“Think globally, act locally.” So reads a popular slogan invoked in countless speeches and bumper stickers. This phrase was first invoked in 1969 by Friends of the Earth, a confederation of environmentalists. In our increasingly globalized age, however, this slogan can be applied to all sorts of international concerns.

This year, Saint Louis University students have hosted a buffet of events to increase community awareness about these concerns, which traverse continents and time zones. Series included Disability Awareness Week, Eating Disorder Awareness Week, Palestine Awareness Week and Homeless Awareness Week. They include fraternity and sorority philanthropy weeks and Social Justice Month. They include Pax Christi’s weekly prayer at the Peace Pole and an anti-war group’s weekly protest on the steps of College Church. This week, they included the “Palestine wall,” the die-in and its unofficial counter-protest.

Week by week, SLU organizations have organized opportunities to engage in dialogue about a variety of pressing social problems. And, whether motivated by ideology, community, food or extra credit, many of us have observed and participated in “awareness” affairs.

Baby-boomer politicians and educators often criticize today’s college students for their perceived passivity in matters of government and social justice.

We challenge any retirement-pushing pundit to say the same about our community after reviewing this inventory of our involvement.

Indeed, the majority of SLU’s awareness events have been creative and informative. Wednesday’s Palestine wall demonstration detained participants and subjected them to interrogation to imitate the experience of Palestinians in West Bank checkpoints. The recent die-in attempted to catch pedestrian attention as participants feigned death in the Quad. They laid on the ground and held tombstone-shaped cutouts commemorating fallen Iraqis and U.S. soldiers.

Yes, these ideas are innovative. They try to recreate the reality of shocking situations we couldn’t experience unless we left the country. They pull us out of absorption in our own problems, out of local happenings and force us to think globally.

But our social responsibility does not end with awareness. The ultimate goal of awareness is action. To be effective, we must make theory reality. We must act locally. You don’t have to travel halfway around the world to find injustice, after all. There is plenty of room for assistance a few blocks away from campus in any direction.

This editorial page’s favorite call to action has traditionally been, “Get involved! Inform yourself! Write your congressperson!” These methods are valuable, especially when injustice endures beyond the power of our direct influence. Many of us cannot travel to Darfur for a week-long peace-keeping trip, for example, but we can call our political representatives and demand action. We can arm ourselves with understanding. We can engage in dialogue and spread knowledge.

But when you get right down to it, talk isn’t going to put a shirt on anybody’s back, and it won’t put a sandwich in his hand.

All awareness should culminate in a practical solution, and there’s plenty to do in our own city.