Thanks, I Think I'll Reserve My Sympathy

I've been greeted with shock in the last 24 hours over my lack of...well...horror...over the death of Heath Ledger. A 28 year old man who had made it big in Hollywood. A man my age, who died in some unknown fashion. A man who had every resource, every outlet, every ability to reach out and get help for whatever demons he was dealing with.

I can't bring myself to apologize for this lack of response right now. I have a hard time watching young Hollywood drink themselves/drug themselves/overindulge themselves to death, all the while having the American public expressing more shock and horror over every emerging celebrity downfall with more emotion than they show toward the emerging situation in say...Darfur. Or Somalia. Or Iraq, to name a few.

What makes it even more difficult to feel great empathy in this situation is the fact that I have 2.5 months to figure how to be an advocate for someone who actually needs empathy and attention. That person being my client. Who fled from Rwanda. Whose entire family was slaughtered. Who is looking to me to help her remain in a country where her life is no longer in danger. Who does not have any other options other than law students fighting tooth and nail for her asylum.

I do feel sadness for the family of Heath Ledger. And for the passing of someone who is as young as he was. But frankly, I cannot emote the same sadness and despair for this person as I do for the 276 people (yes, that's a real number) and their families who were killed, captured or wounded in Iraq in the past three days, or the estimated 500 people killed in Darfur every day, or the 750,000+ people killed in Rwanda in three short months between April and July of 1994.

Does that make me insensitive, perhaps. But I will not apologize for that.