THE VIEW FROM HERE: `Open Your Eyes. It’s Dark’

(PHOTO: HUMNEWS' Nina Guzman) By Nina Guzman

Open your eyes. It’s dark. The little amount of light around creates mysterious shadows that disguise reality. No one can be sure of what anything truly is. A simple silhouette could easily be imagined as a terrifying monster. A monster’s deep breaths could be misinterpreted as the sounds of the wind. A sort of panic sets in. You know it’s silly to worry about such a thing. Monsters aren’t real, or so you’ve been told. Everything just seems so different and hard to believe. How is it possible for anyone to know the truth about monsters when darkness conceals everything? America is set in a darkness similar to that of which the monsters live. Although the government and media control the amount of information that reaches the public, Americans need to see more in order to fully understand the world in which they live. It is important to look past this dark version that we have been fed and help everyone become aware of the different ways that everything can be seen.

The citizens of the United States live in a sheltered world. The government and the media work together keeping secrets and information that could potentially cause someone to see things differently from which are desired by our leaders. They believe that by keeping us in the “dark” from certain things, we will be a safer and more unified country. In part, this is true. If everyone were to see things the same way then there would be a whole lot less fighting in the world. But, no one will ever see things the same way. That’s what is so great about being your own person. You are allowed to have different views and interpret things however you choose to. Although you have this power of free will, being unaware of others will not be beneficial in the future. By becoming aware of what is happening to one another we can see things that we may not have understood in the past. This can help us grow and make better choices in the future.

Americans are fed information on one hundred and twenty one of the two hundred and thirty eight countries and territories in the world.  This means that nearly half of the world is being ignored and misrepresented. Everyone is determined to fight for world peace, but how are they supposed to achieve such a goal when they don’t even know that half of the countries on Earth even exist? News stations such as CNN, ABC, and NBC share stories solely about one half of the countries in the world. For example, people need to become aware that the children in Ethiopia aren’t the only ones starving but numerous other countries, such as Mauritania, are too. These news agencies are a start to where we can improve our futures. If they were to include all countries within their reports everyone could see the similarities that we all share. Arguments between races would end because they could see how alike they truly are. We are all humans that need to eat, sleep, and breathe, so in reality we have no reason to fight. No one is better than anyone else. It is hard for anyone to comprehend all of the desires across the planet when they don’t even know where millions of their fellow air-breathers live.

If schools were to teach children history about all of the countries instead of a select few, many things could be prevented. History can teach everyone enough to avoid making the same mistakes twice. Americans could become much more knowledgeable and well rounded by learning the cultures and traditions of new places, because with each country come new ideas, beliefs, and even languages. There are seven continents, two hundred and thirty eight countries, and over one thousand languages on the planet. American’s tend to think that the United States is the best country in the world and that we have nothing to change about ourselves or to learn from others. The truth is we aren’t the only country, and we can learn. We need to change the fact that we don’t know about certain nations like Malta, the Falkland Islands, or East Timor - because they can supply us with things, ideas and knowledge that we don’t have in our own country. No single nation can supply itself with everything it needs. We all need to work together whether it’s to ask Iran to help supply us with oil or Bulgaria to sell us iron, copper or steel.  

Americans are the one country in the world that does not seem to be making an effort to achieve this goal. Other people in other countries know multiple languages, including English, and are able to communicate with more people. Most Americans only know English. If we are supposed to be the best country in the world, than why are we lacking in meeting the other world nations half way? We can’t expect everyone else to make all the effort. A relationship is a two-way thing. We can’t just barge into another country and expect to take them over or tell them what to do. The current media and governmental bureaucracy that we learn our daily supply of information from is really just making our position in the world worse. News channels exaggerate mediocre stories in the same one hundred and twenty one countries they always talk about. They are lacking variety. If they paid more attention to the many ignored countries, and less attention to the well covered ones, they could create an equally balanced flow of news and information. We must learn to understand everyone’s ways of life. We can only learn to improve ourselves by observing others.

With every fact learned and every place visited - a new light becomes visible within our minds. We can step out of the darkness and finally see the reality. This light is shown across the mysterious silhouette in the shadows, quickly revealing that the imagined monster never actually existed, but was merely a ball of light. It also becomes clear that what was once thought to be the sound of a seemingly terrifying monster was actually the sounds of the seven billion people living on planet Earth with us. The ball of light can now grow bigger - helping everyone to see the big picture.  We all need to play our part in making the world a better place. And whether you’re a child in England or a grandparent in Tuvalu, you can learn something from every other human being. Knowledge can be found even in the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.

---Nina Guzman is a high school senior from Crystal Lake, Illinois; who spent part of her summer with the HUMNEWS’ team.  She hopes to study at college as a student in Fall, 2012.