The Value of Human Life Does NOT Change with Geographic Location
I am not a parent. So I cannot truly understand the magnitude of the loss being experienced by the parents of the children killed in Connecticut. Two years ago my little cousin died in a fire along with his younger sister, brother, cousin and aunt. They were 14, 5. 7, 5, and 21 years old. The despair that overwhelmed myself and my family is one that I will never forget. But I am not a parent. I am overwhelmed with sorrow over the tragedy of the murders of those children at Sandy Brook Elementary My heart goes out to those families in Connecticut, it truly does.
During the recent attack on Gaza, I was overwhelmed and absolutely terrified by the pictures and reports of the Palestinian children killed by the artillery of the Israeli Defense Force. In 1996 the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries invaded the Congo with the support of US and British allies. During the 10 year conflict more than 5.5 million Congolese were killed. Many of those killed were children. Children die of malnutrition, lack of access to clean drinking water and preventable and treatable diseases everyday in India, South Africa, Haiti, and many other countries all over the world. Why? Because of a several hundred year history of colonization, imperialism and exploitation of their resources by imperialist nations. Isn't being deprived of the necessities of a healthy life violent? Isn't it murderous? The lives of these children are no less valuable than the lives of those children killed in Connecticut. The murders of those children are no less tragic, horrifying, and infuriating than the murders of the children shot and killed in their elementary school.
President Obama shed a tear for the children killed at Sandy Brook Elementary. Children he did not and would never have known. I have shed tears for those children, in the Congo, in Gaza, all over the world. Children I've never met and would never have known. I know I am not alone in this. President Obama said that something needed to be done to put a stop to the gun violence happening all over the United States, regardless of politics. What I am saying is that politics are inextricably linked to murder, to violence. Murder by guns, murder by bombs, murder by poverty. I am so very sick of hearing, seeing people treat the lives of the citizens of the United States as more valuable. I'm so sick of hearing and seeing people treat the deaths of 'americans' as more devastating than those of children, of people all around the world. They're not.
What is it that is supposed to make me feel more connected, more concerned about the lives of people in this country than the lives of those in any other? Nationalism? Patriotism? Fuck that. I am a human being first. I have no more allegiance, no more concern to people here than any where else in the world. It is politics that separate us. It is propaganda. It is an illusion of some sort of inherent link that ties those between man made borders that creates this sentiment. I agree with President Obama that we need to create a solution to put an end to the seemingly endless gun violence in the US, but to think that we can talk about solutions without talking about politics is ridiculous. The idea that we can talk about violence, and about trauma, without talking about capitalism, imperialism, and oppression is outrageous. The idea that the murders of these children, the shooting at the Clackamas Town Center, the gang violence in cities all over this country, are not connected to the violence occurring in many forms all over the world is ludicrous.
I am in a constant state of grief. We are in a constant state of violence. I just don't understand what it is going to take for us to stop thinking of things with such a singular lens. What is it going to take for us, all of us, to being to think with complexity? To walk through the world with compassion and concern for all of humanity, and not for what happens in 'our own backyard.' There is so much I could say. I could go on this tirade endlessly. I didn't talk about trauma, and how we continue to deal with it reactively instead of proactively. I didn't talk about the racism obviously influencing the way in which the shooter at Sandy Brook Elementary was portrayed. The fact that if he was not white, it is highly unlikely that the media would be concerned with his mental state. It is highly unlikely that trauma would be talked about at all. Instead, lets be honest here, if he was not white he would most likely have been portrayed as deranged, monstrous, and inherently violent. There is so much more and I hope this conversation continues so that we can be proactive about violence, about trauma, and the value of human life.
