Sure, it was sad to see that homeless man in Boston, but how about 22,000 children dying each day from poverty? Many teens these days aren’t aware of the big picture when it comes to problems.

The United Nations established 8 Millennium Developmental Goals at the 2010 summit. These goals tackled world issues and the target for completion is 2015.

One goal is to cut the number of underweight children in half. If trends continue as they have, that goal will be missed by 30 million children.

If we, as young adults, don’t know what’s going on, who’s going to fix these problems when we’re running the country? Students don’t realize that there are billions of people out there who are grateful to simply be living another day.

A head start on awareness of poverty, starvation, the lack of clean water, and other huge problems will better prepare us for fixing them.

Remember the movie Slumdog Millionaire? All the gore and awful conditions were not only accurate, but are still relevant today in India and other parts of the world.

Kids these days do not spend enough time reading through a newspaper or reading online about what’s going on in the world. This ignorance is part of the problem with adverse global conditions.

[youtube www.youtube.com/embed/A92SEY0MWKg]

You can’t deny that the FHS students in this video are an accurate representation of the majority of the student body. You aren’t a bad person for being unaware, you’re simply not living up to your potential. Open up your eyes and make yourself a knowledgeable part of the global community.

To be honest, I myself had no idea that conditions in the world today could be so bad. In America and further in Franklin, MA, everyone can read and everyone has clean water. But all the energy we put into posting on Facebook could go towards supporting poor countries.

We, as teens, will be thrown into the real world very soon so we have to know what’s going on. Hearing 5 minutes of CNN or NBC does not count as an attempt to better acquaint yourself with the rest of the world.

I realize there’s an attitude that we don’t need to worry about “adult world” problems, but we are so close to adulthood that just starting to read news as a senior in high school won’t be enough.

Take 20-30 minutes every day to check out an online news source like BBC or turn on a news channel. Even better, look up organizations that support causes you feel strongly about. Click on some of the links in this article.

Then, the best thing to do is spread the word. Sure running around the library telling people 10 million kids under the age of 5 died in 2003 puts a damper on your Thursday afternoon, but it doesn’t have to be so negative.

Spread the word on what can be done and how it can be done. Offer a sad statistic and then give a positive outlook.

Yes, making a difference in the world is a lofty goal, but it all starts with a whisper.

Help out those kids who are drinking dirty water and those adults who can’t read a book in the 21^st century; your Twitter followers can wait.