Those baby books aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. If you’re expecting a child, reading a ton of books on how to be a better parent isn’t really going to improve your parental abilities that much.

Sure, a few tips here and there, may be something you can try out, but in the grand scheme of things, these books are not making or breaking your ability to raise a child. However, just the fact that you actually went out and bought this book because you want to be a better parent signals that you are, in fact, probably going to be a good parent, mainly because you cared enough to try. It’s all about caring, and caring is something we’ve seemed to have lost.

A few weeks ago, Christopher Lane, an Australian baseball player at East Central University in Oklahoma was shot in the back while jogging near his girlfriend’s house. Police say that the three teens charged first degree murder, ages 15, 16 and 17, did it because they were “bored,” according to what the police chief said one of the boys told the investigator.

Lane’s case is troubling, not only because of the loss of life, but for the sheer motive behind it. Boredom isn’t an excuse to take a life. Have values deteriorated so much that the only way to break up the monotony of a hot summer day is to kill at random? The attitude of not caring is destroying us, and I’m not sure there’s any amount of legislation that can be passed to force people to care.

Here at Eastern, something I’m often surprised by is how many of my classes give me credit just for showing up. Sure, it’s an easy way for me to boost my grade, and I’m thankful for it, but wouldn’t my grade get boosted regardless if I just went to class every day? I always found it strange that I was pretty much getting credit for doing something I was supposed to be doing: going to college. Isn’t what we’re at college for anyway? Shouldn’t we care enough about our education that going to class is just something we do?

On Tuesday, Senator John McCain admitted to playing video poker on his iPhone during the Congressional hearing on the possible use of military force in Syria after being caught by a Washington Post photographer.

McCain was unapologetic on Twitter, saying he got bored during the three-hour meeting. But this isn’t just any three-hour meeting. This is a three-hour meeting deciding on whether or not another country should be bombed. With polls already showing much of the nation not in favor of American intervention in Syria, how are Americans supposed to take this seriously when our elected government can’t even seem to?

I know McCain doesn’t represent all of us, not all Eastern classes give credit for just showing up, and not all people kill people because they’re bored. I know not all of us don’t care, but I think more of us need to start caring.

Dominic Renzetti is a senior family and consumer sciences major. He can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected]