Words fail
The last week and change have been an example of the worst in humanity. So many people have died, and for what? For the religion they practice, the color of their skin, their chosen profession? For being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and getting caught in the hate that drove someone to decide people needed to be destroyed?
These aren't good deaths, noble deaths. These aren't the inevitable deaths of people who have lived good, long lives and are now ready to move beyond them. These are people who are cut down, treated like things, handled like something inconsequential. Each and every one of them was a life - a full, complete person, with people who loved them. With histories. With hopes and fears and plans that didn't include dying in an explosion in a mosque or being shot by the people we expect to protect us.
What do we do now? How do we reconcile a world that contains beauty and joy and love with a world that allows this kind of hatred and violence to happen on a regular basis? How do we convince ourselves, our families, our friends, that this is a world worth fighting for? And how do we actually fight for it?
I have plenty of words for the anger and fear I feel, but answers? Plans, and things we can do to keep this from happening again?
That's where the words fail.
These aren't good deaths, noble deaths. These aren't the inevitable deaths of people who have lived good, long lives and are now ready to move beyond them. These are people who are cut down, treated like things, handled like something inconsequential. Each and every one of them was a life - a full, complete person, with people who loved them. With histories. With hopes and fears and plans that didn't include dying in an explosion in a mosque or being shot by the people we expect to protect us.
What do we do now? How do we reconcile a world that contains beauty and joy and love with a world that allows this kind of hatred and violence to happen on a regular basis? How do we convince ourselves, our families, our friends, that this is a world worth fighting for? And how do we actually fight for it?
I have plenty of words for the anger and fear I feel, but answers? Plans, and things we can do to keep this from happening again?
That's where the words fail.
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