Every group of people has challenges to overcome. There is no perfect society. Those that claim to be the best country in the world or the greatest society in the history of mankind are speaking from some need to feed their own ego, in my humble opinion. We are all struggling for fairness, justice, peace and freedom. We are not there yet.
We have come far, but the egregious failures we still face are just as devastating to those who must endure them as any barbaric events in the distant past. The pain tastes the same. An innocent young person gunned down wounds us all; the grief remains untenably cruel; we cannot endure the heartache, parents and friends sink into despair. Through the millennia, we ask why.
But perhaps the hardest thing is the heartlessness of others, who twist the sorrow to their own purposes, who dismiss the pain as normal, offer a moment of silence for the victims and then proceed with business as usual. In the face of an epidemic of truly senseless violence, how can business proceed as usual?
This week, there was push-back. Business as usual stopped. Motivated by a deep-felt passion for action – a rage against the machine – a sense of enough is enough. This human urge must be respected. Just because something gets publicity doesn’t mean it’s a stunt. If the arc of history bends towards justice, perhaps we have all grabbed ahold of the arc and pulled it, just a little, into a new curve. I pray so.
Until next weekend,
~ Lisa