I've tried to limit myself to watching television a couple of nights a week, but lately I find myself glued each night to the news broadcasts. What has happened in Lebanon and Israel during the day while I was at work? How much more destruction has there been? How many more people killed, injured or displaced?
I always come away with a hollow feeling, as if I have only gotten a small bit of the story. I'm frustrated. I want to know more about the people whose lives have been affected. I want to know more about the Israeli and Lebanese cultures.
What will happen to the family whose home and business have been destroyed? They have no insurance to protect their investment. How long will it take for them to rebuild and to restore their lives? Who will take care of the women whose husbands and brothers have been killed? Without male relatives to care for them, how will they survive? Will there be a viable future for the children who have been maimed or crippled by the devastation? Will they still be recognized as productive citizens? Will there ever be a lasting peace?
Since the horrors of September 11, it seems that a fear of Middle Eastern people is being perpetuated in this country by the way that they are pictured and by the words that our media and government officials use. While Al Qaeda is indeed a lethal force to be reckoned with, we must be very careful not to demonize all resistance groups as terrorists to be eliminated. I feel that I am being bombarded at every turn by misnomers and half truths.
Who are these "terrorists" anyway? Surely it isn't the old, wrinkled woman who is slowly sweeping the front stoop of her home. Are they the children playing at soccer in the dusty street? What about the old men sitting in the park sharing a smoke and a game of backgammon?
This struggle isn't about people of differing religions. This isn't about people of differing cultures. This is about governments pressing their own agendas while innocent people suffer. The people of Lebanon are suffering. The people of Palestine are suffering. The people of Israel and the people in our own country are suffering. In Lebanon and Palestine homes and schools and hospitals have been destroyed. Vital lifelines for food and medical supplies have been decimated.
In this country we have thousands upon thousands of people living under bridges and in cardboard boxes. There are thousands of children and elderly people who are without medical care. We have cities in the South that have yet to rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, yet our own country continues to send billions of dollars to Israel for weapons of destruction and for the building of a wall of oppression that cuts through the heart of Jerusalem. Weren't we instrumental in the tearing down of just such a wall of oppression?
The Lebanese infrastructure has been seriously damaged while vital lifelines in and out of the country are ever so slowly becoming passable. Homes, schools and hospitals have been reduced to rubble. Will the Lebanese people face the same future as the Palestinians?
Anglican Bishop Riah H. Abu El-Assal of Jerusalem writes of the Palestinian situation, "Garbage and sewage have created a likely outbreak of cholera as Israeli strategies create the collapse of infrastructure. There is no milk. Drinking water, food, and medicine are in serious short supply. Innocents are being killed and dying from lack of available emergency care.
"Children are paying the ultimate price. Even for those whose lives are spared, many of those are traumatized and will not grow to live useful lives. Commerce between the West Bank and Gaza has been halted and humanitarian aid barely trickles in to some of the neediest in the world."
My heart is burning within me and I can no longer stand idly by. I must get involved. Each time we renew our baptismal vows we promise to "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being." This isn't conditional. This doesn't mean only the ones who look like me, the ones that I like or only when it is convenient. It means everyone, all the time.
So what can we do? First of all, prayer --- lots of prayer. Pray that the Lebanese people may return home in peace. Pray that there will be adequate food, water, and medical care. Pray for the end of the occupation in Palestine. Pray that the bombing there will cease and that they will realize the freedom promised them. Pray for the Israeli people, for those injured and those grieving the death of family and friends. Pray for our government leaders that prudence and wisdom will prevail.
We can write letters to the media demanding honest, unbiased reporting. We can write to our government leaders --- senators, congressmen, our president and cabinet members, UN Security Council members --- demanding peace on all sides, enforcement of UN Resolutions against Israel, especially 242 and 425, and a reallocation of funds towards humanitarian causes and away from war.
We can become informed and speak out to others. I must get involved. We must all get involved to preserve the dignity of every human being.
Joanna Cory lives in Highland Park, and is an Oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict through St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo.
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