Eloquent words from CBC broadcaster

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/02/2022 (935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I went to bed early the night Russia invaded Ukraine. I was so tired, but I couldn’t sleep.

I grabbed my phone, even though I knew scrolling through the madness of the internet wouldn’t help me sleep. I checked social media and saw tweet after tweet about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. It was unbearable, yet I couldn’t look away. I kept scrolling through all the pictures, first-hand accounts, news stories, opinions, videos and headlines — so many headlines. An invasion was happening in real time before our eyes, but my eyes were watching it on a screen in the safety of my home, far away from the terror.

I kept watching that night and the next day, and when it became too much, I put my phone down and stopped thinking about it for a while by busying myself with other things.

On Thursday evening, I saw a tweet by former Free Press reporter Temur Durrani. He posted an audio clip of CBC journalist Carol Off on the eve of her last show with CBC Radio’s As It Happens. In the clip, which is just over a minute long, Off speaks about bearing witness to the struggles of others and staying engaged in the world and the issues people need us, as a society, to be engaged in. The clip was from a segment with Matt Galloway that aired on Feb. 18. Off was speaking about why people should stay engaged with the news. Her words were eloquent and meaningful, and she described exactly what I and probably so many other people needed to hear in that moment.

“So many people I know, they say, ‘You know, I’d like to get more involved, but I can’t read the paper, it just makes me so crazy. I don’t want to listen to this. Honestly Carol, I’m not paying attention anymore because I just have to take care of myself.’ And I’m thinking that is the ultimate act of privilege, that if you decide to check out — and I totally understand self-care and finding a place where you just can’t listen anymore, but if you have the ability to check out, it’s because you have nothing at stake. You know you are not running for your life. You are not about to be arrested. You are not in trouble. You are not in a line. You’re not about to lose your house. You’re not about to lose your job. You are in a position of privilege where you are able to do that. And so I urge gently to people I know, don’t do that. Just stay engaged. Stay there. Stay there in the world, don’t leave it. Not because you need to be there, but because other people need you to be there.”

I struggle to find the words or even understand the entirety of what’s happening in Ukraine. It is overwhelming and scary, and it’s easy to want to check out or stop paying attention. But we shouldn’t, because the people who are hurting and who don’t have the privilege to check out need us to be engaged and need us to care.

The clip ended with Off saying, “Just bear witness to the struggle of others. That’s as much as the world can ask of you.”

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter @ShelleyACook