I wake up, troubled. Images from the past, little snippets of things I have seen and heard and lived through stay with me and run around in my head. There are thoughts I wish I could forget. Others that I know I must remember - so I can try to do something about them.
I loved that old radio show - The Shadow. Today, the memory of the show's opening words - "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men ?" - reminded me of something that was said to me in the hospital a few months ago. Something I cannot forget; something my conscience does not allow me to forget.
A volunteer who has been friendly to me over the years said something to me a few months ago that I cannot bury under a mound of desert sand.
Here is a kind woman who has been helpful to me when I was very sick, but something she said will not go away.
She was going on vacation to Israel. We talked about the dangers. And this kind lady told me that -
If she could, she would kill every last Arab child.
Because those children would grow up to kill our children.
Her words burn in my mind.
How can we ever stop the hate, the fear,
The thirst for vengeance?
How can we erase the suffering of the innocent?
How can we blame those who have suffered -
If they hunger for revenge?
How can we punish the guilty if everyone is guilty?
But how can we let the murderers live free?
Bible myth assures us that the dead will rise again,
But it also says that God's time is not our time.
So don't sit by the window,
Waiting for the dead children to come home -
Not the Arab children.
Not the Jewish children.
I have no answers. Only sadness,
And memories that haunt me.
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