And how they suffer!
(Canscene) – It was with a shock that, as I gazed at one of the thousands of television and newspaper images from Lebanon and Israel of homes reduced to rubble the thought “I have been here before” hit me like a brick.
More than 60 years ago working my way northward through Italy I saw the same ruins stark and jagged against an azure Mediterranean backdrop, the same frightened children, the same dazed adults. But above all, it was the sight of the children that that got to me.
This is a landscape I hoped never to return to, but time and again images like these have come to haunt me and challenge my belief that humankind is essentially good and peace loving.
And like salt in my wounds is the knowledge that the Middle East is not the only place where children are suffering because of the inhuman acts of their elders: Darfur, Chechnya, Sri Lanka to name a few.
Jesus Christ is said to have stated “suffer little children to come unto me, ” meaning of course to help children understand his message and follow his teachings in spite of the protests of their elders. Today, with the modern connotation of “suffer” those words have a sense of terrible irony.
But in all the talk of how to resolve the Middle East crisis, is any of the prime movers considering children as other than collateral damage?
–30–
August 1st, 2006 at 9:24 am
Canada doesn’t even call for a ceasefire to end the killing of innocent kids. Other countries have done so but we are still parroting the Bush line… “the killing shouldn’t stop until we can be sure that it will stop, long-term”. Insane.
August 1st, 2006 at 10:09 am
killing is killing and the objective shold be stopping it as quickly as humanly possilble, noi at the whim of the Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld axis
August 1st, 2006 at 7:06 pm
The author was struck by the images of the Middle East warfare because of his own personal experiences decades ago. Oftentimes, care and compassion grows when we have walked in another’s shoes, when past experiences have had a resounding impact on us. Human beings matter little in the political chit-chat.
When I look at Bush (and listen to the darn fellow) I am not sure how much brain power he actually has. Too bad that he has so much muscle in the world.
August 7th, 2006 at 9:25 pm
“But above all, it was the sight of the children that that got to me …. is any of the prime movers considering children as other than collateral damage?”
Author Ben Viccari is right. He was once a soldier who knew the pains.
When international diplomacy has progressively changed so much, a few more so called “leaders” believe that their places in their respective nation’s history are ensured by winning wars.