OPINIONS
Education shouldn’t stop when summer comes
As summer rolls around, many of us already have ideas of how we want to spend our free time. Some will spend days by the pool getting a tan, while others will work to save money during the year.
I for one have spent some summers unproductively, choosing to enjoy free time rather than do anything worthwile with my time. Not this year though.
I recently spent a week in San Francisco at a Model United Nations conference. It was here that I realized just how detached we as young Americans are from the outside world.
The tragedy of Virginia Tech brought many of our peers together in mourning, but how many of us knew that same day, over 100 innocent men, women, and children were killed by a suicide bomb in Iraq?
We have become so focused on our own lives and our interests that most of us give little thought to how our actions affect the rest of the world.
The genocide in Darfur is silently killing thousands of Sudanese citizens, yet many people don’t even realize that is happening.
At work the other day I was talking to a co-worker about an event I was trying to organize to raise awareness and money to aid in the crisis.
Another co-worker who was listening to our conversation asked, “What is Darfur?”
It cannot be acceptable for us to have complete apathy for actions happening across the world.
Many people don’t feel there is anything they can do to help but I find that to be a cop out.
The most important thing you can do is inform yourselves. It is hard to take action when you are not educated.
There are so many people across this earth that need help, and there are so many things we can do to help.
So instead of sitting around by the pool all summer, or permanately shutting down your brain until August starts, get out and do something. Every person has the opportunity to affect positive change on the world.
Most of us are citizens of this great American nation, but that does not excuse us from remembering that we are all citizens of the world.
Volume
44, Issue 14. Today is
Nick Kosmider
Mesa Legend