Angie Otterbein
and Marissa Stevens
Contributors
“Don’t read newspapers.” This was the oft-repeated message journalist and activist Keith Harmon Snow had for a packed auditorium of City College students at Saville Theater Wednesday afternoon.
Snow’s multimedia presentation, “Consciousness and Responsibility in the Age of Genocide and Propaganda” urged everyone to question everything.
All topics discussed revolved around the questions: What is a person’s place in the world? What is compassion? What do people believe and why? What is truth?
During the lecture Snow discussed the people of the Congo and the hardships they face by living in a land rich in raw materials such as diamonds and titanium, often being forced from their homes into refugee camps so that people in the industrialized world can enjoy products such as cell phones.
Snow also touched on American charities that are set up as money-making corporations with those in need being marketed as a product. He cited C.A.R.E., an international humanitarian organization funded by Lockheed Martin, which is the United States’ main producer of bombs, missiles and other wartime munitions.
Snow encouraged those in the audience to become more aware of what is going on in the world and to take part in fighting for justice.
“A fish doesn’t know water until it discovers air,” said Snow in an attempt to challenge listeners to become more deliberate in their thinking.
Still, Snow warns people to be wary of where their information comes from. As an independent journalist, he insisted the audience not read the newspaper.
According to Snow, every widely published newspaper has interests behind them, interests with enough money to decide what can and cannot be placed in a newspaper, censoring people from the actual truth.
“Don’t read newspapers. You are just contributing to your own mental illness,” said Snow.
Instead Snow urged people to gain information from books like “The Road To Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity” by Michael Maren. He also recommended books by Thoreau and Tolstoy.
Adamant that citizens, not only think of issues in the world, but act out responsibly in accordance, Snow impels people to do what is right even though the act may go unnoticed.
“Often there is anger behind sadness and it is appropriate to be angry, but how do you manifest or take action?” asked Snow, “Let your feeling rise and realize you are a person with power.”
More information on Keith Harmon Snow can be found on his website, www.allthingspass.com
