It's a beautiful warm summer day in Blacksburg. It's one of those days, one can hardly imagine living anywhere else. However, also today, we are very much aware of what has happened that day life here forever changed.
Today, at noon, the media returned to campus once again. And that campus centerpiece, the "drill field," one more time welcomed the community in remembrance. As Virginia Tech begins a school year anew, I think about "what if?"...
As I listened to our minister talk this morning about really getting to know others and the world around us, I thought what if... And my thoughts turned to a recent speech by author Jeremy Scahill and his own what if. What if, for one week the media helped us get to "know" some of the innocent people of Iraq gone forever from their families and friends?
Following the April 16th shootings, we saw extensive coverage, much of it endearing the victims to each of us. We learned more of the heroes who put the lives of others first. We learned of children left behind, aspirations forever thwarted and what these lives meant to others. What if, for one week, Scahill asked, we had non-stop coverage of the civilian casualties in Iraq, innocent lives lost in aerial bombing raids, suicide bombings, or accidental deaths? What if their images were seared into our hearts, day after day? What if they were no longer just statistics, often masked by our government and its enabling media?
It is not clear we even know the exact number of our own losses. Local channels try to put a human face on US losses. I too wonder, what if...What if we could know the other faces of the Iraq war? What if all Americans finally consciously thought about the everyday losses, not just of American lives, but also countless more innocent Iraqi men, women--many children and the elderly. Do we see them as having the same potential as our own lost youths? Do we see the elder victims as our parents and grandparents?
The politics of division which strikes at the heart of America, also divides us against the rest of the world. But they are us. They are not "collateral losses," "collateral damage." What if, as the world embraced Virginia Tech, we "embraced" those who have lost loved ones? Would we--all of us, Democrats, Republicans, Greens, and Independents--come together to bring this war to an end? I think we would.
Closer to home, what if, we really learned from the Virginia Tech shooting and the intimate coverage of its victims afterward, to really see and respect those we encounter. What if we saw friends' and family members' dreams, hopes and aspirations now, not when they die? How do we honor and support those in our communities, for possibilities untapped --all while they are alive?
What if there were a way to capture the essence of a person NOW, not at a funeral, when we hear the moving testimonials of their late lives? Instead, what if we worked on mental eulogies of living others, not in some maudlin dark way, but rather to savor them and who they are? One week could really make a difference. Just one week. The light we'd reflect could truly "light" the world. Comments