We live in a world where a girl is given an execution for stealing a piece of corn. She is not given a trial, or even a chance for retribution.  She is not given a seventh year of life. Instead, she gets to be beaten with a classroom pointer; she gets to be murdered in front of her unaffected kindergarten classmates and a brief page in another’s biography.

 

             Today, #KimJongUn was “trending” on twitter. The topic was a basis for many attempts at humor voiced in 140 characters or less. But why is there a response to the execution of a member of a family of ruthless dictators used a root for jokes such as “If Kim Jong Un didn’t want his uncle to show up for Christmas Dinner, all he had to do was say so. #KimJongUn” or “A little extreme isn’t it #KimJongUn? When my Uncle becomes unruly at a party we just cut him off and call him a taxi.” why is it acceptable to mock the life and murder of any human being, yet ignore another’s?

 

            Over one hundred thousand people are imprisoned in North Korean prison camps (http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/05/21768325-north-korea-expands-prison-camp-where-inmates-dig-own-graves-amnesty-international). The existence of these camps is denied by North Korean officials; however consistent accounts from former prisoners and satellite images disprove this.  There are many organizations devoted to the liberation of North Korean war prisoners, but they still exist. People there are still suffering and will continue to do so for the rest of their lives. The need for power and control should never be allowed to corrupt another’s life. What will we tell our children and our children’s children when they are our age? Will we tell them that we were too frightened to act? War terrifies me, but the idea that people are forced to live in hell-holes like prison camps, while I am in a comfortable, warm home makes me more ashamed than I can say. War is never necessary or vindicated. The world needs to stop watching and help. Each and every human life is equal and everyone is justified to the same rights.  The world does not owe anything to the human race, but we, as humans, owe it to each other to coexist as one.  

 

            Some may think that we need to “fix” the United States before we rush of to help another country.  But, we don’t beat children to death over corn. Twelve year old boys don’t rat out their mothers, brothers, friends and even strangers over unjust laws. We don’t live in a culture where one hundred thousand people are forced to live in modern day concentration camps, without the cruel reprieve of death. Nonetheless, there are people who live this way. Freedom is a basic human need. Food, clean water, shelter warmth. All denied for the comfort and power of few at the expense of a massive amount of individuals.

 

            Our world is madness.