You can't quietly wipe out an entire tent city, then watch It's a Wonderful Life on TV

Josh and I rented Crash tonight, which was truly eye-opening and aw-inspiring in more ways than one.

I remember a conversation I had with Jean v. W. a few months ago after I finished reading We Are All the Same, a novel about the African Apartheid and AIDS epidemic. I was completely outraged that this problem was not being fixed. The casualties by disease in Africa are exponentially greater than those by war in the Middle East. How could we let so many innocent people simply die?

Jean stared back at me and, with a straight face, replied, "It's in their blood." In Swaziland, 33.4% of adults are HIV positive. You can't just tell an entire, poverty-stricken country to stop pro-creating. It's in their blood.

And that reminds me of the movie we just watched. Is there no way to change a way of life? How can we rid ourselves of the prejudices that we all secretly hold in the back of our minds? You can't quietly wipe out an entire tent city, then watch It's a Wonderful Life on t.v..