Its 6:30 AM and I’m headed to the Oakland Airport for my weekend home. My shuttle driver and I sit in the car in awkward silence-it is way to early for me to be peppy and social. Breaking the silence is the broadcasted radio, and as soon as I hear to  words Tsunami warning I tune in. In the hour trip that I make to the airport, I hear about warnings for the Bay Area and for other coastal cities for a rise in sea level and small Tsunami waves hitting the Islands of Hawaii. Two feet rise in sea level? No big deal. Hawaii. Fine. In an incredibly self-absorbed and naïve way, I brush off the news and go back to Kid Cudi on my iPod.

What I did this morning is exactly what Todd Carrel warned my journalism class about the other day as a guest lecturer never to do. In his opinion, “our culture is in steep decline, you are losing, you are losers.” What does he equate this loser attitude to? To American’s false belief that we are at the center and are the most important source for news. Sitting in lecture I was inspired by his passionate encouragement to understand the world in relation to other people and other cultures, for then, and only then, will our thinking by “cultivated,” expanded, and useful.

And yet how I reacted to the news today was in no way respecting the people in other cultures and places around me. I confess to my self-loving attitude, for arriving at the Oakland airport and seeing the devastation in Japan on CNN news was heartbreaking. Huddled around the television with thirty other people it became apparent that I was not the only one who suffered from selfishness, for it was almost as if people were just watching the breaking news of the 8.9 earthquake in Japan as a spectacle. There seemed to be no compassion, and yet could there ever be enough compassion to help those victims of the March 11 tsunami. How much more would we think about the devastation oversees than our comment of “That’s horrible.” Not knowing these people around me, not knowing how each of us related to the images that we saw aired, I couldn’t help but wonder how long this sympathy would last. Probably until we board our flight to our next life destination.

[On a side note: the man next to me just used the word evacuate to describe a trip him and his wife were taking to Las Vegas. How insensitive could someone be when people are being forced to leave their homes because of a catastrophe? He too suffers from self-centeredness and a naïve response to the world.]

Why do we care about the latest interview with Charlie Sheen that will air in a couple hours or San Francisco “Hike Through History” when 7,000 miles away people are suffering and are in the midst of a horrific disaster. Why would CNN be advertising for our “Weekend Getaway” when the images of water destroying land will be “right after this commercial break.” The women sitting next to me at the airport had the nerve to say that she was grateful to take a break from Charlie Sheen breaking news stories, as it to thank a catastrophe for giving her a different entertainment story. Stories of world politics and events should not just be a sidebar, should not be a spectacle for daily ingestion, but should become part of our daily effort to understand how we relate to people around us and to heal ourselves of the pandemic where “everybody loves themselves, all the time.”

This is where I join the bandwagon with Todd Carrel who dedicated his life to foreign coverage in Asia. Carrel advocated to “report with your feet,” to go, experience, and report to the world so that everyone may be informed, culture, and have a great respect for our world. This is a respect that goes beyond how an event might directly affect you and begins to understand how things affect others, showing a true concern for our world and actively engaging in it. I am not suggesting that we all become foreign correspondences and adopt the life of an investigative journalist. What I am suggesting is that we think more about others, pan out from the focus of our small insignificant lives, and learn to seek after knowledge of foreign people, places, and events. I want to be “hungry for learning” in the words of Carrel and find a way in which the world relates to my life as a Berkeley college student. I want to hear a news story about local coverage and investigate on the greater issues, go beyond just being concerned with how this will affect my plans for the day and whether or not I will be inconvenienced. I need to stop being selfish and start being passionate about the world around me.

But who am I to tell you how to act, how to respond to a catastrophe, and how to interact with the world? I do not have any power to force people from being selfish and to open their eyes. Maybe if you personally heard Todd Carrel speak you would feel as convicted as I do and start caring about things besides what affects you personally. Or another idea, turn on the news and see first hand the images of those in hardships. Don’t just turn your back to something because it is happening outside your own county; educate yourself and strive for a life of cultivating thinking, compassion, and respect.

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