I am deeply saddened today as I learn that an American security guard lost his life to more senseless violence. A man, about my age, opened fire in the Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C. Is nothing sacred anymore? Have we lost a sense of self worth? Is this why people act out in senseless violence and seek to destroy others? What can one gain when inflicted irreversable pain and anguish on unsuspecting innocents? When will people learn to listen to the past? How can people study history and not hear what the voices are saying. Angels and demons beckon us with their stories, yet we are too consumed in our own quests to listen.
A long time ago I remember trying to sooth my daughter by telling her, "It can't happen again, if no one drops the bomb." Now, however I feel that perhaps I was too closed in my declaration. Perhaps I should have been wiser to expand my thoughts. Budda proclaimed from the tree of wisdom, thousands of years ago, all humans suffer -but why must so many be in anguish? I have often thought back to 'the flash' and wondered how I can reach Prajna? How can one be expected to free ones mind of something like the flash, when events like North Korea's bomb testing, Holocaust Memorial shootings, Israeli Palistinian conflicts wrench my mind into a mental state of pure hell?
I will light a candle this August for my husband, as I do every year. I think I will also add the next generation of Hiroshima victims - people like Laura Ling, Euna Lee and Mr. Security Guard. I hope that my list does not continue to grow, but fear that my hope may be futile at this point. It will be, at least, until others begin to hope too. After all, it can't happen again, if people take a stand. Can it?
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