Jan 14 2009
I Just Don’t Get It…
On occasion, I am forced to take a break from the funny or stupid side of things and am slapped in the face with reality. I don’t pretend to have a huge amount of knowledge of the history (or even the present) of the Gaza strip.
All I know is that many innocent people are dying on both sides. And for what? What is worth all of this destruction, death, pain and suffering? Either side justifying their actions by holding up examples of wrongdoings by the other side just don’t cut it for me. I know I have an overly simplified or idealistic view of how things should be, but I can’t help it.
No amount of education and explanation will ever convince me that one side is so much more justified or right in what they are doing. Men, women and children who have no say in the matter are dying daily in the most horrific ways imaginable. In North America we are shown a great deal about the atrocities being committed by Hamas, but make no mistake there is no innocent side in this, or pretty much any, armed conflict. “Friendly fire” and “acceptable losses” are phrases that too easily slip past the lips of many leaders.
The young woman who played piano for my wife and I at our wedding is literally in the middle of this conflict, recording and reporting on the devastation and destruction being levelled upon the citizens of Gaza. She has become numbed to the pieces of bodies strewn in the streets. She has lost friends, peaceful people and medics trying to help the suffering in the streets, some literally blown apart while loading other bodies into ambulances. She has photographed countless children, their bodies being pulled out of the rubble of buildings, or burned and shredded beyond recognition by explosions.
Each day, I marvel at her bravery. And pray for her safety.
I try to steer clear of the I/P conflict myself. It’s not for lack of history, but for an understanding of history. That, and a familiarity of American Evangelicals. The worsts kinds of messes are the ones that no one can clean up…this is one.
No conflict with this much violence is easy to rationalize, or for outsiders, understand. Because it is so utterly bizarre…When there is so much hate for each other basically bred into generations at this stage, it all becomes so very sad.
The fight for what one believes in so strongly, a fight for what they both believe is home, what makes them a people..these kind of conflicts will never make sense, when the answer seems so simple…Share, and so naive, given the animosity and hate involved.
We are lucky to live in a place where we are actually pretty free to hate, and when we do, with a few exceptions we don’t get shot at. I am glad we haven’t found something so attractive to hate that masses of band together and rise up against with violence. But then again we haven’t really found anything to rise up against with compassion either.
what would you die for? Home, family, honour, your country, a way of life? Everyone on both sides of any conflict feel they are doing just that.
Even if we as individuals don’t know what to do, we can’t ever believe we are powerless, because when we FEEL we are powerless then we ARE powerless, and when we are powerless, our leaders are too….
Don’t lose compassion for all those in peril in the world because they are too far away, or the situation is too complex. As soon as humans stop caring on an individual basis, the world stops caring…and I don’t believe we have become unhuman yet.
I don’t understand it either, not at all.