By Meghan Poff 
In light of recent events, I’d find it correct to say there has been a sharp increase in the number of political/peace activist experts in the Floyd County area. It is almost meritorious how quickly local students seem to have caught world peace fever.
(*insert sarcasm here)
It all started last week when the tornado hit Henryville. The town, almost never before acknowledged by the students of our school, was suddenly thrust into the spotlight by the destruction that occurred there. Suddenly, it seemed that the only decently human thing to do would be to volunteer their time.
And apparently, the best way to help out Henryville was to get it trending on Twitter. I am not trying to insinuate that feeling sympathy for tornado victims is a bad thing, but I’m sure the people would appreciate a couple hours of cleaning up over “Omg this is so horrible #HelpHenryville.”
Yes indeed, Henryville was the talk of the town for about three whole days, until Kony arrived.
As we all know, knowledge of turmoil in Africa could never really exist in the minds of high school students until it was circulated on Facebook. But I must say I’m surprised at the number of people who had the attention span long enough to watch the 30-minute video, because you sure have never read a book for that long.
And if one is able to watch a video about troubles in Africa, then nothing is to stop them from becoming a diplomatic expert on the subject.
“Like, can you believe this Kony guy? Forreal though, the army needs to stop all this #AmericaIsDumb.”
How intelligent.
Though for many, problems abroad took a back seat to the troubles still occurring in Henryville. During the tornado, a mother, Reese Decker, lost her legs protecting her child. The hashtag #GiveReeseHope is an effort to get singer Justin Bieber to come meet the little girl.
Let me make sure I understand. Because Reese’s mom lost her legs, this girl for some reason needs to meet Justin Bieber? Hmmm, maybe if we really wanted to give Reese hope, people could donate money to help her mother with hospital bills. But that is just me being crazy.
When it comes to causes, there is nothing more important than positivity and enthusiasm, things that the members of our community are not lacking. But perhaps, we could double the impact of our good intentions by being a little informed about the issues we claim to care so deeply about. And as they say, actions speak louder than words. Try to get out of the virtual world to make a difference because frankly, a tweet or a status is not helping anybody.