10 Tweets Say Exactly What Needs To Be Said About What Just Went Down In Pakistan
Oh, Earthlings. What are we doing?
Pakistan suffered a horrid tragedy: a school shooting perpetrated by extremist militants in the name of a verryyyyy extreme interpretation of "religious" dogma.
Just hearing about it, comedian Kumail Nanjiani (you've seen him on TV), himself a Muslim originally from Pakistan and now living in L.A., reacted.
What Nanjiani is doing is a truly great representation of what it's like to see people like you, or who you care about, or who could even be loved ones ... killed.
You'd feel mad. Sad. Confused. Helpless. Misrepresented. And eager to share some illuminating factoids. Lucky for us, Nanjiani did just that.
The things that people do in the name of the religion I grew up with is angering and sad and I feel hundreds of contradictory ways about it.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
#RealTalk #ReallyUpsetting
Must've missed that part of Sunday school where they said to kill children.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
This is the best part. In tragedies, I *always* admire those who call on us to walk in another's shoes.
The fact that it's kids who look different in a land far away makes folks not relate. Imagine how you'd feel if 120 white kids got murdered.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
While this was breaking news on Dec. 16, 2014 .... Twitter was oddly silent.
I hadn't heard about that school shooting yet. But 120 kids die in Pakistan & it's business as usual on here. As if nothing happened.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
In my opinion, there's a part of American culture that "just accepts" this kind of violence ... especially in places like Pakistan. We're immune to it because we view that violence as just so common.
Why are we unsurprised when certain cultures experience violence? Stereotypes we don't question and a lack of role models in the world who actively show us that extremes are exactly that: stereotypes.
One of the issues is that we don't have a public image of a moderate Muslim. We can imagine moderate Christians & non-practicing Jewish ppl.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
I'm sure we've all been judged based on a stereotype about us. I'm sure we've all been there when someone, some place, or some thing that we relate to gets judged based on a stereotype. It's frustrating, to say the very least.
When most people think of a Muslim, they think of a guy in flowing robes with a big beard & angry eyes. Muslims look all kinds of ways.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
What do you see when you imagine a Muslim man? Any stereotypes you'd like to check?
This is where knowledge is dropped.
Part of the problem is that many Muslim countries have strong blasphemy laws so any differing interpretation of Islam can be deemed illegal.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
And this is where I wonder why more news shows don't point this out.
The Pakistani government's reputation is so warped that it chose to come out and say that it doesn't support crimes like this attack on schoolchildren.
The fact that the Pakistani government had to make a statement condemning the attacks is crazy yet illuminating.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
This part — where he talks about his home — is sad but also bittersweet.
Have you ever been away from somewhere special to you and seen bad things happen? How do you feel?
I'm conflicted because I feel like I abandoned Pakistan. I love much about it but much about it is infuriating. I don't feel strong enough.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
Can't only hear about Pakistan when something bad happens there. So people think only bad stuff happens there.
— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) December 16, 2014
More comedians with deep things to say, please.
Maybe if more people see this anguish, we can come together to stop tweets like this — or, more importantly, massacres like this — from ever happening again.
It's worth a try.
#PrayForPeshawar



A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
Gif of baby being baptized
Woman gives toddler a bath Canva


An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.