When prayer isn’t enough, screams sound like a whisper

It’s hard to watch or read the news right now — there’s violence in the Middle East, unrest in Asia, and our witless leader is more concerned about [what’s for dinner](http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060713/od_nm/germany_pig_dc) than the condition of our world. It’s difficult to take it all in, overwhelming to process. It makes me think about property prices in Canada, Ireland, or New Zealand, for sure, but it also overwhelms me with fear.

I’ve got questions: are we seeing the birth of World War III? How long will this last? How will we get through this? Will we get through this unscathed?

It doesn’t help that the Sci Fi channel is airing reruns of [Dark Angel](http://www.scifi.com/darkangel/), which get me to pondering how to survive an electomagnetic pulse (EMP). I know, I know, it’s science _fiction_, but it’s also got a prescient ring to it.

The escapist part of me wants to turn the news off, pay attention to only local events and the occasional celebrity fluff piece (is Tom Cruise’s and Katie Holmes’ baby actually _real_? IS IT??), but I’m drawn to current events around the world. It’s like touching a sore tooth with your tongue — it’s painful, but unavoidable.

Question is, what the hell am I as Jane Q. Public, everyday citizen, supposed to do? How do any of us, as ordinary people, change the present? I go about my day as anyone else would, working and living my ordinary life, and pray for a change. I’ve come to the point where I’m thinking that prayer just isn’t enough. What comes after prayer and faith that the world will right itself?

Waiting for November 2008 is passive — change needs to come before 2008. I’m tired of being ashamed by my nation’s leadership. I’ve had enough of divisive wedge issues like the condemnation of stem cell research and gay marriage. Denying rights and hobbling scientific advances aren’t things that the general public are interested in doing, yet these issues have been shoved down our throats as the rest of the world explodes around us. Nero fiddles while the _world_ burns.

Fatalities stack upon casualties. You can almost smell the death, and yet we’re all still here, still watching American Idol, still eating twinkies and making trips to WalMart to save on chips and detergent. What else can we do? How can we make ourselves heard above the screaming? I don’t have the answer, but I can safely say that I’m tired of feeling helpless and ineffectual.