The Essence of Inhumanity

So.
I hate posts that begin with "so." It sounds like you don't know what you're talking about. It reminds me of some sort of valley girl. "So" is one of those fillers that I actually used to get in trouble for using Freshman year of high school. I have lots of terrible memories surrounding the word "so."
But, I digress (I also love the phrase "I digress"; I could use it non-stop. But, I digress).

Last Thursday, the Amnesty International at my school hosted this screening for a film made by Invisible Children (http://www.invisiblechildren.com/). Basically, the organization raises awareness about the situation of abducted child soldiers of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, working towards their rescue.

It really got me thinking about being indifferent, apathetic, complacent, or any other synonymous word that could go along with those.
It's so easy for us to see something like that and go "Oh, that really sucks" without taking any further action, or at the very least thinking about it more than that. The most people do when confronted with issues and situations like that is become immediately more thankful for their own way of life.

That's so bogus, to put it mildly.

Caring is one thing, but caring can still become identical to indifference if you simply care on the inside. If you only do that, you might as well not care. I really don't think the general cliche of 'it's the thought that counts' applies to situations like these. Your thoughts don't count if they don't compel you to actually do something. If your thoughts don't make you rethink your indifference, you might as well not be thinking, since it isn't doing anyone any good.

I love George Bernard Shaw, for many reasons, but mostly because I found a quote by him last Friday that completely summed up all of my feelings on this subject:
"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent towards them: that's the essence of inhumanity."

People so often attribute the label of "worst sin" against other people to the direct and outright hatred towards other people, mainly seen as the deprivation of basic rights or the dehumanization of another individual. That's not it, though.

While those things are wrong, I think it's the person who hears about these things being done to a fellow human being and then proceeds to do nothing that has inflicted the most wrong upon them.