I believe that media has hardened our look on humanity and the struggles everyday people and places face. With movies and TV shows adding humor to otherwise horrible topics, we see them as something to joke about. Constantly in our CMR community I hear jokes about rape, slavery, sexism, religion, and at a time ebola, a disease that killed 11,315 people.

I understand that discussing these topics in a light manner helps us cope with what is actually happening, but I don’t understand how anyone can laugh about the deaths of thousands of people.

I have had first-hand experience with this topic where I have had to restrain myself from asking people to stop laughing and joking about serious topics. I have had a family member affected by the inhumane crime called rape. Yet I walk through our halls and hear some girl yelling, “RAPE,” as a practical joke when her friend was tickling her. Her friend’s reply? “It’s not rape if you like it.”

Hearing this sickens me. I feel like people don’t think about the impact of their words and actions. We may feel that our voice is not heard or what we say doesn’t matter just because we are in high school, but we are heard. What we do does have an impact on others.