The World We Live In

GUEST POST

There are many people like myself who became morally outraged at what they witnessed in Gaza. Many of us began blogs, and many of us follow the events like clockwork, day in and day out. Every move made, every action, every injustice. Hoping against hope for a fair and just outcome for Palestinians who have suffered for years and continue to suffer and die at the hands of a people who have justified to themselves that only “their” lives are worth anything. Others lives are expendable. They kill because they can…...and they kill because they hate....

I’m upset, I’m angry, I’m sick to death of what a horrible place this world is. The USA and Israel frothing at the mouth to attack Iran because they don’t like the government, NOT over nuclear weapons, as Iran has none, But all the while ignoring Israel’s nukes. Religious lunatics, Zionists and Christian Zionists pushing for an all out Holy war, trying to force some psychotic rapture on the worlds population, killing us all because they have perverted religion to the point that they are no longer any different than Al Qaeda. A world where the law does not apply to everyone equally, a place where we witness no respect for democracy, freedom and justice in Palestine or anywhere else. Where countries can decide that they have the right to collectively punish an entire population of innocent people, stealing their lives right out from under them in seconds, and do this just because they can… The world is filled with people who have no value or respect, what so ever, for the sanctity of life. We see this everywhere, on the news, in our neighbourhoods and we see it in Israel with it’s genocide in Gaza and its inability to see one Palestinian life as being worthwhile. These values are being passed onto children, they become what they live and see. And they see war, and they see murder, and they see no one extending a hand of true friendship, no one attempting to make peace. As such we are producing generations who have no respect for living things. They kill because they can.

Each day we write and blog for Palestine, because we are good people who want to see an end to Palestinian suffering. There has been nothing to celebrate since 1400 died, no escape from the images we witnessed, no great “hope” from Obama, no great end in sight, no stopping of the settlements, no stopping of the killings, no giving up of illegal land theft. Nothing….. But we keep writing and keep hoping anyway. We try….. At times we get depressed, so we need to have some “good” in our lives, to counter against all the evil we read and write about every day. Each of us finds our little bit of “good” where ever we can manage to find it. With friends, family, pets, hobbies. Whatever can give us a few minutes of joy, whatever can give us a feeling that the world is not as horrible as we see everyday. Something that makes us smile for a fleeting second, something good, something kind.

Today a small piece of the “good and kind” in my life was stolen from me.

Today, something happened, something horrific. Well, to me personally anyway. Which in a round about way, helps to prove my point exactly. Two weeks ago a little cat appeared at my house. She was cold, starving and very friendly. I fed her and she ate like she had not seen food in weeks. She was a source of joy, of good, of kindness. I fixed a warm bed for her in my back garden shed where she curled up and was so thankful. She remained each day in the garden, happy to see me when I’d come out to feed her or visit with her throughout the day. I became attached to her. I named her “Aoife” after a good friend, that’s an Irish name pronounced like this in English: “E-Faa”

She had become part of our family along with the horses, ducks, chickens and dogs. If I read something horrible taking place in Palestine, her antics would often force me to smile for a moment. She was a tiny piece of good in this world. I looked forward each morning to seeing her at the back door, waiting for food and attention. I was working on getting her accustomed to the other cats..Things were going well, until today when I called for her this morning and she did not come. I looked in the shed again and again. I continued to call and check the shed each hour, 10 O’clock turned into 11 and then 12 and then 1 and then at 2:30 PM I heard a feint cry coming from the shed. When I looked inside she was in her little bed, but she was not “ok” she was not “alright.”

She was laid on her side, and could not move. She had somehow dragged herself back home to her bed after being brutally stabbed and torn apart by some vile human being. The same type of people I described above that fill our world with their murdering hatred, decided her life was not worth anything in the grand scheme of things.

She laid there crying to me when she saw me. Her right arm and chest had been skinned, completely and totally away….gone. Also part of her back leg had been skinned and she had been stabbed in her stomach, some of her internal organs were exposed and she could do nothing but look at me for help. I immediately rushed her to the Vet Surgery, en route she did not move, she stared at me as I held her in a towel, as if to ask why? What had she done to deserve this? I thought of how on a much GREATER scale, thousands of Palestinians held their children in their arms rushing them to the hospital, hoping and praying they would be alright, their lives robbed by the same kind of mindset that I spoke of before.

The vet said they would do what they could and I was told to go home and wait for the phone call after the assessment, x-rays and emergency surgery. The phone call came at half five. She managed to survive the surgery to have her intestines repaired, re-attached and re-inserted; she is on an IV drip of antibiotics and fluids and is suffering from massive trauma and infection due to the perforated intestine. The vet will stay with her throughout the night monitoring her, and I will receive another phone call at 8 AM. She has been given a 20% chance of surviving. There is not much hope.

And then I thought to myself, how all of this happened to Aoife in just a few hours, first alive and well, then on deaths doorstep in the blink of an eye. I was reminded of Operation Cast Lead and the 1400 Palestinian civilians who were just living their lives one minute and then having that life stolen from them the next. I thought about the poor mothers who found their children in the same condition that I found Aoife today, laying there dying before their eyes, because their life is worthless to others. This is our world today and it is evil and it sucks.

I can never erase the images of the hundreds of innocent Palestinian civilians who were massacred and mangled, nor can I erase the image of Aoife laying there mangled. This is our world, this is the evil we face. So as I wait for the next phone call I tell myself that I know in my heart that the majority of people are decent in this world. I TELL myself that EVERYDAY, because I HAVE to believe that. I must believe that. Otherwise there is no hope for Palestine and no hope for any of us. We must keep getting up every day, protesting, marching, writing our politicians and blogging about the injustice inflicted onto Palestine in order to change this world, to stop the mindset that allows “humans” to kill, just because they can. Be it murdering an innocent Palestinian child, raining down white phosphorous onto civilians, bombing from above with DIME missiles, or murdering a small animal. Just because they can…………..

So be careful to protect your small pieces of "good" in this world, because the evil ones are always poised to take anything good and innocent away, be it in Palestine or your own back yard. They will not win, we won't let them, Because their lives should mean something to someone, somewhere…... I promise to keep doing what ever I can to change this terrible world to a better one. This is our world, It’s all we have left, and we must change it.