Is it important to bear witness or is it glorified navel gazing?

[cali]

Last edited Mon Aug 15, 2016, 10:15 AM - Edit history (1)

So I tend to belong to the former, even though I may be against U.S. armed intervention and all I can do is support NGOs that provide relief or attempt to.

I don't believe in looking away. Maybe that just sounds pretentious, but honestly it's not. I want to remember that these are people, just people, essentially like me or you, who are being slaughtered or are suffering horribly from war.

It's so damned easy to look away. It's seems so...seamless; one war or massacre or bombing bleeding into another.

It seems so senseless. It seems so futile.

There are so many. So many victims, so many refugees, so many atrocities.

So I say Aleppo or Sirte.

You can't look everywhere. You can't even know where to look. And there's always something else to draw our eyes away. Some freakish event or celebrity sports moment; the gladiatorial election season.

But always people are suffering in war zones. That is a constant. Has always been a constant. That is cold comfort.

I don't want to forget the people who are out on rough seas today in small unseaworthy crafts.

[malthaussen]

1. "Children are dying."

Three words which fully express the failure of our civilization.

-- Mal

[cali]

2. thank you. the facts are horrifying, the truth is uncomfortable.

[cali]

3. kick

Whether it be Syria where the government and Russia are responsible for horrific war crimes (along with radical groups), or Yemen where Saudi America is committing horrific war crimes, with U.S. complicity, speaking out against such atrocities, whoever is responsible or complicit, should be met thoughtfully