If I was to have a conversation with my brother about the current global climate, he’d tell me these are the signs that were promised in the book of Revelation and that the world as we know it is coming to an end, and very soon. Some may scoff at this notion, however, maybe what we need to do is to look at this metaphorically instead of literally.
One has only to take one look at the headlines to know there’s a grain of truth in there somewhere. Several months ago a religious fundamentalist group called Boko Haram, kidnapped over 200 girls in the name of Allah. I’m pretty sure Allah does not condone the kidnap, rape and torture of young school girls. Take a more recent headline, the tragic death of 298 passengers on their way to Kuala Lumpur, when their flight was downed by Ukraine/Russian Separatists. No one knows who at this point and each side is pointing the finger. Cruising at 30,000 feet, they mistook the 747 for a military transporter. And if it was, does that make it okay? History is littered with the tragic consequences of war, yet we’re blind to its iniquity. Let’s take what’s happening between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Over 160 Palestinian children have died as a result of the bombing of Gaza, in a conflict that has been raging for decades. Yet the powers that be can’t figure out how to come to the table and connect and resolve the issue. Yes, some might say that’s not easy and that’s a simplistic notion, but my response is, how many more have to die for a piece of land?
The fact is that the more we continue to see other races and religions as OTHER, then nothing is going to change. Unless the earth is wiped out to become particles in space, that piece of land will still exist after the last human has taken breath. So why can’t we live and let live? Why do we send bombs and soldiers into countries in the name of peace, when history tells us time and time again that it is diplomacy that solves problems?
I read the writing on the wall and I’ve got to admit that there is a part of me that is afraid and despairs. I’m an ostrich and like to bury my head in the sand and pretend things aren’t happening around me. It’s for this very reason that I stopped watching or listening to the news. There is a reason Hitler became what he was; it was because people like me did nothing, as Edmund Burke famously said. “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” I want to be able to do something, what can we do to make the world a better place for the next generation?
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