{"id":1186,"date":"2014-11-22T10:05:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.townehouse.net\/phoenix\/?p=1186"},"modified":"2014-11-22T10:05:58","modified_gmt":"2014-11-22T15:05:58","slug":"apathy-and-ignorance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1186","title":{"rendered":"Apathy and Ignorance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"apathy\"<\/a>You want to know what I think? Not that anybody cares what I think, but what I think is that one of the biggest issues we have in our great American Society is apathy. It just seems that people really don’t care about much outside their small circle of family and friends. The second biggest problem with our great American Society is ignorance. Most do not take the time to educate themselves about the issues or they don’t care. Of course, there is that third class of citizens who don’t take the time to educate them selves about the issues, but are very opinionated on the issues based on all the misinformation they have obtained from \u201creliable\u201d sources such as Facebook and the Comedy Channel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I have watched a number of \u201cMan on the Street\u201d interviews and am amazed at the lack of understanding of the issues that seems to be rampant in the American public. I realize that for the sake of the bit the interviews are edited in order to only show the most amusing, if apathy and ignorance are amusing, responses. Yet I can’t help but wonder if they have to work very hard to separate the apathetic and ignorant responses from the rest. People would rather criticize the opinions of others than to obtain an informed opinion of their own. The key word in that last sentence is \u201cinformed\u201d. Interestingly in today\u2019s digital world it is not at all difficult to become informed on a topic, should one want to take the time. It seems most do not.<\/p>\n

I noticed that frequently one will have an opinion, informed or uninformed as the case may be. The opinion takes on a life of its own and the owner of the opinion would rather fight over their opinion than to take the time to listen to what the other side has to say. Fox news listeners, the pundits on CNN just might have something valid to say. Do not dismiss them merely on the basis of their liberalism. MSNBC listeners, the Fox News pundits just may have something valuable to say. Do not dismiss them merely on the basis of their conservatism.<\/p>\n

The Townehouse Phoenix represents a small microcosm of society but illustrates my point. The Phoenix currently has 153 articles on-line, of varying topics. In each and every blog article I invite the readers to comment and share. Current statistics are that the blog articles have been viewed 11,566 times yet only commented on 370 times. This translates to less than three percent of the readers motivated by the topics enough to be willing to talk about them. Of course I recognize that my articles may not be that interesting and do not generate comment. That is a possibility,, but feed back I have received on the blog has mostly been positive so there is an equal chance that this is not the case. So the question is, if you are not interested enough to comment on what you read here, what else are you not interested in enough to take a stand?<\/p>\n

Ask around in your communities, your circles, your locales. Ask people what they think of the issues such as ISIS, or the global or national or local economies, or immigration, or veteran affairs, or crime trends, or the Bengals. I think you may find that we are not apathetic or ignorant about our sports teams, but all the rest, pretty much so. I can only suggest when you see something that you are unfamiliar with, jump on over to Google and do some research. Read as much, from as many varying sources, as you can. Become informed first, then comment. If nothing else, get involved emotionally. Take a stance, have an informed opinion. Above all, start to care. This great nation cannot stay great if we stop caring.<\/p>\n

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?<\/p>\n

Feel free to comment, disagree, share and subscribe. Thank you for patronizing the Townehouse Phoenix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You want to know what I think? Not that anybody cares what I think, but what I think is that one of the biggest issues we have in our great American Society is apathy. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_daextrevo_audio_file_creation_date":"","_daextrevo_text_to_speech":"","_daextrevo_document_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,21,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-opinion","category-rants"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/THFI.png?fit=214%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":252,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=252","url_meta":{"origin":1186,"position":0},"title":"On Responsible Voting","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 10, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The election is over. the polls have closed, speeches have been made and concessions granted. No more political ads, no more political signs. It is finally all over. Some folks are happy, some are not. We no longer have to listen to a barrage of political ads, political news, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/decision-making-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1189,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1189","url_meta":{"origin":1186,"position":1},"title":"Racial Disharmony","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"After my rant last Friday on \u201cApathy and Ignorance\u201d, I thought I could put my soapbox away for a while. That is what I thought, but I was wrong. Let me set the scenario for you. On Sunday I attended Sunday morning mass at a small church on the eastern\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"race","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/race-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14163,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=14163","url_meta":{"origin":1186,"position":2},"title":"Lady Liberty is Crying!","author":"Tom Lind","date":"July 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"As I sit here pondering the current state of our nation, it saddens me to say that I have never seen it in such a dire state. As someone who loves and is a patriot of this country, it is becoming increasingly difficult to declare that I am proud to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/WeepingSOL.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11821,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=11821","url_meta":{"origin":1186,"position":3},"title":"The Weakening of America","author":"Tom Lind","date":"October 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Society is growing weak and ineffectual. It is not because we are not working out. It is not because the children play video games more than active sports. It is not even because we feed our children food laden with trans fats. We are becoming a weak nation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/right-way-sign.jpg?fit=720%2C475&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/right-way-sign.jpg?fit=720%2C475&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/right-way-sign.jpg?fit=720%2C475&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/right-way-sign.jpg?fit=720%2C475&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1173,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=1173","url_meta":{"origin":1186,"position":4},"title":"Asset Forfeiture Primer","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 14, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Recently there was a flurry of comments on a Facebook debate regarding the merits of Asset Forfeiture, presumably both civil and criminal. Since I am very familiar with the debaters I felt compelled to attempt to educate them in what asset forfeiture is all about and hopefully dispel some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"facebook_debate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/facebook_debate-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37,"url":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?p=37","url_meta":{"origin":1186,"position":5},"title":"Homeless Veterans, Our Nation’s Shame","author":"Tom Lind","date":"November 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"How is it possible that the word homeless can be used to describe a Veteran's state of existence. How can we, as a nation, allow our veterans to come home and then abandon them. Don't they deserve a little extra attention. After all, these are the men and women who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Commentary","link":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gty_veteran_dm_120320_wblog.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gty_veteran_dm_120320_wblog.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gty_veteran_dm_120320_wblog.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/townehouse.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/gty_veteran_dm_120320_wblog.jpg?fit=720%2C405&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p38YRh-j8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townehouse.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}