Wake up indeed.

Some food for thought:

The average America uses as many resources as 2 Japanese or Spaniards, 3 Italians, 6 Mexicans, 13 Chinese, 31 Indians, 128 Bangladeshis, 307 Tanzanians, or 370 Ethiopians.

Americans also consume a total of 815 billion calories per day - about 200 billion calories more than is required, or enough to feed an additional 80 million people.

Welcome to the United States of Gluttony. I read these facts out of my biology textbook last night as I was studying for my final. Ironically (or maybe not so) as I was reading these facts, Wake Up by Rage Against the Machine was blaring in my ears. Wake-up indeed. All of the sudden the song ended, and for a brief moment, I heard "Silver Bells" playing over the intercom in Starbucks (Starbucks!! I'm so ashamed of myself) and I looked around at the people who were there. All buying 5 dollar coffees and shopping for expensive, meaningless gifts to throw at one another to celebrate the birth of a man who told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless. And Silver Bells was lulling them all into a sense that this consumerism was in the spirit of such a holiday. And all of the sudden I felt incredibly depressed, because I realized that I'm one of them.