Friday, July 08, 2005

nothing compared to what else happened

I didn't know until I turned on the TV at 11 to catch the news headlines before sleep. It's funny, I had listened to the radio on and off in the car, but not the news, I guess. This morning I'm reading the descriptions and the theories about who did it, how it was allowed to happen, what the experience was like for those who were right in the middle of the bombing in London.

Among the pictures on the New York Times website this morning is one of a police officer with a sub-machine gun patrolling a Washington DC commuter train. There is so much power in this kind of war. Everyone feels threatened. Next comes the paranoia, then the retribution, both at home and in Iraq. It's hard to know what to do but to try to understand and stay human and say that more and more and more violence is not okay. It's hard to explain to the kids but we have to try and hope they have a better chance of getting it right.

I don't walk around every day thinking I might get blown up. Maybe it's because we're in Canada, but I know that's not a safe assumption. Still, you can't give up the joy and responsibility of everyday life because of a horrible possibility. If you do you have surrendered to the badness of the whole situation already.

At the bottom of it all is hurt. How else can anyone (big or small, whatever side of the equation) feel justified in doing this harm? And also power of course. I believe the need for unlimited power is based on fear so it all boils down to hurt anyway.

question: how can everyone in the world remember we all have the same shared interest?

mompoet - pie in the sky, feet still dancing on the ground, but a little more slowly

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