Case for Current Events

Once upon a time, I didn’t read the newspaper. Or watch the news. Or listen to it. Any news that did manage to filter down into my awareness usually came from the radio after I’d flipped through all the stations and my choices were really bad commercials or top-of-the-hour news. When I found myself in such situations, I’d listen, but only partially; really I was just waiting for the music to come back on. When it did, up went the volume and I was back to singing along, blissfully ignorant of what I had just heard. That’s how it was, until last semester, when a current events class forced me to become aware. Becoming aware made me realize just how important being informed really is; which is why now, I find myself making a case for current events.

Before I immersed myself in the wonderfully exciting world that is current events, I had several reasons for being checked out. Association with fellow checked-outers led to the discovery that people have very similar reasons for not keeping up on current events. I call them Current Events Cop Outs or CECO (pronounced see-ko). An examination and debunktion of these CECOs will, I hope, inspire those where I was to come where I am.

The first goes something like this: “Current events are BORING! I want to spend my time doing something more interesting.” This is the excuse of the uninitiated, but, I confess, it was the biggest for me. The few times I had delved into current events I found myself excessively bored. “Who cares what so-and-so said” and “No I am not going to follow that story to A17” were my constant thoughts as I threw newspapers away from me. How does one get over this? Stick with it! Read a variety of sources; see how they report the same event. Follow stories; what so-and-so said may not be interesting until somebody talks back, and the story on A17 may be uninteresting, until, at the end of the week, you suddenly discover what really happened in a story from some obscure publication in Europe. In today’s world especially, current events are anything but dull.

The second common CECO is one I think we are all familiar with: “Current events make me depressed/angry/sad/frustrated/etc. and there’s nothing I can do about it anyway, so why bother?” The real problem here is that people feel powerless, which is why they feel depressed. Once you realize that there are things you can do, excitement replaces the ________ (fill in the blank) and you find yourself scanning headlines, desperate for something to get involved in. And with the internet, getting involved is easier than ever. Read articles online, comment and argue about them with complete strangers, share important ones on Facebook, encouraging your friends to “check this out!”, sending Congressmen and Senators strongly worded emails demanding that they do such-and-such, and then tell everyone the story on your very own blog. The first time I contacted my Congresswoman was about a bill that had been living under the radar, something I’d had to dig to find. I felt it was extremely important, wrote her, and then zoomed over to Facebook—while texting everyone I thought would be interested—to let everyone know what was going one. That specific bill is still in limbo, but the best part of the experience was when I convinced a few other people to contact their Congressmen. I’d thought there was nothing I could do, but I’d had an influence, however small. You can too; all it takes is initiative.

The final CECO I’ll address is the most dangerous: “What does it matter anyway? Whatever happens happens, and I’ll just keep living my life.” To think that what happens in the world doesn’t affect you is kind of like being a running back that only looks at his own feet—sooner or later somebody’s going to come and knock him on his butt. A possible future case-in-point would be the health care reform bill. If it does indeed mandate that everyone purchase health insurance or pay a fine, people not paying attention may find themselves short $3,000, to say nothing of the freedom lost while that person was “blissfully ignorant.” Whether it’s a good or bad, we live in a society where the actions of others often affect us quite personally. If all we focus on is our own feet, we will quite likely find ourselves on our butts, or worse, dog-piled.

Ultimately, that’s really why current events are so important; they have a dramatic impact on our lives. Whoever said ignorance is bliss probably spent his life being “blissfully” pushed around with no control of his life. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be that guy. So if you’ll excuse me, I have to go get a paper…