UNACCEPTABLE ENDLESS HORROR
Are we guilty bystanders?
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We are approaching Holy Week. We have an opportunity to implement the message of peace, compassion, and collaboration that this commemoration implies. Yet, we are so far from it today.
The U S House of Representatives refuses vital aid to Ukraine to resist the Russian invasion. Massive air strikes by Putin’s forces are still directed at Ukrainian civilian populations and infrastructure and scores are killed and wounded. That carnage could be avoided with the augmented defense packages for Ukraine; yet the hypocritical politicians prefer to heed the message of authoritarian former U S President rather than show compassion and help the Ukrainians to help themselves.
Similarly, and spectacularly, the Israeli air campaign against Gaza continues. I have refused to take sides having friends, acquaintances and even relatives on both sides of the conflict who are impacted by the horror being inflicted on civilians. It is impossible pin blame as the conflict in that suffering land has gone on for millennia. Yet, I find it immoral to ignore the pain and suffering within Gaza. The government leaders on both sides preserve the conditions for continuing conflict by not recognizing each other’s rights as human beings and each other’s duties to the other as human beings. And regional powers surrounding the conflict focus on self-gain rather than on stopping the bloodshed. Little children, killed and maimed are on the receiving end of aggression, injustice, indifference…
In Haiti, abandoned at birth by the West, injustice and chaos, continues.
And the list of broken peoples and lives is long, and the suffering is unfathomable.
What can I do? This is reminiscent of the thoughts and prayers that hypocritical politicians send whenever mass shootings take innocent lives in the U S.
Well, I can do this:
1. Share my impatience and indignation and horror with others.
2. Write to politicians urging them to the “right thing” to preserve justice, work for peace.
3. Fund relief for the devastated.
Here are a few opportunities that I have used:
We are stressed and frustrated by humanity’s inhumanity to itself. That is true, but we cannot allow ourselves to wail and sulk ourselves into inaction.
Pray and work for peace and justice— refuse to be a guilty bystander.
I often view such world events with sadness and a sense of powerlessness (when I have the stomach to view them at all). I can vote. I can write. I can plant pollinator-friendly flowers. I can cook a meal for a friend. I can clean the carpet where the cat just puked a fur-ball. (But I digress)
Keep stirring the pot. Keep tending your garden. And hydrate.
The seemingly endless violence, the black and white thinking, and the unchallenged loyalty to old, failed ideas and strategies can be so demoralizing. Replacing the old guard with new ideas and compassion for all parties is the only way to evolve past these age-old quagmires.