The headline in The New York Times (April 24) said:
”80 Are Killed in 3 Suicide Bombings in Iraq, One by a Woman in an Aid Line.”
The story went on to say that the suicide bomber in Baghdad was said by Iraqi officials to have held a young child’s hand as she set off her explosives among a group of women and children receiving emergency food aid.
And I asked myself: how could this be? How could anyone do something so terrible while holding a child’s hand? Has the world come to this that there is no value to life –one’s life, a child’s life, the lives of others nearby? What has brought us to this?
Is this what hatred brings: the hate of others because of their religion or politics, the hate of foreigners?
I have tried, as best as I can, to live a life that respects the lives and values of others — they do not have to share my point of view or my spiritual beliefs or my race — but they do share my humanity. Who among us does not wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning worrying about things, about family, about work, about health? We all share the same fears and hopes no matter what our background is. Why then do some of us disregard the value of our lives and cause death and pain in others?
I am shaken by the news. I lose faith and the sense of hope that I have held most of my life that no matter how bad things out they will somehow get better if we will hope, if we work at it. But now, I am not so sure anymore. How can one ever overcome the sense of hate or despair that causes a person holding a child’s hand to blow herself and others up, to destroy life?
Please share your own thoughts with me. How can we have a better world than this one with all its war and fighting and hatred? I have run out of answers.
