D-Day — the Death Dilemma
I write. I get burned…I don’t write. People die.
That’s absurd, I hear you say.
It’s not your burden to carry, people say.
I say: if it’s not my and your burden, then whose burden?
If you and I don’t scream, who will?
I start to write again, I fumble, I fail to find the adequate words.
Everything seems so futile
The weight of the world on my shoulders
Why do you bother, I hear. Again, again and again.
I know. I got it now.
That’s why you’re all silent.
That is the power of fear. That is the power of despair.
While we have been fiffing and faffing, innocent people are dying.
I cannot unsee the ghastly image of a surgeon who is prepping the amputation, without anaesthesia, of the lower leg of his 15-year old niece.
Her second leg also looks like it is going to have to be amputated.
She is still awake while her uncle is washing the wragged shreds of what is left of her right lower leg, shattered just below the knee, bits of flesh hanging, nay flailing around.
My daughter is 17 years old. I cannot even imagine.
How can you not feel the pain? How can you remain silent?
Humans stopped being human.
You lost your humanity. We lost our humanity.
I am paralysed. Like the rabbit in the headlights. Only this time it drives me crazy. When will it stop? Every day I think how can I do more? What on earth could I possibly do from my corner? Doing anything is definitely better than doing nothing.
So act!
I hate injustice. All my life I vowed to myself I would never allow bullies make anyone feel powerless.
I grew up. I learned about life. I also fell into the classic trip of becoming part of life, part of the wretched ‘system’.
We always face the same dilemmas…
In the beginning you are naïve, you try, you face huge obstacles, and then you give up. Or at least you back off.
But that is exactly what the bully wants. They want you to give up.
No, I always tell myself, get up. Shout from the rooftops. Don’t let bullies put you down.
I speak even louder when I see that same face of helplessness in others. I rush to their help, fighting their battles without barely knowing why.
I know why. Because I lived that injustice when I was too young to know how to react. And I vowed back then never to let myself be cowed into silence, never to let them silence me the way they did back then, to make me so embarrassed and scared that I didn’t act.
I hate injustice.
It costs nothing to stand up for humanity.
Be brave. Be human.
You think you feel helpless? What must that girl be going through? And what about her uncle?
Don’t tell me you can’t do anything?
Look at the simple, small ant. Look at how it is able to carry way more than its own body weight.
Look at how working as a team, together, they can move mountains.
You are definitely in a situation of privilege. Use that privilege.
Your privilege is a heavy responsibility.
Don’t let humankind down.
If we don’t talk, who will?
