I am amazed at the things that American's choose to get outraged over. Today, my Facebook feed is full of "Duck Dynasty" posts. Some people are outraged over the perceived racist and homophobic comments that Phil Robertson made. Some people are outraged over the decision A&E made to put him on hiatus for making those comments. It's all very polarizing with one group of people flocking to the support of the "Duck Dynasty" family and the other standing firmly behind the networks decision.
I do have to tell you, I have never watched "Duck Dynasty". I am not even curious about the show, despite it being seemingly huge in our culture right now. I don't care for Reality TV of any sort, it's just not my thing. So, the whole Duck Dynasty vs A&E is not something that is going to incite any kind of passion in me to get me posting on twitter or Facebook about it. Quite honestly, I cannot see why it has anyone rushing to the virtual world's front lines to take sides. No ones rights have been violated, and the people involved all seem quite capable of taking care of themselves.
I find it strange that truly crucial matters do not seem to incite enough passion in us to flood Facebook and trend all day on Twitter. Our world is full of vital issues that, it seems to me, are much more pressing than a celebrity's opinion or the reaction garnered by that opinion. Three examples of the issues that I would deem more worthy of our ire include the injustices of human trafficking, hunger, and lack of adequate water and sanitation.
Human Trafficking. 29 million, that is TWENTY-NINE MILLION people are currently living in slavery today. Every day there are people in this world who are being completely controlled by another person. The control is maintained by using violence or threatening violence, the enslaved person is exploited and is unable to walk away from the situation. The fact that we allow our fellow human beings to live under these conditions and just go about our merry way, many times supporting the modern slave trade by buying items that are produced by it SHOULD be an outrage.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2013/oct/17/29-million-people-enslaved-global-index
http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/category/the-facts/
Hunger. This world we live in produces more than enough food to feed every single person on it. Despite the fact that there is enough food to feed every person, about 21,000 people die every DAY of hunger, or hunger related causes. Malnutrition amplifies the effect of every disease, every injury. The fact that we produce enough food to prevent these deaths, but yet do not distribute what we produce to prevent them SHOULD outrage us. When the capability to prevent an unnecessary death exists, but the ability to prevent the death is not carried out that SHOULD be an outrage.
http://www.poverty.com/
Lack of adequate safe water and sewage facilities. Water is a basic necessity of life. If we truly believe that all people have a right to life, then providing the clean, safe water necessary to sustain it should be a given. However, 780 million people do not have a clean water source available to them. It is estimated that 801,000 children younger than the age of five DIE from diarrheal disease each year, that is 2,200 children each day. More than 35% of the world's population does not have access to improved sanitation. According to the WHO, improving water, sanitation and hygiene has the potential to prevent almost 10% of the global disease burden. We have the technology and the capability to supply clean safe water for everyone but are not providing it. That SHOULD be an outrage.
(Safer Water, Better Health http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2008/9789241596435_eng.pdf)
CDC WASH statistics http://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/global/wash_statistics.htm
With all the true injustice and oppression that exists in the world today, why are people allowing themselves to be so incensed by a celebrity's words, or by the response to the words? One of my friends who was posting about the Duck Dynasty issue claimed that it is important because it represents an attack on our values. I would say that when we are more outraged by a celebrity's opinion and subsequent squabble with a network than we are over true inequity that occurs every single day, then it is definitely time to reassess our values.
https://twitter.com/andiebeth76
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