Six months ago over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls were kidnapped by a group called "Boko Haram." They were young and full of life, and promise. There was an international outcry and then...silence. The girls are still missing.
There are outspoken proponents of those who advocate the full co-operation of an incredibly inept Nigerian government in their release, including recent Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai, whose petition I just signed, but this atrocity has largely faded from the public's attention.
Why? If 200 WHITE school boys were kidnapped from their homes and schools in Arkansas, New York, Amsterdam or Paris, would they still be missing? Doubtful. And so why have we become mute when a renewed international outcry would force their captors into the open, those "Islamic rebels" who are of the same ilk as their cartoon character doubles in ISIS.
Never forget: those who display this type of outward violence, those who engage in "ego-strutting" pomposity are internally weak. If they were not, they would not need such external displays. As such, they are easily defeated, but only if faced by a united voice of condemnation. Do not allow these "bully-boys" to silence you...and never display complacency. If this was your daughter, would you?
...............................
I remember a drought in Ethiopia where horrific images were displayed over the media of dying children, wide-eyed and mute in the face of a terrible calamity. There were outcries of horror around the world as people asked how God (interesting how God always gets blamed in moments like this even from those who have never believed in God in the past) could have allowed something like this to have happened.
One of those asking that question was a friend, a Roman Catholic nun. At that time, I was writing more poetry than I am writing now and I gave her one of my recent poems that addressed the problem of evil, and this drought in particular. The final stanza read:
"You ask where I was in this hell,
And I say 'where were you?'"
Indeed.
There are outspoken proponents of those who advocate the full co-operation of an incredibly inept Nigerian government in their release, including recent Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai, whose petition I just signed, but this atrocity has largely faded from the public's attention.
Why? If 200 WHITE school boys were kidnapped from their homes and schools in Arkansas, New York, Amsterdam or Paris, would they still be missing? Doubtful. And so why have we become mute when a renewed international outcry would force their captors into the open, those "Islamic rebels" who are of the same ilk as their cartoon character doubles in ISIS.
Never forget: those who display this type of outward violence, those who engage in "ego-strutting" pomposity are internally weak. If they were not, they would not need such external displays. As such, they are easily defeated, but only if faced by a united voice of condemnation. Do not allow these "bully-boys" to silence you...and never display complacency. If this was your daughter, would you?
...............................
I remember a drought in Ethiopia where horrific images were displayed over the media of dying children, wide-eyed and mute in the face of a terrible calamity. There were outcries of horror around the world as people asked how God (interesting how God always gets blamed in moments like this even from those who have never believed in God in the past) could have allowed something like this to have happened.
One of those asking that question was a friend, a Roman Catholic nun. At that time, I was writing more poetry than I am writing now and I gave her one of my recent poems that addressed the problem of evil, and this drought in particular. The final stanza read:
"You ask where I was in this hell,
And I say 'where were you?'"
Indeed.