I was doing just a bit of surfing before heading out to get some work done. It's a beautiful day here today: The sounds of birds singing is coming through my open door as I type this, along with the very homey sound of a neighbor mowing his lawn, children playing in the street, and even the sounds of traffic going down the near by highway - an sort of unwelcome sound, but a constant low hum even miles away. Then I see this picture and I can't not voice the ache in my soul:
Just for a minute, consider this: Here is a little girl, just four years old. In her short life, she has known violence to the point that when someone points something at her she assumes it is a gun and she is doing everything she can to show she is not doing anything threatening and therefore worthy to be shot.
I don't know what sort of real validity this picture holds. Maybe this is a fake. Got me. But, what I see is the Very Real Likelihood that it is quite real, quite factual. And somewhere is a little girl who knows way more about war and guns and violence in the name of some god or government or control freak than could ever be considered decent. And, here I sit, on the other side of the world from her in my suburban home with the nice lawn and the trees that squirrels love to run about and twitch their jaunty little fuzzy tails at my goofy dog who would SO LOVE to get much much closer to said cheeky squirrel, with the knowledge that my governmental leaders appear quite eager to continue that sort of education for this little one.
So, now I have to go out, with work to do on my house that suddenly seems very trite, and try not to cry as her little sad face haunts me.
Your next to last paragraph is the one most telling I think. We find a way to ignore the hurts with the values of our won good life, while our government keeps us blind to what they are doing to make that girls world exist the way it has and keep it that way. Instead of helping her and those like her. Loves and hugs.
ReplyDeleteHi Scottie;
ReplyDeleteWe in America seem to have a strange perspective. I was outside yesterday and the new neighbors across the street had a lot of people over and I heard this conversation about how we would be over-run in moments by any invading country because of the lazy hand-out people who refuse to work, blah, blah, blah. I so very much wanted to ask him where he thought he was. Not sure the last time the enemy marched down the road, shooting the wheelchair bound. But, this was important to them, and they had extravagant plans and strength/weakness win/loss scenarios all around the idea that we have to have a huge military so that people won't attack us. I'd say they were insane, but the measure of normalcy is the percentage of the people who see it as normal. Which somehow has led me to believe that wanting for peace, love, and life that doesn't include being shot at is now insane.... and there am I.