My bubble

As far as current events go, I live life in a bubble.  My dear husband continually admonishes me to read the news, watch the news, stay current on events around the world, etc.

But I don't.

I tried once. I read some news articles that led me to the testimony in a murder case. It was a child abuse situation that led to a two year old's death.

Reading that transcript broke my heart.

I was shaken. Disturbed. Questioned why in the world God would allow the mother of a child to be so enamored with a boyfriend and emotionally distant from her flesh and blood that she could be convinced to beat her child - repeatedly - for a solid day. To continue beating that child when she looked at her mommy and said, "I love you, Mommy." To literally kill and allow her child to be killed in front of her eyes.

It still disturbs me.

I like my bubble.

I'm naive in my bubble.

It's safe here.

Here in my bubble I don't have to acknowledge that these types of horrible things occur. Or if they're acknowledged, I rationalize it away by saying, "But that's [insert location here], not here. Things aren't like that here."

Sad to say, but that's my attitude. Even though deep down, I know things are like that here. Things are like that everywhere.

That knowledge messes with my sense of fairness.

It's not fair that a child would be beaten to death by its parent.
It's not fair that somebody can get their hands on sensitive documents and leak them to WikiLeaks. And it boggles my mind that no one can seem to stop them.
It's not fair that innocent lives are being taken by their own parents through abortions.

A lot of things aren't fair. And thinking about those things makes me mad.

Very mad.

And then I think that I need to be doing something about it. And that overwhelms me. What to do? What can I do? What can one person do?

I feel helpless. Powerless. But still angry because my sense of fairness is getting messed with something fierce.

So it's just easier on my emotions to live in ignorance and stay in my bubble.

But I wasn't called to live in a bubble.

I read a post not too long ago about chocolate.  One might think that would be a good thing for me, right?

Not so.

Apparently, the majority of the industry is flawed, deeply flawed.  And uses child labor to work the cocoa farms. Read more about some of the injustices at the Mama Manifesto blog post.

Who knew?

I had no idea. Did you?

I may never look at chocolate the same again. And since I'm a self proclaimed chocolate lover and am quite addicted to the stuff, that's saying quite a bit.

This is just another reason that I like my bubble.

With knowledge, I feel the urge to act. To react. To do something.

But what?

Apparently, this site has a list of free trade system vendors that ensure proper labor practices are being utilized. Check it out.