American Egotism

I'll be brief here, 'cause I must off to work. Last night, a coworker was trying to make the point that depending on one's outlook, we react differently to the same things. And as evidence, she asked if I was horrified by 9/11. I could only respond "well..." She looked to another coworker for verification, who, thankfully, was equally non-aghast. I eventually did say that I wasn't happy about what happened, which was enough to prove her point that bin Laden and myself clearly had different reactions to the same event.

A bit later though, she expressed disbelief/disapproval that my coworker and myself weren't distraught over the massive loss of life of 9/11. I said, "Honey, that stuff happens all the time, all over the world."
"Well, yeah, but it's like how I'm more upset when my grandfather dies than when yours does, you know?"
"No, not really."
"You wouldn't be more upset if your grandfather died than if mine did?"
"No... death doesn't really upset me in the first place; it's just a natural part of life. Its one thing to miss someone, but to be upset about it is selfish, and it's even moreso to be more upset when mine dies vs. yours." All this brings me to my point for this post: Almost all americans were mortified over what happened on Sept 11 2001. And I certainly agree that it was a tragedy. However: these things happen around the world all the time. It is a massive display of arrogance that we (mostly) pay those things no mind but expect the world to share in our outrage when it actually happens to us. On a similar note, I've heard countless people say that we shouldn't be in iraq because of all the death. No, they want us out because of all the american deaths. Iraqis were dying (and worse, being tortured, oppressed, forced to watch family die, etc) before we got there. But, again, people here don't care about that because they aren't "our" people. All peoples are part of this earth, and it is as much our responsibility to try to take care of the people in iraq, france, north korea, england, russia, or kerblachistan as it is to take care of people in the United States. This is the same as the fact that it's our responsibility to reach out to those less fortunate (homeless, jobless, friendless, etc) regardless of whether or not we know them. Unfortunately, the american public will likely continue to ignore the problems of the world, claiming that they aren't our problems, and then express surprise and disgust when those problems eventually spill over onto our soil.