Why I Am Paying Attention - Voices of MWEG

I’ll be honest — I haven’t always paid attention to what was happening in the world. There was a time when I didn’t care much about what was happening in politics or on the news. I was focused on my own life. What was happening in the White House or on the five o’clock news didn’t seem to affect me very much.

There was a time when I would use the same excuses I hear many people using today: The news is too negative. Politics are a joke. The media is a mess. There’s nothing I can do to change any of it, anyway. I don’t have time for any of that. I don’t understand that stuff. I just need to focus on my own family and the people in my life.

I am paying attention now. And I am pleading with you to pay attention, too.

Why am I paying attention?

I am paying attention because truth matters to me. A lot.

I am paying attention because I love my country deeply. I care about America’s past, present, and future.

I am paying attention because I don’t want one news channel or one political party or one person to dictate what I think or what I believe or how I vote.

I am paying attention because I feel a moral obligation to be aware of what is happening and to do something when I see things happening that are not OK.

I am paying attention because it is my duty to be an informed voter and an engaged citizen.

I am paying attention because God blessed me with a brain, and he expects me to use it. I choose to use my own critical thinking skills rather than depend on others to tell me what to think.

I am paying attention because there are corrupt people who are trying to deceive us. I don’t want to be deceived.

I am paying attention because I understand that even if my life is not directly affected by certain policies, other people’s lives may be drastically affected. And if I truly believe in loving my neighbor, I should care if others are being oppressed or treated unfairly.

I am paying attention because I do not want to be complacent.

Paying attention is not the same as liking or sharing internet memes or listening to angry voices shouting on social media. Paying attention requires a little extra time and effort, but it doesn’t require a lot. It means listening to and reading from a variety of reputable sources, and especially going to primary sources, which are readily available to us in this digital age. It means not automatically believing everything we see or hear, but also not automatically dismissing what we see or hear because we distrust “the media.”

Does paying attention mean I must spend hours each day caught up in the news cycle? No. I don’t spend hours each day with the news, and I stay away from cable news channels. I can pay attention without letting it consume me.

I can pay close attention to my family and the people around me and still pay attention to what is happening in the world outside of my home and community. In fact, one of the reasons I feel I must pay attention to the outside world is because I care so much about the people inside my world. It is their world, too, after all. It is the world my children are going to grow up in and raise their own children in someday.