People, regular people -- in day to day life -- don’t seem to want to talk about Iraq. The news doesn’t give it much play. Flip on the TV now and what will you see? Probably some crap about OJ or Brittany Spears or the Move On ad about General Betray Us but little about Iraq. If you’re lucky, Jon Stewart will make a joke about it.
In the papers, maybe there is something about Iraq or Afghanistan, buried beneath the same type of bullshit stories as on the TV except with local car wrecks and small crimes thrown in for good measure and spice.
Even stranger, is the almost total silence about Afghanistan. Remember the US sent a few thousand soldiers over there BEFORE they invaded Iraq. Now what? Not a peep.
Anyway, I was thinking about how I try to engage people around me in conversations about Iraq and what is going on there and usually I don’t get too far before I hit a wall of utter disinterest.
The “war” in Iraq isn’t fun. It isn’t titillating. There are no movie stars getting drunk or divorced or adopting kids there. There is no one to vote for to win best singer or dancer awards. Humans are getting killed in Iraq and that’s not nice. So people don’t want to talk about it. They’re just not interested. It’s not their problem. It’s boring. It’s negative. It’s “over there.” Who cares?
So I was thinking about this apathy. And then it dawned on me that it is these people -- the people who avoid the issue of Iraq, who are losing out.
There is a big event, an epic, happening right here and right now. We are lucky (or perhaps unlucky) enough to be alive to witness it. People--US citizens and Iraqi’s, are dying, losing limbs and brain matter. They are having their lives and personalities changed forever. There are major occurrences connected to this “war” (invasion) unfolding everywhere. Our country is undergoing something momentous. If life were a text book, here is where you would use your highlighter. Now. Today.
And so this brings me to my thought. I suddenly realized that these people, the Avoiders, are doing themselves a great disservice.
Instead of ignoring the Iraq war, they should be turning over every rock, scrambling for details. They ought to be seeing it while it's fresh, while it's going on. They should be taking notes for their grandchildren. History is roaring past them like a locomotive and these people stand next to the tracks with their eyes closed. Mute.
What a waste.
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