Desensitised

Are we becoming people who just say the ‘right’ thing, rather than actually feeling it?

(You may not like what you’re about to read, but they are my views. My opinions. And as this is my blog, I ask that you respect my right to express my views on here. Any abusive comments will be removed).

There are so many people nowadays who hold positions of power over other people. A lot of these people are truly trustworthy, upstanding and exemplary people, who have every right to be in such a position of trust.

However, there are some people who take their positions and abuse them; using their assumed authority to act in a way that is neither responsible, nor ethical.

The news is filled with such stories. We hear and read about them every day, to the point where, I’m sure, they don’t actually impact us in the way that they should do.

How many times have we heard of another natural disaster taking hundreds, if not thousands of lives, and we say “Oh, that’s terrible”; playing lip service to someone else’s tragedy without really connecting with what is happening.

We have become so desensitised to these things that they don’t really touch us any more, and it is only when something truly horrific happens, that we are able to really connect with it.

Take, for example, the situation in the US that began a few months ago, where children were ripped from their parents’ arms at the border and placed into detention camps, while their parents were arrested.

There was shock, outcry and horror on all social media platforms, but did it really hit any of us as it should have? Or was it just another tragedy that we noted, before moving on.

I’m ashamed to admit, that I was one of those people. I felt angry, and sad, yes, but when it came down to it, my life moved on, and in that moving on, the thought of those children was pushed to the back of my mind.

That was until one of the most recent episodes of Law & Order Special Victims Unit, very bravely tackled this exact storyline. Seeing the pain, trauma, and anxiety on the faces of those brave actors that played the mother and daughter, separated for months, truly broke me.

The truth is that it is the individual stories that actually reach us. The looks on those actors’ faces will stay with me for a long time to come, and I am determined, that each time I remember them, I will remember all of those real life families, torn apart.

I absolutely despise the Trump administration for allowing, and enabling this to happen. Donald Trump is no more than a man child playing at a grown ups’ game, with no vision past his immediate wants and needs. He is quite clearly completely controlled by his ‘Id’, and really shouldn’t be in any position of power at all.

So, to the families that I brushed off as “just another sad news story”, I’m sorry. To the writers and actors of SVU, thank you.

Please, let’s become a people where we see the individual people behind the stories, and not just the larger picture, which pales in comparison to the plight of real people, dealing with real problems.