People have every right to be upset about a woman dying because legislation hadnt been put into law because it wasnt politically expedient. It’s obscene. The concept (and internet obsession) with comparing misery dicks is equally obscene. That being said a lot of people’s outrage over this whole debacle seems overdone or forced at best. There are lot’s of other preventable deaths taking place in Ireland that no-one talks about, that get no Dail protests, that people just basically dont give a shit about. The cynic in my suggests that its because they dont make for quite as good a news story. I’m not trying to condem or shame anyone, it’s all too easy to simply miss these things. But if you have found yourself stirred to action by this current case than I’d urge you to try and keep abreast of similar issues, dont shame yourself by indulging in “flavour of the week” activism.
If you’re wondering what I’m talking about here’s an example. A week ago a 22 year old woman froze to death on the streets of Tralee. I saw exactly 0 tweets or Facebook posts about. The lifespan of someone living rough on the streets is less than half of someone living in normal accomadation. The Simon community’s annual review shows that on averge 30-40 homeless people who they work with die each year, this figure isnt an accurate figure of the total number of deaths due to homelessness but its already pretty fucking shocking. Of course problems like homelessness have neither an easy enemey to blame nor a readily identifiable “silver bullet”. They’re complex problems which require people to think about them and contribute their time or money. Which is clearly not as attractive as a simple hashtag and some enjoyable moral outrage.
I hope this isnt preachy (but fear it is) and I dont want people to take this as an accusatory “Hey you cant care about that without caring about this!”, I meant it be illuminatory instead ;) (More “Hey you care about that, maybe you werent aware of and would be interested in caring about this?”