Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Conviction: Of Red Sand and Blue Jeans
April 26, 2018
I’m tired. I’m writing this three weeks out from the end of the semester. I am skimming the edge of exhaustion. Energy austerity measures have been taken.
Yesterday was “International Denim Day.” Something about protesting the rape of a girl wearing tight jeans. They hung jeans from a clothesline on the covered walkway with “rape facts” pasted to them.
I was too tired to read them.
Today was “Red Sand Day,” which I learned from a Facebook post. Before that, I thought the red powder was marking spots that needed repair in the sidewalk, not drawing attention to human trafficking.
I’m tired, ok?
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
That was painted on a rock in front of my high school. I’ve thought about it now and then. And I think we miss the point.
Unless someone like YOU cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
The red sand and the blue jeans scream for my attention, scream for me to care a whole awful lot. But I can’t. Conviction is gifted to us by God, not generated by social movements. Compassion doesn’t arise from sad stories and sand. It’s precious, too precious to be stirred up artificially.
Unless someone like you CARES A WHOLE AWFUL LOT…
You can’t care much if you try to spread the work out among a hundred, a thousand, a million other people. Although there’s a place to fundraise, to raise awareness, the stone says someONE. The verb isn’t conjugated in the plural, either. It’s singular.
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.
Our gifts and interests and talents were given to us by God, not by circumstance. And we each have our causes, our things we are convicted about.
So don’t ask me to take a day and focus on and worry about and “spread awareness” for your cause. Don’t hang signs and implicitly tell me that I should care, like you do, a “whole awful lot.” That’s just distracting from the things I should be focused on and care about so deeply. That’s just scattering my attention and exhausting me.
Instead, ask me to pray.
Ask me to take your cause, your problem, your conviction, to God, as a piece of the greater problem that He alone can solve. And then let me continue along the path toward a career I would never be going into had He not convicted me. Let us use the college walkways in peace, without being distracted by jeans on a clothesline or sand on the sidewalk.
Published in General
Amen.
You need to wait for “Exhausted Student Awareness Day” to express sentiments like these.
Joking aside, wonderful post. Hope the year wraps up well for you.
The truth is that no one cares an awful lot, hardly at all really, about any of these things. If anyone did care, these problems would not exist. The rest is commentary or virtue signaling.
I was going to write the ugly truth but then I realized truth is neither ugly nor beautiful; it’s just true. Or maybe it’s always beautiful because it’s truth.
It’s over, thank goodness. Thanks.
I disagree. Even if almost everyone cared an awful lot these problems would exist. It only takes one rapist to rape a girl. It’s not something that takes a village.
I will not tell naughty jokes on Ricochet.
I will not tell naughty jokes on Ricochet.
I will not tell naughty jokes on Ricochet.
I will not tell naughty jokes on Ricochet.
I will not tell naughty jokes on Ricochet.
Not true, especially concerning issues such as sex trafficking (Red Sand Day). It’s even true that the incidence of rape could be decreased significantly if certain trade-offs were made, such as an increase in surveillance and compromising on civil liberties. Police states have much lower incidence of rape.
As Tom Sowell observed, there are no ideal solutions, only trade-offs. We have the number of rapes, the amount of sex trafficking, the amount of drug abuse, the number of murders, etc. that we are prepared to accept. When people cared about such things (under Giuliani), the murder rate in NYC decreased dramatically. Of course, there were other factors but don’t kid yourself: there is an acceptable level of crime.
This is a matter of semantics, but your original statement was that these problems would not exist, not that the incidence would be lower. Now matter how many civil rights we gave up and how large the police force was, the occasional rape would still happen.
I think you’re nitpicking. Some of the problems (e.g., human trafficking) could be brought to virtually zero (nothing is perfect) since they are organized crimes. Individual crimes are harder to drive down because the perpetrators are widely distributed but totalitarian societies have been quite successful in reducing those to very low levels, with the exception of state-sponsored crime of course.
Big exception.
I swear I studied European history. Even got a decent grade. But who is this guy?
Beria?
Lavrentiy Beria. Head of the NKVD. Mass murderer. Rapist.
He used to have his goons pick girls up off the street. He would rape them, and as they left, one of his men would offer the girl flowers. If she accepted, it was considered consensual sex. If she refused them, she would be killed. And it was all fine and dandy because he headed the secret police. At least until after Stalin died and the maneuvering to replace Stalin meant he was too dangerous for everyone else.
A pretty piece of soviet history never covered in my textbook.
Why am I not surprised?
My textbook had no sympathy for the soviets. Heck, it was Europe. There was no sympathy for anybody, and it made me realize just why the US is truly so exceptional. (As opposed to US history, where little sympathy is given for anybody but FDR.)
Awareness without action is focused impotence; caring ain’t doing.
Frankly, I feel bad for the rock which, after billions of years minding its own business, is forced to act as a billboard for the most banal of SJW messages.
Lots of focused impotence in society right now, then.
Of the various billboards around the school, I think the rock is the least objectionable. There was the message over the doors “Through these doors walk America’s Bright Future.”, and, worse, a random chunk of a Kipling Poem on one of the walls. “For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” There are others, but I can’t think of them right now.
Aww, I liked those wolfpack quotes. It was a school spirit thing–not really anything objectionable in them. The designers put some thought into a pleasant physical environment, which makes a difference to the students’ experience.
@linguaphile Did you see this post?
E. Lupus Unum.
A friend of mine that does wonderful work around the world* calls it “Double Click Activism” or “Hashtag Activism”
Dill (View Comment):
Sounds almost Communist
*I’ll insert a shameless plug for my friend Cait here – https://howmanycows.com/about/
The story behind the name is worth the read…
Well, maybe, but the school’s mascot is the wolf, so I think it was more about teamwork. (It was near the gym).
Good for you, @dill! Prayers are even more effective when we’re at the end of our reservoir of get-up-and-go…(It’s said that St. Ignatius of Loyola always prayed lying down – to remind him to depend on God.) Anyway, thank you for the holy reminder!