American Friends Service Committee in "Speak Truth to Power" : A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence (1955)
Everyone is quite rightly appalled at the downing of this passenger plane by surface to air missile. The death toll & ripple effect of suffering caused is massive. It is difficult to comprehend how this could happen in our age of advanced technology, other than by human error. We are always the "weakest link".
The press & media have got into full crisis gear, ratcheting up the speculation & blame game. We the public have no way of knowing if what we are told is lies, biased, error, political, or actual fact. The truth is so often also a victim in situations like this.
What is truth anyway? Is your truth the same as mine? Is truth changed by circumstance? Is truth always good, always better than some sort of compromise between outright lying & protective fiction? I don't know. I tend to believe in truth, but try not to hurt by being true to others & to myself.
The damage is done in a situation created by men fighting & posturing for power & land - Again! The people are dead, their lives cut short in the battle for control. It is an individual tradgedy & also a tragedy for humanity. This mindless violence is repeated in so many parts of the world now. This minute. Unimaginable suffering perpetuated by men who are blinkered by blood lust, religious fervour, greed & every base human frailty.
I don't see any sign of war stopping. War has just changed shape and morphed into something even more deadly. We all perpetuate it with the political compromises we allow our politicians to make & by our arms trade which puts weapons into the hands of fundamentalist killers of all religions.
I'm normally very positive, but I can't see any solution because there isn't the political will. How can we get consensus in the present world political structure? Two of the most tired phrases are "we must make sure we learn the lessons of..." & "we must make sure this never happens again"
Somehow we never do, so everyone is the loser.
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