As an American and a runner I am shocked and horrified by the bombing at the Boston Marathon. As a student living abroad, I’m even more shocked and horrified by the subsequent reactions and am struggling to find perspective. And peace.
War and war-like actions are the worst mankind has to offer this world. Violence begets violence. It always has been a self replicating and escalating cycle and it, I fear, always will be.
I am by no means the most erudite student of history on the planet but I grew up in a news-aware home as the daughter of two Peace Activists. Some of my earliest memories are of holding a candle outside the White House and Pentagon. I remember vividly trying to wrap my young mind around the concept of a hunger strike. I celebrated my 8th birthday around a bonfire while participating in the Great American-Soviet Peace March in the Soviet Union in 1987.
In this light — my own perspective — I look at current events.
Perspective, let us share some
I think my hippy-peace-nick-tree-hugger cred runs pretty deep; as do my beliefs in the ideals of living in a peaceful and just society.
Again, I am saddened by the bombings and send my deepest sympathies to those affected.
Yet we have to remember that we Americans are not alone in feeling the effects of acts of violence. At the same time that the car chase and lockdown was happening in Boston, 27 people were killed by a bomb in a Iraqi coffeeshop. It a lower 3rd ID — a footnote — on the live-news action of the manhunt. And that is what really saddens me. [Read more...]
