The Circumstance of Tragedy

We live in a cruel and vicious world. Everyday there’s something new. Every week there’s a tragedy. Every month there’s a new political headline that sweeps it all. Every year there’s more death. In today’s society however, the way that we show our “caring” is through social media. If there’s a school shooting, we tweet. If there’s a mass murder, we post. And the beauty in this newfound recognition and awareness allows for us to be constantly alert, but the downside of this, is when it comes to the battle of what’s more important. What should I tweet about more? Should I change my profile picture to blue? And that’s when my argument comes in. All tragedy is tragic. Whether it’s one person or a hundred that die, it is a tragedy. When people start playing it like a competition, that’s where everyone goes wrong. We’ve become so taken and blinded by social media that we think that’s the only way to make things right, that’s the only way for things to change. But how do you know that the person tweeting about a rappers death and not about the genocide occurring in their hometown isn’t running a non-profit for their country where 100% of the proceeds goes to war relief. Or how do you know that the person that didn’t tweet about a school shooting but tweets about celebrity news, isn’t facing the gun lobbyist in their hometown head on and is apart of a movement for gun control with their local school. Just because they aren’t posting about it, that doesn’t mean they aren’t doing anything about it. Social media has become a place of judgement more than it has been a place of good. Just because someone doesn’t constantly tweet about something that doesn’t mean they don’t care. Just because someone happens to care about something when something else is occurring in their motherlands doesn’t make them less aware. This is a message to everyone on this pedestal that thinks by belittling and calling out people for not “caring” or that aren’t “concerned” about their own people, please step down. Just because you curate a tweet and get a couple thousand retweets, that doesn’t make you better than anyone else. Being “more” aware doesn’t make you better than anyone else. For the people who bring in religion to such things, and call people less of Muslims for not caring about their people, please shut up, because that doesn’t make you anymore of a Muslim. Caring more or tweeting more, doesn’t make you any more or less of an “aware” person. Social media’s platform is to inform, not to degrade and judge. If you care about something, tweet about it. But don’t bring others down for not caring about it as much as you do. People find joy in thinking they’re above someone else simply because they’re more aware. Teach. Learn. Raise awareness. Don’t bring others down for not caring about something as much as you do. Because they’re probably the ones doing the most for the issue behind the curtains. Everything is circumstantial. So if the death of a rapper happens to occur while a genocide is occurring, you can’t wage war on those who are concerned with the death and don’t mention the genocide. Every headline has it’s few seconds of fame and then just becomes a forgotten headline. We live in a society where tragedy happens every hour. Who are we to constantly say what’s more important. People have a way of giving up on something that can’t control, maybe the reason someone isn’t constantly tweeting about something is because they know its political and they know it’s not the type of thing that they can change. A retweet isn’t going to save this from not occurring. Awareness is phenomenal, but people have to realize that awareness doesn’t always correlate to action. So as members of this twisted society, all we can do is what we can, and pray. Bringing others down isn’t going to stop something from happening. The circumstance of tragedy is when a million things are happening all at once, that we don’t even know what to pour our hearts into anymore. People don’t know what to care about. A 21-year old rapper died yesterday. A Saudi national shot and killed four innocent people in training. Less than a month ago, a school shooting occurred in which two students were murdered. One thing that all those headlines all have in common, are the will of them weren’t puppeteered by a powerful leader, these next ones are however. There’s a mass genocide occurring in Palestine. There’s Muslims being detained and held against their will in concentration camps and are being forced to go against their religion. There are riots occurring in Iraq. There has been over 110 children killed in Yemen. Kurdish refugees are increasing by the day due to war. You want to know one thing all these headlines have in common, politics. So as much as we drive ourselves to raise awareness, change lies within the signature of a powerful leader. The fate of millions of people, lies within the ink of a pen. So we can raise awareness, because really that’s all we can do. But please. Please. Don’t play the judge of what’s more or less important. News is news. No one put anyone in charge of what people can and can’t talk about. But aside from everything, we need to pray for our world. We need to pray for peace. We need to pray for the tragedy to stop. If you don’t like something happening in your country, become a lawmaker to change it. If you don’t like how our justice system works, become a lawyer and change it. If you want to help people, become an activist, give a voice to the voiceless– become a doctor, cure those in need. At the end of the day, a tweet will get none of us anywhere if we don’t strive for change by becoming the change. No one is going to fight for your battles, so take action and fight them on your own.