I’m having a little difficulty settling on something to write about today. I find myself thinking about Syria, but I don’t really want to write about that. One of the byproducts of following the Trump administration is that I get caught up on a lot of other current events as they happen, and I saw a lot of links to stories today about the chemical attack that killed dozens of civilians in Syria.
It’s troubling and it’s disturbing. The images are so heartbreaking, and I must admit that I do want to know about these things but I’m not sure what to do with the knowledge. As a person who is hard-pressed to contain my outrage when someone runs a red light it’s hard to know what to with the knowledge that there is someone out there who is giving the go-ahead to drop a nerve agent in an area that’s certain to kill people who are just trying to survive?
And as I write this I’m suddenly aware that I’m not even sure why this bomb was dropped. It was dropped by the government but on who? I have to suppose that it’s a rebel held city, but I don’t even know for sure. I’ve read up on what’s going on in Syria, but it gets so foggy. After Aleppo was taken, I think that it was easy to forget or to overlook that the war wasn’t over. It continues. What is even going on?
Then there’s Russia, and ISIS plays a role somehow. Then of course the US plays a part, and every so often I hear about the drone strikes in Yemen. Apparently the attacks have escalated under Trump and the number of civilians dying in these strikes is increasing. Different conflicts, but equally troubling.
So on the one hand there are chemical attacks by the Syrian government killing civilians in northern Syria, and on the other hand there are regular, non-chemical bombs by US drones killing civilians in Yemen. I know that it’s not just civilians. I know that these attacks are not intended to kill civilians…at least that’s my assumption.
I knew why I didn’t want to write about this.
I’m also very aware of the way that I compartmentalize these things. I am troubled by these things, but at the same time they are horrors that happen “over there”. I do not intend to compartmentalize in this way, but I must be honest that the news of a bomb in a marketplace in Turkey horrifies me far less than the news of a bomb blowing up in a crowd at the Boston Marathon. That sort of bomb is closer to home and so, just as the saying goes, it feels more real. I’m not content with this. So why do I need to work to be moved by the things that happen so far away?
But those photographs today did move me and I feel like I want to do something about it, but short of donating some money, I’m not sure what that might be. It’s easy to feel helpless. There must be a way to somehow get underneath all the rancour and the hate and to heal some of those wounds and to lessen the desire to kill and to maim. What can be done?
That’s certainly one of the frustrating things – this sense that somehow the United States or NATO or the United Nations can do something to stop these things, as if they could just go in and kick Assad out and then it would be all better. But it just doesn’t work very well. It didn’t work in Korea, or Vietnam. There’s still fighting in Afghanistan. There’s still fighting in Iraq. The bombing in Yemen is to go after Al Qaeda, and then there’s ISIS. The United Nations were in Rwanda during the genocide and really couldn’t or didn’t do a thing.
I suppose these wars can achieve immediate goals like a toppling a regime but it never seems to be that simple. The roots go far deeper.
These conflicts are not easily stopped. It’s hard to make people stop fighting. I have a hard time getting my three children to be civil to each other, and that may sound like a joke, but when you think about it, if it’s a challenge to make peace between three children who are well cared for, well-loved, well-fed, part of the same family, part of the same religion, then what does that say about peace in general between nations? Maybe not much. Maybe it’s a bad comparison.
But I also don’t find it acceptable to just shrug my shoulders and say, “Oh well.” How can we just do nothing? So for now we’ll donate some money to a humanitarian organization. Later this year we’ll look into refugee sponsorship.
The options for action may look bleak, but unless we find it within ourselves to actually care about what is happening, then there will be no hope for change at all, so I suppose we can start by caring even if it may feel bewildering. We can start by letting these images move us, as they should, and then perhaps, by the grace of God, we may begin to come up with new ideas and new strategies for peace – to bring people together – to calm hostilities.
It’s hard to imagine that humanity could ever get onto the same page, but maybe if we could at least figure out how to do our own part – how to love our own enemies – even if they’re the ones within our own homes, then we might begin to at least see a way forward.
