Collective Outrage

Dean Obeidallah:

But here’s the thing: Why not also unleash our collective fury over issues more meaningful than just a comedian’s joke or a celebrity’s tweet? I’m not suggesting we ignore those — because even if I did, no one would listen. But in addition to those, take a moment to express your powerful outrage over issues that might tangibly benefit your life and the lives of others.

Let’s get collectively angry that every nine seconds, a woman in the United States is assaulted or beaten. And let’s get even angrier that three women a day in the United States are killed by domestic violence attacks.

Let’s get really pissed that 22% of American children are living in poverty. And please save some (actually a lot) of outrage for Congress, which has become the political equivalent of Lindsay Lohan: We only see it in media coverage doing bad things.

Sure, go ahead and be outraged over Joan Rivers’ and Seth MacFarlane’s jokes if you must, but let’s show some anger about the fact that almost 10,000 Americans died in gun violence last year and still Congress hasn’t passed a universal background check to ensure that criminals and mentally ill people can’t legally buy guns.

So let’s collectively tweet away about the issues that outrage us, be they stupid comments or Syria, comedians’ jokes or the growing income inequality in America. But please don’t just reserve all your outrage for celebrities. They simply aren’t worthy of it.