The sequence of news headlines on my home page this morning was almost too ironic. The first line stated “London Blasts Were Seconds Apart.” “50 Cent Is ‘Outta Control’” read the second. Wait, what?

In the wake of another devastating, world-threatening terrorist attack, our national media hasn’t skipped a beat with informing us about the things we obviously care about most: The London bombings, Hurricane Dennis and Lindsay Lohan.

It should only take a glance at a Web page like this to realize how out of wack our culture’s priorities can be. America’s consciousness, absorbed with celebrity, wealth, team sports and comic-book superheroes, isn’t ignorant of the danger and importance of many of the issues emerging today. It just chooses to deny it.

And why not? Apathy is much easier than worry, and definitely simpler than activism.

Why not buy a huge, gas-guzzling automobile and drive it aimlessly around town? Why not spend hours watching other people live their lives on television, or spend paychecks on things that someone else tells us will make us desirable and happy? Why not keep the shades pulled over our eyes?

Because blindly going about our lives gives us no control of them and no sense of reality.

We are at a time in history when our way of life is being threatened from many angles. We have terrorists who will not give up; deadly, contagious diseases are consuming continents; and an appetite for the kind of instant gratification and breezy lifestyle that cannot be satisfied by concerning ourselves with these causes. Without curiosity about the world that is beyond our televisions and schedules, we are all but helpless to go beyond them.

That is why organizations had to practically pummel people into voting in last year’s presidential elections. That is why for years, American citizens were ignorant about many of history’s greatest travesties; such as the death camps in Bosnia during the early ‘90s and the horrors of the Holocaust in World War II. That is why NIU students did not react when they discovered they were being deceived and shortchanged by administrators over this year’s summer commencement. It is why the armed forces are so eager to recruit new members and ship them off to fight, but barely prepared to help them adjust when they return home. It is why people all over the world have casual sex without using condoms. It is why, of the few channels we have here at NIU, one of them has to be E! News. It is why some of you won’t bother to read this column.

My goal in writing columns for this past year has been to try and uproot this apathetic attitude from at least some people’s psyches. Even if you did not agree with some of the things I have said, I hope you at least thought about them. As my last column to you all, I leave you with these words from my hero, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.