young boy who wants to be a teacher.
Your world will never be the same. However, everyone else keeps minding their own business. And all you want is for someone to care too, to share your indignation, your pain.
I believe it is in our nature, somewhere deep down below layers of culturally acquired individualism, to care for other people, to want to help them. We´ve seen great examples of selfless acts of bravery from neighbours, friends, even strangers, during natural disasters, war, or special circumstances.
Our first reaction to hearing that 43 students went missing in Mexico is one of pain and disbelief. The problem is that our second reaction, is frustration and defeatism. A sort of “it is what it is” quickly rushes to our aide to save us from the dangers of actually believing it could be any other way. We know it is wrong, but we convince ourselves it´s impossible to change. What could we possibly do, so far away, so burdened with our own urgent problems? Then we look at the rest of the world and we can´t remember the last time we saw the news without hearing somebody got killed, somebody went missing, somebody was abused…
But what we fail to see is that many of the rights and freedoms we enjoy today were thought to be impossible, unrealistic dreams once.
“Back in 1900, people who called for women’s suffrage, laws protecting the environment and consumers, an end to lynching, the right of workers to form unions, a progressive income tax, a federal minimum wage, old-age insurance, dismantling of Jim Crow laws, the eight-hour workday, and government-subsidized health care and housing were considered impractical idealists, utopian dreamers, or dangerous socialists. Now we take these ideas for granted. The radical ideas of one generation have become the common sense of the next.
How did this happen? Social movements transformed these (and many other) radical ideas from the margins to the mainstream, and from polemics to policy”[1]
So the reality of it is that, although it is indeed an extremely hard, long process, we can basically change things. Of course all the aforementioned changes have come with a price and in many cases, they are still nowhere near what we actually need, but they are great achievements of the people, by the people, for the people. Nobody else will do it for us.
The geographical distance that separate us from other countries is almost always increased by the distance between our realities. The only problem with this is that, as life has shown us time and again, none of us are exempted from catastrophe, terrorism, or simply poor government. The awful actions of 9/11 and more recently the attack on Ottawa were a painful awakening to our vulnerability.
With the ever-growing use of Facebook, Twitter etc., the people can now easily become part of the news’ spreading process. A lot of what we think and do is shaped by what we see others think and do, and by what media is constantly showing us. We can share a page, like a picture, and make things go viral, trending. We’ve done it with countless vines and silly videos.
We don’t all have to quit our lives and go join the Peace Corps. Although it would be ideal that we all made caring for the less fortunate a part of our daily lives, and in spite of the people that will call you a hypocrite for sharing a social change page while you spend somebody’s monthly food expense in make-up, please like the picture, share the page, donate to an NGO, volunteer. Do whatever you can, as little as it may seem, believe me, it is helping.
As they have been saying in the social networks: it’s not happening here, but it’s happening now. And I would like to think if it were happening here, someone out there would care.
[1] Peter Dreier, Social Movements: how people make history. http://mobilizingideas.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/social-movements-how-people-make-history/
Los muchos caminos 