Apathy is Not an Option

It is so easy to get lost in busyness, where constantly playing catch up is the norm and you frequently ask yourself, “what the heck happened today?” while collapsing in to bed.  For an organizationally challenged person like myself, it’s almost a lifestyle.  Then there’s the nonsense factor that saturates our culture; where up is down and down is up and saying the “wrong” thing can bring instant condemnation or worse.  Suddenly, sticking your head in the sand while calling it a day looks awfully appealing.

I can play like an ostrich probably better than most and frankly I’ve been doing it often lately  Our 24/7, non stop crisis, must respond now, news cycle has left me exhausted, with little incentive to participate in anything other than the daily grind that makes life work and the extracurricular activities that make it fun.  Why throw the proverbial candy bar in to the pool when things are humming along fine?

Because real life involves innocent people getting hurt and it’s too easy to avoid their stories while living in Ostrich World and staying comfortable is priority number one, that’s why.  A recent story in the news jarred me out of my stupor long enough to ponder this and how numb I’ve become to hearing about rotten people doing rotten things to innocent people.

Apparently, Michigan Doctor Jumana Nagarwala has allegedly been mutilating the genitals of young girls brought in by parents who would rather their daughters go through a grotesque procedure on the most private of body parts that will cause them pain and shame the rest of their lives, than risk the possibility they might one day enjoy having sex.

I’m sorry but this butts up hard against my fantasy world of puppies and rainbows and does not make me feel comfortable at all.  That it’s been hardly reported moves me right in to angry and then straight on to enraged when I read something like this:

“According to the complaint against Nagarwala, members of a particular religious and cultural community are known to use the procedure — which some see as a way to curb sexuality in girls. The complaint did not identify the community but said Nagarwala was a part of it.”

A particular religious or cultural community?  Really? Gosh, I wonder just which community they’re talking about! No, actually I wonder at the stupidity of the Washington Post news editor that let that description stand on its own.

Thankfully the authorities are taking this seriously and Dr. Nagawala faces a litany of charges that could put her in jail the rest of her life.  The parents should be dealt with harshly too, but I’ve not heard any reporting on their status.  I wonder why?

Female Genital mutilation (FGM) is a barbaric practice designed not only to repress women sexually, but to torture them psychologically as a constant reminder that they are not in control of their own bodies, that they are in fact nothing but property for others to manage.  And it’s not just something that happens elsewhere, it’s on the rise here in the U.S. too via immigrants  from Africa and the Middle East for whom the practice is deeply embedded culturally.

According to a recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) study on FGM, in 2013 there were an estimated 507,000 women and girls in the U.S. who had undergone or were at risk of being subjected to FGM; more than double the numbers reported in 2000 and a near tripling since 1990.  The vague terms “had undergone or were at risk” are used because it’s extremely difficult to get victims to speak up about it and anyone pressing for more information risks being called racist.

This type of evil thrives under cover of political correctness and plays on societal fears of being labeled intolerant.  Keep it on your radar folks , as those numbers above are bound to explode.