By Leah Himlie
To how many things are we as a society now emotionally numb? School shootings are commonplace, immigrant children have been ripped away from their families, half of our veteran population is homeless, and more. It’s scary to be confronted with the question of if we care about others, but it is one we must ask ourselves from time to time. Most people want to care, but when the same event happens repeatedly, it becomes standard. We gradually become numb, indifferent. We become the same as those who never cared at all.
The title of this article is identical to the title of a speech that was given by Elie Wiesel in 1999 in Washington D. C. What he had to say is very powerful and applicable to many of the issues today. He was a Holocaust survivor, and he spoke about World War II and victims of the Holocaust. He brought attention to the feelings of those in the concentration camps, emphasizing how others’ indifference caused victims and survivors to feel abandoned. He used the example of the Holocaust, but the cruelty of indifference can affect almost any group of people who is not in power. Its effects do not change or diminish depending on whether there is genocide or discrimination; they are eerily similar regardless of the degree of oppression.
An important step in fighting indifference is finding out why we become numb over time. It is my belief that sometimes we stop caring because it’s hard to care about those we do not see with our own eyes. The hard truth for some, including myself, is that we don’t care because caring would inconvenience us. Wiesel summarizes this idea when he states, “Of course, indifference can be tempting — more than that, seductive. It is so much easier to look away from victims. It is so much easier to avoid such rude interruptions to our work, our dreams, our hopes. It is, after all, awkward, troublesome, to be involved in another person’s pain and despair.” His words, though about the Holocaust, can be applied to the general indifferent attitude about issues that are still not being addressed. It is an ugly image staring back at us in the mirror, but I believe it is one we must face. Knowing why we become indifferent is an important step to combating numbness.
Why should we even bother to try to care? I do not have any better answer than this: people deserve love and compassion. If one is determined not to care, there is nothing I can say or do to convince them otherwise, but I am hoping this reason is enough for some. For, if we do not care about others’ plights, there is no way we can help them. In fact, by being indifferent to their struggles, we are benefitting the oppressor. When we allow atrocities to continue occurring simply because it is “not our problem,” we become part of the problem. By not speaking up when we see or hear something that violates another person’s human rights, we are allowing them to be dehumanized. We are sending the message that it is okay to violate human rights. Wiesel goes so far as to say, “And in denying their humanity, we betray our own.”
I do not mean to make anyone feel guilty. I do not mean to insult or offend anyone. I do not mean that everyone needs to become an activist worthy of the textbooks. I am simply asking, human to human, that we check our attitudes every now and then. I know that caring about everything all the time is exhausting. It isn’t even possible to do so if we wish to keep our sanity. I just hope that in our everyday lives, we can do some little things like become educated about minorities’ troubles, call out false statements, and spread awareness. Nothing is going to be solved overnight, but if we don’t care, nothing will ever be solved. Acknowledging and caring about discrimination against others is the first step to making our community, our state, and our country a better place for all.
Source:
•https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/ewieselperilsofindifference.html
Leah Himlie is a student at Rushford-Peterson High School. She is one of eight area students participating in the Journal Writing Project, now in its 21st year.
Leave a Reply