Oblivious

I'm doing election work right now, which means that every day I find myself talking to hundreds of Ohioans about the upcoming elections, and what it means for our state and our country, and unfortunately, more often than not I find myself faced with a slew of uncaring people, proud non voters, people with ad fatigue who want to take it out on me (I don't blame them), and surprisingly enough, a cadre of those folks that I'm talking about are people who are working with me on the elections. 

For anyone following the elections this year, if you have picked up a national paper, you have undoubtedly seen an article or two (or 50) about the Ohio elections. It would appear that the world is obsessed with us. Unfortunately, we are not that obsessed with ourselves (or the rest of the world for that matter). I understand that people have jobs and families to worry about, and are more concerned about their next paycheck than the next casualty in Iraq or Darfur, but..... well, I guess I'm getting a little fed up with it all.  This is not to say that I don't fight my own cynicism on a daily basis, but what to do when you are faced with the cynicism of seemingly a whole state?  I can't fight that fight for others, but I'm sick of being shat upon for fighting it within myself. Put down for caring about something, ANYthing. 

 

Well, that wasn't supposed to be the point of this post. I wanted to link readers to an article in today's Washington Post about Lima Company, a reservist unit of the Marines that saw some of the heaviest losses in Iraq, and who happened to also be based here in Ohio. I guess it kind of links together. This is a quote from a member of Lima Co.:

 

"Is this what my friends died for?" he finds himself asking on days when he feels alone in a crowd. "It's amazing how oblivious we are as Americans to how much all of this costs," he said.