Maybe Ignorance isn't Bliss

Lately I keep revisiting the glaring fact that I am not well-traveled. That I honestly do not know much about the world. That I am blissfully stuffed in a tight cocoon of ignorance about what is going on in the world. And it's starting to piss me off.

The first stages of experiencing this blistering feeling usually are when I watch the news, of course. Darfur is on my mind so much lately. I watched the movie "God Grew Tired of Us," about some of the Lost Boys of Darfur coming over to America, escaping their brutal existence and learning to live in our culture and get an education. The movie is amazing and disturbing. How can so much suffering be going on across the world while I'm at home eating a nice meal and enjoying the comfort of a fire on a cold night? I am oblivious to their pain except when the news reports from Darfur. I remember the first time I ever heard about what was happening there was because Carter on ER went to Africa to help with medical care a few years ago. I did not know what the Jangaweed were until that episode. I Googled it to see if it was real and of course it was. How could I not know these things? I watch the news. Maybe I had become de-sensitized to another image of a dark-skinned, hungry child sleeping on the ground as flies crawled over their skin. These people are living this every day and I learn about it from watching American television? What a sad commentary on me and probably millions of other Americans.

Just the other night I watched "Britz" on BBC America, an almost 5-hour movie about a brother and sister from India who were raised and given a good life in London. After 9/11 they reacted very differently...one joining Britain's MI5 to help find terrorists, the other actually feigning their death and going to a terrorist camp to train as a suicide bomber. The movie was very good, but once again, why do I FINALLY pay attention to something when it's dramatized on television? I knew these things were occurring, but seeing them on film makes it hit home for me. Once again, the message I got out of it is this: You are truly blessed but ignorantly bliss about how the world operates and the trials that others face.

I have only been outside the U.S. once in my life and that was to the Dominican Republic. Not all of us have the means to tour refugee camps in Africa, but we can travel to other continents to see how they live, but I have never even done that. I have never ridden the London subways, taken an African safari, been to a mosque, or witnessed first hand a different culture or religion and I know I am seriously socially impaired as a result. There are cultural, religious and social injustices happening all over the world, and while they rage on, I am reading a book, or taking a bubble bath, or enjoying the house I own.

Lately, when I lie in bed at night, I think of the people who are suffering elsewhere in the world, and not only do I feel horrible for them, I feel even worse for all the nights I know I will fall asleep without them crossing my mind.