Right about now I really should be burying my nose in my Psychology book. I am not by nature a procrastinator when it comes to school, but at this moment, my mind is on different matters. Those matters are my brothers and sisters in Africa. There isn’t a place in the world that I keep up with as I do Africa. I have a love for a people and country that I’ve never been to, though I long to get there. Thursday, Al-Shabaab an Islamic Terrorist Group attacked Garissa University in Kenya. That attack killed 147 people and injured 104 more, many of those critically. Their target was Christians and they succeeded. Heartbreaking, and horrible but not unheard of for the group, they attacked Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 with the same goal, anyone who wasn’t Muslim deserved death.
The latter attack made National news and stayed there. Other things overshadowed the former attack. I found out about the Garissa attack from my local news station. Generally, on things like this, it would hit BBC and I’d be notified by phone alert. Instead, after I saw the story I checked BBC to get more information. What I found was a news story with out of date information that had been replaced with a story about Angelina Jolie and her fight to prevent cancer. Now I’m not disparaging Jolie’s fight against cancer and her taking measures to keep herself healthy. Plenty of good things come from celebrities making wise decisions and doing altruistic things; people watch them and tend to follow. However, the problem comes in when that is more important than the 251 lives that were altered that day by death and injury and that of the one’s who love them.
When Boko Haram, another Islamic Terrorist Group, kidnapped 276 girls from Chikbok in Nigeria, the world went up in arms about it. The Bring Back Our Girls campaign was launched and many celebrities became vocal about it, lending their voices. Thursday, the world was essentially silent. Twitter was not full of celebrities and athletes asking for justice this time. So what makes one life more important than another? Why does the attack on a mall become front-page news but a college massacre barely make a blip on the radar? How do you choose to raise your voice for kidnapped teenagers but not for justice for 147 murdered college students and faculty?
This matters. It isn’t just going to go away. I don’t doubt that it will happen again until it becomes important. After all, the terrorists are seeking attention, to show the world that they are serious. Being pushed to a back burner isn’t what they are looking for, next time things could be even worse.
