i can’t believe what is happening in beslan, russia right now. at least 120 of the hostages are dead, and now the authorities are saying there were about 1,200 people in the school originally (they originally estimated only 200, perhaps to downplay the crisis). how can people be capable of this… killing parents, teachers, CHILDREN? i’m… at a loss. i’m horrified. i’m so sad.
“Some residents joined the Russian police and army forces in firing at the building; others rushed the school, under fire, to escort or carry out the fleeing hostages and put them in vehicles headed to the hospital.
In one there was a teenage girl, her black hair matted to her bloody face, her mouth open, apparently gravely wounded. ‘Where is the hospital?’ the driver of a Mercedes screamed as he sped along the edges of the battle. Inside were two adults with children on their laps.
Teimuraz Kanukov said he had shuttled six times between the school and the hospital ferrying hostages, three wounded, three dead. His shirt was soaked with blood. ‘These were children,’ he said, ’shot in the head.’ Eight of his own relatives were among the hostages, he said, then headed back toward the school.”
columbine was bad enough… but this? this is more than just a tragedy. it’s a nightmare. it’s darkness. it’s evil. it really is.
i’m reminded of a quote from “reaching out” that i posted on skye’s xanga last month… it’s hard to read this in light of this awfulness… but that’s the point:
“what keeps us from opening ourselves to the reality of the world? could it be that we cannot accept our powerlessness and are only willing to see those wounds that we can heal? could it be that we do not want to give up our illusion that we are masters over our world and, therefore, create our own disneyland where we can make ourselves believe�that all events of life are safely under control? could it be that our blindness and deafness are signs of our own resistance to acknowledging that we are not the Lord of the Universe? it is hard to allow these questions to go beyond the level of rhetoric and to really sense in our innermost self how much we resent our powerlessness.”
and then…
“in the solitude of the heart we can truly listen to the pains of the world because there we can recongize them not as strange and unfamiliar pains, but as pains that are indeed our own.� there we can see that what is most universal is most personal and that indeed nothing human is strange to us.� there we can feel that the cruel reality of history is indeed the reality of�the human heart, our own included, and that to protest asks, first of all, for a confession of our own participation in the human condition.� there we can indeed respond.�
it would be paralyzing to proclaim that we, as individuals, are responsible for all human suffering, but it is a liberating message to say that we are called to respond to it.� because out of an inner solidarity with our fellow humans the first attempts to alleviate these pains can come forth.”
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