Getting Slammed

Recently we found out a person that is indirectly involved in our lives had a terrible tragedy.  An accident on the beach in Hawaii may leave his son paralyzed for life.  Many years ago our oldest daughter was seriously injured playing basketball.  Her kidney was shattered into three pieces.  She was bleeding to death, and it took a long time for the medical people to realize how serious her condition was.  As she was rushed to the hospital by ambulance while dying from internal bleeding Cissie and I followed in our car.  Shortly after the ambulance left New Salem it pulled off the road and shut off all the emergency lights. I thought the very worst. My mind said it had happened. Erin had expired and they were going to break the news to us.  There is no way to describe this.  By the grace of god they had only stopped to check her vital signs.  It damn near killed us.

I am sure many people reading this have gone through the same type of thing.  Even as a distant person the shock seems worse because you have been through it.  Erin is fine today and we have our wonderful Sylvie. With all our hope we want our friends son to recover.  If he can only get to the point where he can breath on his own it will be a blessing.

Both the things I have written about were accidents. Now think about it.  What if you were in a country where someone shot you father or son just for fun.  The night before last with dread I watched a documentary on American soldiers that was shown on Frontline on PBS.  A deranged sargent decided to start killing Afghan civilians for absolutely no reason.  He talked his men into the scheme.  His group would go out and shoot a farmer plowing a field and then plant a weapon by him and claim the man came after him. The whole episode was so disturbing, but remember this happens in every war.  I have personally spoken to people who took Vietnamese up in helicopters.  They would push a couple people out then question those left.  Even those who talked were pushed out.

War is not pretty.  Republican war mongers are trying to get elected by saying things like Ted Cruz does. Let's kill everyone so we are sure we get the right guy.  We are all human beings and when you drop a bomb and kill someones child by accident it might be meaningless to you.  It is not meaningless to the parents.

Why am I affected by the tragedy of a distant person I somewhat know?  It is because I do know them, and I do know their connection to us.  I never gave a damn about Honduras, but last summer a very nice young person stayed with us from Honduras.  He was a human being, a very nice, polite, hard working, caring human being. How easy is it for us to forget that other people are human. What you do and what you think does matter. When you casually make a decision it may get someone else killed, or it may take resources away from someone else who needs them way more than you do.  Don't get me wrong, I am about as far from perfect as you can get, but I at least hope I am conscious to the world around me.  When I see Donald Trump or a television evangelist stealing I get an emotion.  If you get an emotion when you listen to Ted Cruz, or Donald Trump, and it is a good feeling, you need to lay down turn out the lights and think about the way you see the world.