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| (Photo: flightclub.jalopnik.com ) |
I feel, almost hung over this morning. All of the world events from yesterday caught up with me, making it hard for me to sleep, and I sat up late until almost 2 am listening on television to everyone from Russia Today, CCTV (from China), to Nightline with all the information and perspectives on both the downed 777 jet over Ukraine, and Israel's ground mission into the Gaza Strip. No, I don't know anyone who lives on the Gaza Strip. So far as I know, I don't know anyone who was on the Malaysian Air flight yesterday from Amsterdam to Kuala Lampur, however we all could have. KLM (Dutch) Airways sold tickets and then had to transfer a certain number of passengers to Malaysian Air, and so a fair number of Dutch families with babies and small children were headed on the flight to a connecting one bound for Australia. US News kept saying yesterday that "we don't yet know whether any of the nearly 300 people on the flight were American". Who cares ? They were people. They were families, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, employees, who were simply using modern transportation to either vacation, see family, or go somewhere on business. The crew was simply doing their job. These people were from Earth. These souls were simply flying in a plane when at 33,000 feet a surface to air Russian-made missile blew their plane into pieces, ending all of their lives. Their families are now thrust into my own daily existence of the instant and unanticipated vaporization of a family member caused by a sudden death. Not to whine, but almost six years later, there is no real "closure". The family members who remain will function again, but they will never be the same. Whether these families are Malaysian, Dutch, Chinese, American, French, German, or anything else is of no interest to me. We all have more in common as human beings, than we have differences.
I hope that Ukraine is able to begin to control and police its territory again. I pray that Russia realizes that by virtue of its land mass, it is already the largest nation on Earth and doesn't need to occupy and foment insurgencies in its neighbors. I hope that Gaza stops lopping rockets into Israel. I hope that Israeli forces are fair and just while "mowing the grass" (their phrase, not mine) in Gaza this week as they seek those who would intermittently attack Israel.
I pray for common sense, for peace, and some level of understanding. Sometimes, it seems that no progress at all has been made since Jesus visited.
