For those of us who are European, we know first hand the brutality of terrorism. England endured attacks from the close neigbour Northern ireland for a long time, Italy France and Spain, along with Germany endured homegrown versions of the same.
The US finally joins the ranks of the rest of the planet, in having more than a taste of the evilness of brutal sudden invasion of familiar and personal territory, and will have to grow up fast in the realities of the way of the world.
I awoke early this morning to the pictures of death and mayhem, and my mind turned back over the past 20 some years of my experience with the aftermath of violent conflict, be it one sided, sudden and devasting in its effect. The memory bank started in overtime, recalling the so familiar pattern of emotions, numbness, shock, fear, despair, anger, sadness....and now I watch the same thing hit the shores of America, affecting all the peoples as if they were one.
As a person, once closely involved in the repair of humanity, both physical and mental, my heart grieves for those that have suddenly lost loved ones, for those who will forever be affected by the inflicting of one persons ideas and actions upon others....it is wrong and unloving, and oh so very human...to decide that ones personal message or belief is of greater import than others.
The American Authorities will speed up their work to find the perpertrators of this heinous action, and then we will see if the present government is strong enough to keep this country together without inflicting the residents with yet another long drawn out war because of revenge. My experience with life in all its tragedies is that revenge solves nothing...wheras implementing safety precautions and healthy respect for each other does....
As for my faith..it is not shaken by this episode, neither is it strengthened. For I see the writers of the bible books were wise enough to write that mans inclination would always run to self serving and problems...and they were so very right
To the God I once served in the capacity of a servant as a Jehovahs Witness, for decades before I realised the problems, I ask this,
when will you step in and end what has been a record of injustice on mans behalf for thousands of years?
When will you allow peace to reign?
When will you give the REAL sign for us to know when this pain will end?
Or is it just all a wish............
The US will recover and go forward. The complacency and bomhomie will be replaced by mistrust and inconveniences...but it will recover. People will learn to live with the fear and the anticipation as other Nations do...but life and love always come first, as it will in this case.
Christian or non Christian, JW or not...as humans we grieve for the pain and the loss and the sorrow.
I have no message in this post other than one more expression of humanity and caring toward other humans...I did what I could do in my youth, and I do what I can do now with my present position in life...to love and to offer solace and to give aid where I can...
We accept what we cannot but do otherwise, and we help where we need to.
That is our legacy, that is what frees us to use our reason gifted mind for the benefit of all...
Its called love.