childish behavior

this morning on the way to work
the topic on npr turned
as it has on so many mornings
to what's going on in gaza

and almost without thinking
i flipped the radio to the sports station
and chose instead to listen to right-wing
idiots
talk about football

and i get to thinking
what is it about this that bores me so
why is the suffering of these two peoples
so tiresome
why do other tragedies provoke sadness
while this one causes me to change the channel

and in more ways than one
it has ever been so
when i was a kid and my parents were watching the news
nerd that i was
i paid attention to some parts of it
[the parts with airplanes]
but when the topic so often turned
to funny words like 'arafat'
the eight-year-old me's eyes kinda glazed over
and went back to playing with transformers

and maybe that's the best way to sum up
how sad it is that people are still blowing each other up over there

an entire generation of the rest of the world has grown up
never knowing them to not be blowing each other up
[more or less]
and isn't surprised to see them continue to do so

i should care

but i don't