I would like to begin this post by correcting some information in the previous post. Podicipediformes and Gaviiforms have cnemial processes. Gruiformes do not possess this feature. I was confused and I’m sincerely sorry if my misunderstanding of the physiology of Cranes, Coots, and Allies caused you any mental or emotional discomfort.
I usually don’t post about serious things unless they are internal, but today I feel compelled to share some feelings I have about peace in the human world.
Yesterday two bombs exploded at the end of the Boston Marathon. The internet and the newspapers have closely followed this event. Today while I was examining the various headlines regarding the incident I noticed a common theme, terror. Every one of the headlines had the word ‘terror’ in it, “Terror, Again”, “Terror At Home”, “Terror in Boston”. The aggressiveness of the word was impossible to ignore. I read an article about the bombing in the Salt Lake Tribune and I learned information about what happened, but the most resonant part of my reading experience was the sense of fear and anger that was present in the piece, terror. President Obama’s remarks on the tragedy included that those responsible would, “feel the full weight of justice.” It all felt so very reactionary and not terribly constructive. I recognize that it is the responsibility of the media to report on tragedies and it is important for the American people to be informed about the events occurring in the world, but currently the packaging of those stories is uniformly in pursuit of reaction. Even on days when bombs don’t explode, headlines emanate malcontent. Celebrities only make the news after they’ve been arrested or gained too much weight.
To shake off the nasty feeling I got from reading the newspapers, I decided to watch some inspirational youtube videos. I typed “peace” into the search bar. The first video that came up was called, “Another Muslim for Peace”. It was a modest video with a girl sitting in front of her tripoded camera. She had a soft gentle voice and a black scarf covering her hair, big brown eyes. She spent a moment introducing herself and the video cut out. It was broken or something, and the video had only 7000 views. I watched John Lennon’s Imagine video, and tried to watch some actual footage of Gandhi. Frustrated by the slim pickings on youtube, a site with 8 years of content (and “charlie bit my finger” has been viewed over 152,000,000 times), I decided to switch to literature. I read some excerpts from Gandhi speeches and felt better.
I believe that on an human by human basis, the most abundant and natural emotions associated with the Boston Marathon tragedy are sadness and empathetic sense of loss. I believe that most people are good. Justice is important, and those responsible for the bombings in Boston should be found and held accountable for their actions, but not every American has to do that. What if the American people were united around compassion instead of terror? How would that change our national conversations? Why can’t the humanity of our citizens be reflected on the pages of our newspapers?
I risk sounding like a conspiracy theorist when I say that the media’s attention to the word ‘terror’ directly supports war and retribution, and asks for an aggressive reaction. It leaves very little space for good will toward men.
It is hard to think that change is possible in this world of ours, but like I said before, I believe that most people are already good. All we need to do is shout about the good and let it flow into our earth like the healing waters of Jordan. We must consider that peace is a possibility, a solution, an option. Gandhi say, “not to believe in the possibility of permanent peace is to disbelieve in the Godliness of human nature.” If you believe in divine nature, then peace is possible. I believe. It starts now. It starts today. It starts with me, and with you. Go!
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