Tragedy upon Tragedy
This morning I opened my email to this headline sent by the BBC:
More than 80 dead in Iraq blast
At least 82 people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the Iraqi capital…
I’ve lost count of how many headlines I’ve read or heard like this over the past few years. How many times have I read them and felt only a fleeting pang of remorse? With the Virginia Tech tragedy fresh in mind, this headline strikes me more profoundly today. 82 Iraqis were killed today as they shopped for groceries, and the horrifying truth is this happens all the time in places around the world.
I don’t at all mean to minimize the great tragedy at Virginia Tech, and my intention is not to compare. I only want to take a moment to recognize that humans are humans and life is life here in Georgia, in Virginia, Africa and Iraq.
Our hearts grieve for the victims and their families in Blacksburg, and rightly so. Do they also grieve for those in Baghdad?
I still like this perspective, Cam. We spend far too much time on ourselves. While this is a heinous tragedy, the fact that we ignore most of what’s outside our borders saddens me and angers the rest of the world.