Neither one of those two words sound all that appealing and they are most likely not the first words that come to mind when a person is pulling adjectives to describe themselves, yet many college students could be defined by one of those two choices. Not only could these kids be classified as ignorant or apathetic, or both, but most of them willingly place themselves into those groups. Ask a college student, someone who is supposed to be well educated and in a place that is the middle of a wealth of knowledge and information, about the conflicts in Uganda or Sudan and watch the smiling expression leave their face as they search for any recollection of those countries mentioned in their latest podcast or AIM News scroller. Even events occurring within the borders of the United States are often ignored or written off.
45+ million citizens of the United States do not have health care. You know what people say in response to poverty? Well, if they got a job and went to school, they could do just fine. This is the mentality of way too many people of our generation. Instead of pointing fingers, how about eliminating the problem. Examining the standard of living in this country is absolutely insane compared to the standard of living in ANY other country. Spare that daily Starbucks run and you could be feeding somebody for a day.
Too bad more people aren't willing to give up their luxuries and niceties to help somebody else out.
J C,
Your topic is intriguing. As a high school student, I do not know what I should do. I do not have status and I do not have the motivation or belief that I can make change globally or nationally. However, I would hope that you would not deem me ignorant nor apathetic.
I do not want to ignore these issues, but I feel that I need to do my part to change what I feel needs to be changed. Right now, I lead the school's recycling program and I created it last year because there was no recycling at school period. Inside, I know that recycling is a corporation's way to hide their secret intention-- they want people to consume. They want people to consume and then just recycle so people can feel good about themselves. So instead of telling people to stop consuming (which surely would be futile), big corporations are pushing people to recycle because it saves the environment. I am in a peculiar situation, but what should I do, stop recycling? No Way.
Though I am just a grain of sand that makes up a beach, if I am not doing my part, the beach would be missing that grain of sand. See what I mean?
-zEro
Through your comments, it seems as though you are not completely uninformed about the status of current events. First of all, I would like to say kudos on the recycling program! One of my main interests revolves around environmental issues, so to hear of the initiative you took was very exciting.
As far as recycling, I do not necessarily know if the corporations are behind it, but I can see where you are coming from. Maybe I have a pessimistic view, but in a way, I believe that those whose consumption is highest do not care about what happens to the waste after the product is gone. Too many people do not realize the harms they are wreaking by sending waste to a landfill. Saying they do not care may be too harsh, but it may be that they just do not know any better.
As far as feeling like you do not have the ability to make a difference, that is not true. Educate yourself on the issues. Share that information with a few people. Small groups of people getting together to talk about an issue is how a movement is started. If you feel like you do not know much about the state of the nation or world, keep me in mind as I will post about more pressing events that are not widely known.
All I can say is that do not give up. Your little grain of sand combined with those you get to join you could eventually constitute an entire beach. Seeing younger people willing to take action really inspires me, so thank you.