2008 Woodie Awards
The Test of One's Attention
Montclarion Main Editorial
Issue date: 3/25/04 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
The first time you see a movie on the silver screen, the action, excitement, horror and suspense emits emotion from viewing. When you come across that same film, the thrill has lost its fervor, the same scenes don't seem as intense from the initial viewing. More and more these same images come across your pupils and after so many times, the film becomes dull as it reaches its occasional stint on basic cable.
With the recent train bombing in Madrid, the overall sentiment by our peers seems like an old movie. Sept. 11 hit home as MSU students watched from the hills of Bohn Hall; classes commenced even though the rising smoke can be seen from classroom windows. But unlike "9/11," this latest bombing did not impact the hearts of the American people as much as our domestic terrorist counterpart.
Have we as Americans lost our sense of compassion? Phrases such as "the bombing in Madrid was horrible," or "what a shame," are spoken, but then post the coffee talk discussion, the whole subject is soon discarded.
Maybe Sept. 11 hit us so hard that our ability to mourn has exhausted itself. And like the movie dwindling to obscurity, the channel can be flipped without blinking, choosing an MTV Spring Break wet t-shirt contest to appease ourselves.
The allusion to Spring Break is best fitting to the college student. How does the delayed reaction to foreign atrocities affect us? When weapons of mass destruction are deemed false and dead soldiers in our age group are reaching almost up to 600, does the college student now bury their heads deeper into our textbooks to keep our mind occupied? Desensitization seems to become the theme in the undergraduate psyche.
Young men and women I've heard yell to the top of their lungs, "The end is near," like the cliché bearded man wearing a placard with the fore mentioned quote written on top. And then these voices fall to a deaf ear. These are same ears of Spanish citizens demanding their troops to pull away from Iraq. Many cannot tell them not to. When we, as Americans, demanded for justice after Sept. 11, the world concurred.
When Spain reveled in a national tragedy, our nation did not mourn along with them. How odd is it to see that our attention spans are not as forgiving to our overseas neighbors. The train bombing in Madrid occurred on March 11, 2004, exactly 911 days after the Sept. 11 attacks in NY; quite ironic that we aren't aware in a day where terroristic attacks are more frequent than ever. But desensitization becomes wrong when terrorist attacks have become so well calculated, yet we now consider it normalcy.
With the recent train bombing in Madrid, the overall sentiment by our peers seems like an old movie. Sept. 11 hit home as MSU students watched from the hills of Bohn Hall; classes commenced even though the rising smoke can be seen from classroom windows. But unlike "9/11," this latest bombing did not impact the hearts of the American people as much as our domestic terrorist counterpart.
Have we as Americans lost our sense of compassion? Phrases such as "the bombing in Madrid was horrible," or "what a shame," are spoken, but then post the coffee talk discussion, the whole subject is soon discarded.
Maybe Sept. 11 hit us so hard that our ability to mourn has exhausted itself. And like the movie dwindling to obscurity, the channel can be flipped without blinking, choosing an MTV Spring Break wet t-shirt contest to appease ourselves.
The allusion to Spring Break is best fitting to the college student. How does the delayed reaction to foreign atrocities affect us? When weapons of mass destruction are deemed false and dead soldiers in our age group are reaching almost up to 600, does the college student now bury their heads deeper into our textbooks to keep our mind occupied? Desensitization seems to become the theme in the undergraduate psyche.
Young men and women I've heard yell to the top of their lungs, "The end is near," like the cliché bearded man wearing a placard with the fore mentioned quote written on top. And then these voices fall to a deaf ear. These are same ears of Spanish citizens demanding their troops to pull away from Iraq. Many cannot tell them not to. When we, as Americans, demanded for justice after Sept. 11, the world concurred.
When Spain reveled in a national tragedy, our nation did not mourn along with them. How odd is it to see that our attention spans are not as forgiving to our overseas neighbors. The train bombing in Madrid occurred on March 11, 2004, exactly 911 days after the Sept. 11 attacks in NY; quite ironic that we aren't aware in a day where terroristic attacks are more frequent than ever. But desensitization becomes wrong when terrorist attacks have become so well calculated, yet we now consider it normalcy.