Stop Eating Your Dinner

...And in today's news a Palestinian gunmen kills eight in a Jewish seminary.

Wow, that's horrible. Now go back to eating your dinner.

If you have ever seen the movie Hotel Rwanda, you will remember the scene where the character portrayed by Don Cheadle gets upset with one of the UN cameramen. Cheadle's character thinks that because of the horrible footage of people being hacked to death with machetes, the Western powers will be forced to act. One of the UN people then explains to Cheadle that Americans watching the TV back at home will say its horrible—its intolerable—but they will go right back to eating their dinner and will not do anything about it. This attitude is shown again in the movie Blood Diamond. "TIA." DiCaprio says. "This Is Africa. No one cares about Africa." As the saying goes, 'Out of sight, out of mind.' We feel distant from these faraway conflict zones such as Sierra Leone and Rwanda, and do not feel compelled to do anything—it isn't our problem.

The same applies to the Middle East, where suicide bombers and terrorist organizations cause violence every day. The Middle East is half a world away and it will never affect us, so who cares?

In this seminary in Jerusalem, a Palestinian student walked into the library with an assault rifle and a pistol, both of which were soon spraying bullets into a group of students ready to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Purim. The gunmen killed eight and wounded nine before nearby Israeli soldiers shot him dead. Once the word got out, Palestinians everywhere went into the streets to celebrate this strike on the hated Jews. Meanwhile, Jewish crowds were shouting 'Death to Arabs.'

Can you imagine to public backlash if a violent act of that magnitude would happen in the United States. Well, it has, with Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois. Since these events have literally been on our doorstep, we have cared and taken action against it happening in the future. But those Jews and Muslims over there in the Middle East? Who cares. They are not our problem. Until we overcome this selfish attitude and began to care about our fellow humans, the violence will continue. Tomorrow there might be a revenge attack, with a few more innocents dead. Who Knows?