Jesse Freeston, a journalist working in Honduras, recently created a video about the brutal and bloody repression of rights and freedoms in that country that is impossible to ignore. In his Jesse's words, "As the world pretends that this illegal and fraudulent election that took place on Sunday has somehow changed a brutal dictatorship into a democracy, the actions of the day of the election show otherwise. This report is from San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second largest city, on the day of the election."
Watching this video is the first step to taking a stand against the criminals who have seized power in Honduras. By acknowledging the truth, you take the first step toward making a difference. Please call your political representatives at all levels (you can find their contact information at http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml) and implore them to watch this video and stand up for what's right. If you don't support the government in Honduras, your representatives should know that -- and they should not be supporting it either. Please do the right thing. Educate yourself, then take action.
Showing posts with label violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label violence. Show all posts
Friday, December 4, 2009
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
"Clarity" continued...
In Bill Bradley's most recent book, The New American Story, it is reported that in June 2004, CNN, Fox News, NBC, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS collectively ran fifty-five as many stories about Michael Jackson as they did about the genocide in Darfur. In 2004, ABC covered the crisis in Darfur for a total of 18 minutes. These statistics are clear evidence that 24 hours of news is a lot of time, that the news networks have plenty of air time to report the stories their producers feel will draw the biggest audiences in the key demographics.
It's a damn shame.
I believe that the desire to attract the biggest-paying advertisers is what is driving these news networks to report fluff stories -- stories that are supposed to draw the young, middle class consumers that advertisers crave.
I believe that 24 hours of news is too much, that the 24-hour news cycle entices news networks to focus on providing reactions to breaking news, rather than thoughtful analysis of current events. And I believe that unless the way people get their news changes, humanity will continue its movement away from feeling and thoughtfulness and toward numbness and ambivalence.
It's a damn shame.
I believe that the desire to attract the biggest-paying advertisers is what is driving these news networks to report fluff stories -- stories that are supposed to draw the young, middle class consumers that advertisers crave.
I believe that 24 hours of news is too much, that the 24-hour news cycle entices news networks to focus on providing reactions to breaking news, rather than thoughtful analysis of current events. And I believe that unless the way people get their news changes, humanity will continue its movement away from feeling and thoughtfulness and toward numbness and ambivalence.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Clarity
All at once, during a Bill Moyer interview with Jon Stewart, I have had a realization.
For over a week, I have been struggling internally with the lack of grief I have felt in regards to the shootings at Virginia Tech. Up to this point, I have not even expressed my confusion over the numbness I have felt about this situation. But suddenly it is clear to me why I have had this feeling (or rather, this lack of feeling), and so now I feel the need to talk about it.
On the day that 33 people died at Virginia Tech, at least 150 people died in four bombings in Iraq. Thousands of people starved to death because their countries are too wrapped up in war or paying back odious foreign debt to provide food for their people. Millions of people lost their lives to diseases that could have been prevented or treated if only health care was treated as a right instead of a privilege.
These things happen everyday. These are the numbers that roll around in my mind every night. The incident at Virginia Tech was a tragedy and the media treated it as such. But the tragedies of the every day, they are so often treated as sub-news: headlines scrolling across the bottom of the television screen, sentence fragments placed on the sidebar of news network websites, incidents mentioned in passing by newsreaders at the top of every hour.
In a world of 24-hour news networks (Plural! That's more than 100 hours of news each day!), tragedies should be reported with the weight and respect that they deserve. Time should be given for the audience to get to know the victims and to allow for the immensity of the issue to sink in. People need time to process violence, tragedy, and death in particular. For that reason, I believe the shootings at Virginia Tech were handled well by the media. But why, with hours upon countless hours available for reporting the news, are other incidents not given the same time? Why do we allow time for the people of the U.S. to process and grieve over the passing of its own youngest and brightest, but we do not allow time for the same people to process and grieve over the passing of others'? We all belong to the same world. We are all each other's people. Nations be damned. We're all in this together.
I have feeling of ambivalence about Virginia Tech because I give myself time to process and grieve over every loss. And in the wake of the thousands and millions who I grieve for every day, dealing with the deaths of a few dozen college students (with whom I may have shared a mutual acquaintance) just doesn't take that long, doesn't take that much energy, doesn't make me stop and cry out in pain.
A few years ago, I became hyper sensitized to tragedy. I gained the ability to feel the weight and the pain of millions who I have never met. I did this by going out and exploring the world and discovering that although I cannot always see these people that they are out there, that their lives and decisions impact the world just as much as mine.
After such an intense ordeal and period of growth, I find myself experiencing the flip side of hyper-sensitization: desensitization. But I have not been desensitized by violent films, by violent video games, or by violent news programs. It was the violent world that did it to me. It's happening to you, too.
For over a week, I have been struggling internally with the lack of grief I have felt in regards to the shootings at Virginia Tech. Up to this point, I have not even expressed my confusion over the numbness I have felt about this situation. But suddenly it is clear to me why I have had this feeling (or rather, this lack of feeling), and so now I feel the need to talk about it.
On the day that 33 people died at Virginia Tech, at least 150 people died in four bombings in Iraq. Thousands of people starved to death because their countries are too wrapped up in war or paying back odious foreign debt to provide food for their people. Millions of people lost their lives to diseases that could have been prevented or treated if only health care was treated as a right instead of a privilege.
These things happen everyday. These are the numbers that roll around in my mind every night. The incident at Virginia Tech was a tragedy and the media treated it as such. But the tragedies of the every day, they are so often treated as sub-news: headlines scrolling across the bottom of the television screen, sentence fragments placed on the sidebar of news network websites, incidents mentioned in passing by newsreaders at the top of every hour.
In a world of 24-hour news networks (Plural! That's more than 100 hours of news each day!), tragedies should be reported with the weight and respect that they deserve. Time should be given for the audience to get to know the victims and to allow for the immensity of the issue to sink in. People need time to process violence, tragedy, and death in particular. For that reason, I believe the shootings at Virginia Tech were handled well by the media. But why, with hours upon countless hours available for reporting the news, are other incidents not given the same time? Why do we allow time for the people of the U.S. to process and grieve over the passing of its own youngest and brightest, but we do not allow time for the same people to process and grieve over the passing of others'? We all belong to the same world. We are all each other's people. Nations be damned. We're all in this together.
I have feeling of ambivalence about Virginia Tech because I give myself time to process and grieve over every loss. And in the wake of the thousands and millions who I grieve for every day, dealing with the deaths of a few dozen college students (with whom I may have shared a mutual acquaintance) just doesn't take that long, doesn't take that much energy, doesn't make me stop and cry out in pain.
A few years ago, I became hyper sensitized to tragedy. I gained the ability to feel the weight and the pain of millions who I have never met. I did this by going out and exploring the world and discovering that although I cannot always see these people that they are out there, that their lives and decisions impact the world just as much as mine.
After such an intense ordeal and period of growth, I find myself experiencing the flip side of hyper-sensitization: desensitization. But I have not been desensitized by violent films, by violent video games, or by violent news programs. It was the violent world that did it to me. It's happening to you, too.
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