Who do we blame?
When we see a little boy’s body washed ashore?
Can we ask ourselves that dark question, the one we push against each time another tragedy strikes:
Who am I, and how can I make a difference?
That question: Can we ask it?
We certainly refuse to accept our part in it.
How can we? It belongs across another continent, far from the recesses of the lines that delineate our own State lines, the Continent upon which we rest.
It’s too much burden to be taken upon, to put as, Task #1. To hold accountable those that made it what it became.
It is beyond the ignorant minds of those who are governed by greed, contempt, hatred, and all the parts of deceit.
Dirty and disgraced because we did not understand the minutiae, only the perceived reward. The lies. The rhetoric. The consumption of hatred.
When do we no longer allow them to be ignorant and hold them in contempt of things we do not want, fathom, believe?
How do we reach them before our reserves are among the vultures that feast the harvest of our own wasteland?
If we bellow loudly, take to the streets, rally peacefully, will there not be someone hell-bent upon charging forth and creating mayhem where understanding set out to be our tone?
You can bet on it! No one likes a goody, two-shoes. Take one look at what is rising in the ranks of an upcoming presidential election. Where have all the good men gone?
How sick do we have to become of the anger, mistrust, the propaganda of the agent before we steady ourselves before him and ask, simply: What is it that you want from me?
And so we are back to that lifeless little body, forever etched upon the seascape of our minds. Innocent of all deceit. He was, he is, he will be our napalm girl.
This is our week. What will we do with it?
CoffeeGrounded's Blog 
This is powerful — brilliantly poweful!
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Thank you, Robert. Along with so many others, un-named, whose bodies washed upon the shore, and probably will continue to do so, may they not have died in vain. As that precious child lay upon the sand I asked myself, “Who am I?”
“I am a guardian of Peace, and I have failed.”
I do not understand terrorism. I cannot fathom ethnic cleansing.
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I also don’t understand starving our own children and sending our sick and elderly into the streets to die. Our world is groaning under the relentless evil that tells us that we must accept less because it wants so much more than it needs.
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I know from hearing the stories of my parents and grandparents about the Great Depression. Today’s world’s concerns have repercussions far greater, expounded upon because of our global society. I see one of two things happening, either we find a way to harmoniously bring our cultures together, or we embark upon the end of civilization as we know it. Unfortunately our societies are fine-tuned to their societal needs and we are entangled in the flight or fight mode. We have demonized ourselves and every other human (out of ignorance), fearing that of which we do not understand. We are skeptical beyond reason. I understand where much of this comes from, born out of the barbaric acts of terrorism. How then do we move toward overcoming those things we mistrust. How do we build trust. Can we? Or are we too far torn to come back from the edge of disastrous mayhem?
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I don’t know if there is anyone to blame. How many times in the history of this planet has a species achieved the intellectual ability to fashion the tools that we have, to achieve the insights into nature that we have achieved, only to die as a result of the conflict between reason, which is the only way to survive ourselves, and the instincts that helped us to suvive the jungle.
It is possible that we are just one of dozens, perhaps hundreds of species who have reached this degree of civilization. We know that we are recent arrivals on this planet…and there is no natural law that forces us to see past our own meager sphere of influence to understand that our survival is not only connected to preserving the planet but to lifting as many of our fellow creatures out up as possible.
But we don’t.
And I don’t know why.
What I do know is that many of us seem to want our destruction.
And they seem to outnumber those of us who don’t.
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You have said it so well. There is so much to celebrate and yet people have made a choice to not see the beauty.
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Good questions asked, but do we really have the answers? One week ago, they found 71 migrant bodies in a truck in Austria. 71. And the world didn’t say ouch. Today, a small child woke us up while he went into eternal sleep. I hope at least he helps us to bring about a change we’ve all been desiring for long.
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There are so many tragedies written within this exodus. I cannot begin to fathom the hardship, loss and anxieties of all who are affected.
When I saw that precious angel eternally asleep at the edge of the water, my soul sank. When I learned of the truck that had been abandoned, I cursed the smugglers, and as I watched the countless numbers walking out of Hungary I could not help but think, am I not part of the guilty who have condemned them? This is my humanity, my brothers and my sisters. This is heartbreaking, this world we have come to live within, for we do not flourish, but teeter ever so precariously upon the precipice of our total annihilation. And what is so heart wrenching is knowing that within every human soul there lies the ability to overcome our egos. If only we would lay down our weapons and open up our hearts.
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