According to The Guardian, the world is facing the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945.

Senior United Nations official, Stephen O’Brien, says over 20 million people in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria are facing starvation and famine.

Without a collective and global effort, these people will simply starve to death.

In 2017, people should not be dying of hunger. People should not be starving because we are not aware there is such dire need for help.

The amount of time spent catching up on the White House soap opera since the 2016 election is problematic for three very important reasons.

First, as a nation we have become more focused on trivial matters within our borders than actual issues occurring outside. Second, what are our president’s priorities? Third, the way we are going as a country, unity to end this humanitarian crisis is looking unlikely.

It does not matter where you stand on the political spectrum—Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Independent, currently boycotting all political affiliations—none can deny our priorities have not exactly been on the straight and narrow.

They mimic more the sporadic misadventures of a squirrel.

Except this squirrel is responsible for an entire country, and arguably has a duty to the world around it.

It might be seen as a problem when the squirrel’s biggest concern is protecting its prized acorn. Like Scrat from Ice Age, the saber-toothed squirrel’s efforts to keep its own acorn safe results in avalanche after avalanche.

That’s referred to as foreshadowing in the literature world.

As citizens, as entertaining as the latest political drama might be, we are called to a higher standard than simply absorbing the words on the television. As a nation, we are called to reach out. To unite. To join arms and reach out to an ailing world.

If that won’t start upstairs, start in the basement. Start right where you are at. Your country does not define you. Your president does not define you. Your resolve to fight for the rights of someone else is what defines you.

Don’t be distracted any longer.