The other day I was running north, where construction is, well, another story in itself. Unnervingly, every construction worker I passed appeared to be Latino. It’s the North Shore of Chicago, so I’d heard rumors of divisions between the wealthy and some struggling minorities. I guess I didn’t think it could be that potent.

And yet, passing a worker who looked younger than me – younger than me! – I felt intensely confused and saddened. I suppose being at NU, surrounded by active people, I thought we were a bunch of Nobel-Peace-Price-vying people. Wrong.

Sure, some of us are doing great things. But how do we sleep at night with our superficial concerns, when others in this area have greater concerns?

Maybe that trip to a third-world country to paint a schoolhouse or the other volunteering/vacationing combos we so covet don’t make us as great as we think they do. We have problems here that are pretty blatant – take a walk around downtown Evanston at night to see the homeless – and yet we sip our Starbucks and fret over college life while these major issues float around us.

I guess it’s just difficult for me to discern why people don’t seem more riled up about this. I hear about all these great things going on around campus, but it seems people pick and choose what’s more glamorous to get involved in.

I’m the na’ve one, I suppose. I’m the one buying soup and milk for the homeless lady shivering under an awning to avoid the rain. And no, I will not take the flippant “drug-user” excuse to not help a fellow being.

-JESSICA ALLENCampus Reporter