Wishful Mantra

a mantra:
The world is good. (Breathe in)
The world is good. (Breathe out)
The world is good. (Breathe in.. Breathe out)

How can the world be good in the midst of all the bad?
Because atrocities are still atrocities.
Because normal folks take care of each other.
Because amidst conflict there is resilience.
Because mothers have to believe it is so,
so that they can justify their motherhoods.
They cuddle their babies close,
and whisper in their ears
"The world is good."
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I can't get it out of my head. I knew I shouldn't have watched it. I couldn't resist. Maybe I wanted to feel whatever emotion was gurgling up to the surface. Maybe I wanted to feel political. Maybe I have a fascination with the macabre. Maybe I felt a responsibility to see it.

For whatever reason, I watched the Iranian girl bleed out in that 10 second on-line clip. And then I hit replay. And then I walked away from the computer. I felt like maybe I shouldn't have watched it after all, seeing as death - that death - should've been a private moment. I was embarrassed that I had exploited her very personal death moment, that I was all of a sudden part of the millions who would make her a martyr or a villain.

I don't usually want to watch those sorts of things - war and death and sprawled corpses- in reality. When the news announcer warns about graphic footage, I, as a rule, turn my head with the other children. I can't take it. I can't understand why people are so barbaric. My body literally rejects the reality of violent death.

I have to admit that I do watch CSI and Criminal Minds, shows that are fiction and that market murder and gore. But they are fiction shows. They are not real. But when I watched her die, I couldn't help but think that her death resembled ones I had seen on the fiction shows - the last breath and movement, the blood from the mouth, the nose, and then pooling around her body, the vacant stare, the helpless man desperately trying to stanch the inevitable.

There are actually those who question the validity of the video and suggest that it is a propagandist's attempt at emotional appeal for the Iranian protesters. President Obama referenced it reverently in his press conference, specifically when he addressed how the US would respond to Iran's attempt at democracy and how the protests and the Iranian government's response would "play out." The existence of the video of her death is now political fodder for both sides.

Fine.

But I'm more interested in the humanity (or inhumanity) of it. How do we live with ourselves? What is our responsibility when it comes to injustices? How can we determine what is authentic in a society that fabricates reality - when we can't tell the news from Criminal Minds?

Ignoring it all is the wrong choice. I know that. Dr. King often said that it is more egregious to ignore suffering and not take a side than it is to be on the wrong side. Living our lives pretending that people don't suffer is morally unjust.

I always err on the side of the oppressed.

But what is there to do? Prayer seems like a cop out sometimes, an action that justifies inaction.

What I will do today is acknowledge the humanity of the dead woman and try to respect her death, even though I feel as though I have violated her. Also, even if it is a cop out for not knowing what else to do, I repeat my mantra/prayer and whisper to my one year old, "The world is good. The world, Baby Jack, overall is good."