This afternoon I brought my car to a Quick Lube to get inspected and get an oil change. In the waiting room I scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed, consuming statuses, headlines, images, and articles about recent violent attacks suspected to be carried out by ISIS in Beirut, Lebanon, and Paris, France. I often struggle in the shadow of emotionally charged news stories about violence, hate crimes, acts of terror, high profile court cases with potentially devastating effects, and protests, deciding whether or not to post on social media.
"Should I repost this article? Should I make a Facebook status or change my profile photo to show solidarity? "
I often opt to stay quiet. To me, in my life, I don’t feel a Facebook status determines my level of compassion, commitment, or solidarity to a cause. I typically (though not always) feel this type of action is not “productive” or meaningful coming from me. Often I avoid posting because I feel the only real objective it would achieve is to make me appear committed. There are days I hang my head in shame, alone in my room, knowing that I can and should do more in my daily life to work towards a more just world. Posting, it seems, would only serve to take the pressure off myself to live, in the real world, in service to justice for as many people as possible.
But, still, sitting in the Quick Lube today, I wanted to do something. My head was buzzing, making links to terror on US soil to these foreign attacks, making links to acts of terror in my own community, and what we even identify as an act of terror. As I was wrestling with these ideas I began reading an article about the bombing in Beirut that had occurred the day before the Paris attacks. The article not only chronicled the events, but addressed discrepancies between how media covered that event and the events in Paris the following day. One woman wondered, “Dear Facebook: Nice French flag overlay. But how do I change my profile picture to show solidarity with the people of Beirut?”
