All The Trouble In the World

"So let us not be blind to our differences -- but let us also direct attention to our common interests and to the means by which those differences can be resolved. And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity. For, in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future. And we are all mortal." ~ JFK's commencement speech at American University, June 10, 1963

Like many people, I've felt decidedly worried about the state of the world lately. Our planet is never without conflict. There is always some patch of land immersed in despair. But with the war in Gaza and Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 getting shot out of the sky and the fact that both these events find their origin in parts of the world not renowned for a lack of conflict generally, the tension in the the air has seemed higher lately, like that of a heavy bow string pulled back by a hand too weak for the task.

You can sense on social media that nobody really wants to talk about either of these events, Gaza in particular. This makes sense to me. Certainly I'm reluctant to weigh in, for the simple reason that I have my opinion, until that is, I don't. We are constantly getting bombarded with another event, another perspective. There are no straight lines or clear paths on this issue and people's opinions are already impassioned.

All I know is that I don't want anyone, Palestinian, Israeli, anybody getting bombed, shot or hurt in any way and this sensibility seems grossly simplistic in the face of a conflict imbued with a patina that only centuries of conflict, intolerance and genocide can bestow. 

This article by Basio Winograd the Washington Post summed it up beautifully for me.  Do your friends follow the news? Then this is what your Facebook feed looks like.

I struggle with whether digital media is the place to be discussing issues of such import and complication. I don't know if an editorial on Gaza should be in the same place as funny cat pictures. And don't get me started on the Comments sections of newspaper sites, or as I like to call them Troll Lounges.

But where digital media falls down in terms of reasoned discussion, it excels in spreading information and building awareness. Again on social media, a friend had posted this article and it did me a world of good to read it.  I hope it does the same for you. We need reminders that as wretchedly desperate some situations in the world can be, it also has parcels that shimmer with hope.

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