The sheer scale of human suffering today is overwhelming. Ukrainians continue to be bombed indiscriminately. Israelis were butchered last weekend and today the revenge bombing is killing and maiming Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Venezuelans endure unimaginable danger and hardship just for a chance to live in America, leading to moving scenes at the border.
Not much in the news about women and girls in Afghanistan -- I guess there is only so much bandwidth available for media coverage of all the pain -- but I assume it is ongoing. I dimly recall some mention this week about a civil war of some sort in Africa... but what else is new?
I don't mean to be flippant or unfeeling, but perhaps this unrelenting torrent of suffering among our fellow humans isn't really news at all, or at least is not unusual. Yes, massacres of innocent dancing young people in Israel by crazed fanatics grabs our attention due to the inhuman, unfocused killing.
But wait. Perhaps "inhuman" is not a very good word here. After all, one of the things that humans have been doing to one another for time immemorial is killing and maiming one another. We are quite good at it, despite the incessant killing being bad for our species.
I assume we will light the Compassion Candle this Sunday at St. Luke's for everyone suffering in Israel and Gaza, for all the good THAT will do. Our lead minister just urges everyone in the flock to "let love in, and let God in," and all will be well.
It won't be well in any meaningful sense for the over 1 million Palestinians under age 18 currently being terrified by Israeli bombs and the warning to move immediately to the southern half of an already very small area.
It won't be well for butchered Israeli children and grandmothers and so many other innocents, killed merely for being present in an area of the planet. I saw that many Arabs living in Israel were among the massacred.
It turns out that most everyone looks like an enemy when we have lost our minds.
We are responding as a world leader should (oops), with a nonfunctional legislative branch unable to even pass a resolution in favor of, well, opposing hate. It's up to President Biden and the executive and military branches to actually do something tangible, though no one knows what would actually be helpful.
Our first act was to ship more weapons to the Middle East. Yes, of course. Let's contribute more kindling to the raging inferno.
But how can we not want revenge? How can we not ache for butchered children?
Well, not for children stuck at our borders or children cowering in shelters in Gaza.
Sunday we will hear messages of hope and peace and piously nod and sing and pray... which will do what, exactly? It turns out that religion is where we turn when we have been forced to give up on believing in humanity and kindness and rational behavior.
Child poverty in our own wealthy country more than doubled this year, almost entirely due to our dysfunctional Congress deciding they wanted to make some political statement or other. Who knows? It's all about scoring points.
Humans COULD treat each other as that Jesus guy suggested: Love your neighbor as yourself.
But we don't really believe that, do we?
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