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Too much apathy

Re: Robert Dodge’s column April 17, “Time to stop wasting tax money on nukes”:

Thank you for including Robert Dodge’s invigorating piece about nuclear weapons and the local community’s involvement.

Walk around Oxnard, at random find 10 people, ask them what they know about the nuclear threat, and the conversations may be confounding. There is much indifference in the world. Are we strong enough to accept that through scoffing and turning away, we propagate the ruling of this very same apathy?

One uses worn-out expressions, like “ignorance is bliss,” and allows an advance of a personal agenda brought about by selfishness. This phenomenon shields concerns about the world from us, and our personal successes make it all right at the end of the week.

How does it affect us that there is a civil war in a country an entire ocean away? How does it affect us to lose species and diversity? Why does knowing or not knowing these answers affect us?

Inaction is not single-handedly powered by ignorance, though the human condition is too complex.

Dodge reports: “For the 2015 tax year, the U.S. will spend $55.9 billion on nuclear weapons programs. Ventura County, with a population of 850,536 and average per capita income of $33,308, will spend $155,321,482.10 as our share for these nuclear weapons programs.”

Indifference is not free, it is bought. Voting happens outside of pen and paper; voting happens every time funds are reallocated. With every transaction, a decision is made to support a consumption that does not nurture us. Dodge was able to bring it home for us.

We are looking at the receipt, and looking at what we’ve bought, and now asking, What exactly did we buy here?

Christian Agüero Quirino, Oxnard