Pay Attention!
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."--Elie Wiesel
I wanted to mention a couple of news items, and I'm going to try to be brief. Last night was the Academy Awards. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the word Iraq was mentioned once, just as it was not mentioned once during Bush's innaugural address. There was a brief, not-so-subtle reference to Iraq in Chris Rock's opening monologue, but he only spoke figuratively, using an analogy involving the Gap and Bananna Republic. And there were also a few general references to "Our men and women in uniform," but not specifically to Iraq, where they continue to die for a war started under false pretenses. As of today, over 1,500 American soldiers have died in Iraq.
I'm not saying the ceremony should have been more political, because it doesn't seem to help much when Hollywood gets involved. But in case anyone hasn't noticed, things are not getting much better over there, despite the fact that they had a democratic election. I would think it might be worth mentioning the word Iraq at least once, considering that we started a war there. Making general references to "Our men and women in uniform around the world" doesn't recognize the enormity of what has happened and what continues to happen in Iraq. Iraq is the elephant in the room everywhere in American life, but no one wants to look at it.
Lest I be accused of caring only about American's who died in Iraq, allow me to mention this story, about yet another suicide bombing in Iraq, where over 125 people have died (some reports claim that over 300 people died). We have no idea of how many Iraqi civilians have died because of Bush's war, but the estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Ask those dead Iraqis how they feel about the new, democratically elected government. Or ask Iraqis how they feel about the American invasion after the impending and almost inevitable civil war.
We've become so numb to all the deaths in Iraq that we don't even pay attention. Today's attack is hardly being covered in the news, just as the yesterday's attacks were hardly covered, or the attacks on the day before yesterday, etc. And even if they covered it adequately, would the people of America listen, or would they just tune it out as usual? Most people would rather hear about Salma Hayek's dress at the Oscars than about the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dead in Iraq. It was a beautiful fucking dress, mind you, but people need to pay attention to important things as well.
Okay, I'm done ranting for now.
posted by Skrambled Egghead Reborn @ 2:01 PM
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