Let’s Skip Being Frightened and Angry, and Go Directly to Saddened
A terrible event happened in Nice, France, last night in which more than eighty people were killed and many others wounded. The images on TV are shocking. The mind flinches even looking at them. Sadly, this seems to be the kind of news that keeps people tuned to TV stations which, in turn, replay the scenes over and over. With no evidence that this new terrible event was inspired by terrorists rather than the being the work of an unhappy, mentally ill man, a parade of counter-terrorist experts are commenting on it. I keep wondering what it will take for people to turn off the TV, or for the TV reporters to suggest caution and thoughtfulness before rushing ahead with alarming provocations.
What if a TV news anchor said, as someone did soon after the 9/11 attack, “Pray for the people that died. Pray for the people they left behind. Pray that your heart stays open.” What if people all went out of doors, summoned their neighbors to join them in the street, and comforted one another. What if, instead of naming “villains” or “villainous groups”, instead of rushing to conclusions, “It’s the fault of religions,” “It’s the fault of guns,” “It’s the fault of income inequality, or racism, or anything else that is a stressor in our culture,” we invited everyone to stop, to consider, to try to rebuild a world where the level of comforting modulated the level of pain.
Imagine John Lennon’s Imagine,
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one