That was a comment to one of the many, many posts I've read about the travesty of justice in the Trayvon Martin murder case since I arrived home this evening.
And I wish that were the case, but it's not, folks.
Hoping the world riots and sets itself on fire over what happened to Trayvon Martin is pointless. It won't. People will rage for a few days, sign a few online petitions, maybe write their senators or the President, and then they'll forget that a white man shot an unarmed black kid for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Americans just don't give enough of a damn about others anymore to care. If we did, we'd be rioting about food, social welfare, and the economy. We aren't.
Here are some of the other things that tell me Americans just don't give enough of a damn about others anymore to care:
1. A black woman fired a warning shot in Florida to scare off her husband, whom she felt was threatening her. She received 20 years in prison for a warning shot. Apparently "stand your ground" only applies to racist white guys who try to (or succeed in) shooting black kids.
2. Programs that would help the poor and needy are being systematically stripped out of government, while the poor and needy are being told they are lazy, unmotivated, useless, and a drain on the economy. The non-poor and non-needy (increasingly few) are being told how lazy, unmotivated, useless, and draining to the economy the poor and needy are, and they are believing it because they need someone to blame for their privileged discomfort at having to know that there even are poor and needy.
At the same time, corporations pay no taxes, ship jobs overseas, scoop profit and value out of the income stream and move it offshore to keep it from their workers, and do everything they can to pass more "business-friendly" (which means worker-unfriendly) laws and statutes so they can continue to get away with it.
3. Women in Texas were just stripped of necessary medical care, abortion procedure coverage, and other important protections by a vote taken after a legal filibuster should have sent it away for the entire legislative session.
4. Student loan debtors were just saddled with another $1000 per year in debt as their interest rates were doubled by a do-nothing Congress. Most current college graduates - myself, my students - graduate saddled with debt that cannot be bankrupted and which will keep us from ever buying a home or establishing other necessary markers of responsible American adulthood: investments, vacations, retirement.
5. Food, gas, and home prices are skyrocketing at the same time that employment opportunities are shrinking.
6. Americans are getting more degrees, and at the same time they are getting stupider. Education in this country is a joke. It is no longer funded, it is monetized and for-profit, and it's frankly worthless.
These things are happening, and nobody is having a revolution. Marx was wrong. Human beings are too apathetic to give a damn.
Where are the food riots? Where are the debt riots? Where are the strikes against the corporations? Where are the boycotts? Where are any of the activities that might change things?
I don't see them.
That tells me that Trayvon is just today's news, and in two weeks nobody will care anymore. There'll be a new crisis, a new cause, a new murder, a new scandal.
It sucks, and it's wrong, and it's disgusting, but that's still the way it is.