Can you believe how much money the Russian government put into the Sochi Olympics? Like, do you even know how much money that was? I mean, I don’t know exactly, but it was like billions of dollars, I heard. And where do you think that money comes from?
It’s not just sitting there, waiting to be spent on hockey games. It came from killing dogs, you guys. You people need to know that. You should know it, I posted a Huffington Post piece about it. Maybe if people stopped caring so much about what medal their country got in the skeleton or whatever and read the internet for once, they’d see what’s really going on.
The president of Russia killed a guy because he didn’t get a medal in figure skating. It’s true. I read an article about it. Well, I read the headline and the first two paragraphs, but that’s what it said. And there’s all this stuff happening in Ukraine, you guys. Like, really bad stuff. I don’t think you realize how bad it is, but it’s bad. You want to know how bad? I’ll tell you exactly what’s happening there; there are so many news articles about it online, on CNN.com and stuff you can go read. I posted a bunch of them yesterday on Facebook, so just check out my profile to see them.
See, maybe I just care too much about what’s going on in the world or something, but I can’t help feeling that I’m doing so much more than my part to make a difference. If more people read these articles, maybe they’d see that something has to be done. We can’t just keep sitting around doing nothing, we have to get engaged and make a real difference. That’s why I hit “share” on so many of these links. If no one else is willing to do it, how will we ever make any progress?
In fact, just earlier today I posted a status admonishing people for caring so much about a hockey game, even if it was the gold medal one, and expressing my hope that now that it’s done, maybe they can take a look at what’s going on in the world around them. And you know what? That status update got several likes. Now that’s what I’m talking about when I say making a real difference. The world needs more people to spread awareness like that. It’s called having an impact, and most people just don’t seem to have the guts to do it.
I watched a bit of this TED Talk the other week, and the guy in it was saying something about how nowadays with the internet and social media we’re all more connected than ever before, but at the same time we’ve never been so distant from each other. Was “distant” the word he used? Whatever, something like that. Like, he was saying that even though we’re all communicating with each other all the time, we’re not, like, really saying anything, or anything. Y’know? I posted the link, you should check it out.
“Disconnected!” That’s the word he used, not “distant.”
Anyhow, I guess I can sort of understand why so many people don’t care enough to get involved. It can be hard work a lot of the time. I’ve spent so much of my time the last couple weeks telling people why they shouldn’t be paying so much attention to what’s going on in Sochi when there’s so much terrible stuff happening outside Sochi. It’s been exhausting. And that came right on the heels of me spending weeks telling people why they shouldn’t be paying so much attention to what Justin Bieber is doing, but should be outraged by what’s happening in Sochi! It can be overwhelming.
If you’ve read this far, you’re obviously someone who’s concerned with what’s happening, and wants to make a difference. Or if you’ve just skipped to the last couple paragraphs to see what the point of the whole article is, which is what I usually do. So I encourage you to share this with your friends. And not just this, but every link you come across that talks about important stuff. Without people like you and me to take the problem into our own hands and make a difference, nothing will ever change.
We need to get the message out. That someone needs to do something. We have a voice. And we owe it to ourselves, and to the world, to use that voice to make it clear to everyone we know that we’re serious about this change. And we need to do it with the smallest possible amount of effort from ourselves. So, please, click “share.”
Photo by jcburns via Flickr
