Independence Day. The day the United States declared it's independence from England. The celebration of our freedom. The celebration of our "American culture". A day to be thankful. A day to reflect.
Today I sat at Fenway, watching the Mariners defeat the Red Sox, wondering what it is about America that I love, and what I wish were different. Let's start with what is good, and worth celebrating. First and foremost, the ideal that all people are equal and free. This is not something to be taken lightly, ask anyone you know that lives in a "less free" society. Ask the people of Iran. Ask the people who live in North Korea. Ask the Burmese. Ask most of the people in the entire world. Yes, freedom is a good thing. Tomorrow I will go to the church of my choosing and worship my God and face absolutely no persecution. This is good.
I am not as pleased with the self centeredness and shallowness that is "American society." This past week was a prime example to me. A very famous musician (you may know who I am talking about) died a rather mysterious, untimely death. Wow. Did the media have a field day. I don't have cable but from what I gathered there was an endless amount of news time devoted to him. Did you hear about churches honoring him? People all freaking out about him? Meanwhile, let me just think for a moment about what I would consider slightly more important news.
The military in Honduras forcefully removed it's president and a new president was put into place without election. The new government is vowing to move forward with elections.
Did I mention the protesters in Iran that were beaten and murdered because they believe the recent presidential election was not fairly counted? How about the British Embassy staff that were arrested and will probably stand trial in Iran on claims they orchestrated these protests?
More foreign aid workers were kidnapped in Darfur. Yes, remember Darfur? Haven't seen it in the news much lately have you?
The unemployment rate in the U.S. was reported to have risen to 9.5%. That's high. That's very high. Do you know what the U.S. government is doing to try to bring us out of this deep recession? Do you know what economists are recommending?
President Obama's new anti-illegal immigrant policies are starting to move forward. Companies are now becoming accountable to recruiting and employing illegal immigrants rather than the workers being snatched from their workplaces or homes.
Did I scratch the surface on more important news events? Did any of this actually reach the majority of the people living in our country? Whose fault is this? Should we blame the media? I think not. The media just responds to what we want to watch. Have you noticed all the magazines disappearing from shelves? So many magazines and newspapers going under. Still, we have Star and Us Weekly and People and all the other "news" magazines in full force. WE are more interested in the lives of celebrities than the lives of everyone else in the world, combined. We would rather read about some reality TV show couple facing divorce than our neighbors joining the ranks of the unemployed, than the starving children in Uganda, than the human rights violations of so many places.
So today, as a reflection on my freedom, our freedom, I say we use that freedom to chose to learn more about our world, our economy, the things that matter. Let's use our freedom to chose which articles we click through to. If you click on an article about a celebrity doing such and such or a bear wandering into a business in Alaska then we are telling our media what we want. Let's do ourselves and our world a favor and use our "vote" for what matters.
