Posts
I wake up listening to the NPR reports of the latest dead in this summer war between Hezbollah and Israel, or Israel and Lebanon and Syria and Gaza, or whatever you want to call it.
I listen to the sick justifications of mass destruction and dehumanization of the other that occurs in times of war, and gets broadcast to the world: 'They don't love thir children the way we do. That's why they deserve to die and we do not.' It's an often-repeated line.
I want to throw things at my radio. Or throw the radio. This may be another form of violence begetting violence.
Still that doesn't shut it out, or do really any good at all. As I go through my days in my hometown in Iowa, I hear churchmembers and synagogue members (where I go for interfaith midrash once a month) and even folks at the hospital, some of whom I'm trying to chaplain, saying the same things.
Dehumanization spreads, I realize, and it's on so many people's lips. Even in Iowa.
After a while, it almost becomes convincing.
Yet deeply this is what I still hold on to:
Violence is wrong.
And more violence is more wrong.
And violence against civilians is most wrong of all.
I don't buy the idea that there is 'no such thing as an Arab civilian;' that 'they all hide missiles in their hospitals;' that 'they don't value their lives and families the way we do;' that 'they are all out to get us.' Rather, I think we say that against anyone who becomes our enemy. Haven't we always?
Once again our media has overlooked the disproportionate use of force in this conflict; how many times more Lebanese civilians have been killed in this past month, yet we don't notice this because we are too busy villifying.
Still, that is not a complete answer, either: We need to mourn all who are lost. Mourn Israeli and Lebanese, mourn that most of the Israeli civilians killed are reportedly Palestinian, second-class citizens of Israel from Nazareth. Mourn soldiers as well as civilians. Mourn the senselessness of it all, but do not dismiss the opportunities and the ethical imperatives for peacemaking by dismissing the people themselves involved as 'senseless.'
To do so is to add dehumanizing fuel to the fire.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I think much of the problem comes from the media's presentation of the 'other'.
When I told my uncle I was moving to Mexico to learn how to speak spanish, he responded, "Why the hell do you want to speak spanish? Only Mexicans speak spanish."
and I thought, "Exactly."
We have to desire to walk with the poorest, the oppressed, the bombed. And we have to stop forgiving the wealthiest nation in the Middle East for war-crimes just because the media tells us all Arabs are terrorists.
BTW - you're one of the very few people I know who I can honestly say has 'walked' with these people - truly the poorest on Earth - not only subjected to terror from a neighboring military state, but villified by the western world and treated like sub-humans by their own oppressive rulers.
Reminds me of this guy I read about in a book.
Post a Comment