BREAKING NEWS!

would i be considered insane if i kept all the clippings from the papers that tell the stories of the women and girls that are raped and murdered?

it would fill up all the space and day after day layer

on top of one another

all the women

all the women

all the WOMEN

why the women?

i have too many questions to ask about why women are killed and so many other horrible, horrible things that i should name because we need to actually be shocked into

action and remember

our compassion

and empathy

for a person’s life-

a person, a beautiful, beautiful person

who has a mother and a father

and a brother and friends

and high school friends and neighborhood friends

and work friends and college friends and sports team friends

and dreams

and loves

and lovers

and people she has loved and been intimate with

and opened her self and

and she has once or maybe many times

jumped, leaped, dove into the depths

of vulnerability and truth and trust

and then, one day

a man, a man, a man, a man?

comes and hits her

or beats her

or rapes her

or kills her

or hits, beats, rapes and kills her

and then we broadcast this on the news

and the headlines flash and rush past as 5 second recaps of the daily sports games

stream across the bottom of the screen

and we can see what news report will air in 2 minutes counting down

120, 119, 118, 117..........60, 59, 58, 57, 56, 55, 54 seconds

and the graphic in the corner flashes

BREAKING NEWS

and they are talking about a person

a person

that beautiful person

that baby, that toddler, that first day of school, that teenage confusion, and young adult wonder

that person

PERSON

say it-

P E R S O N

you, me

our interbe

 

and it happens

each and every day

and each and every day

these stories and words

stream past us

and through us

and enter our ears

and we stop crying

and we stop caring

and we look back at our glamour magazine while bopping up and down on the elliptical machine

and that’s it

and NO ONE THINKS ABOUT HOW THIS FEELS

and EFFECTS US ALL

and ESPECIALLY THOSE CLOSE TO THAT LIVING, BREATHING, LOVING HUMAN BEING

 

why have we forgotten how to know with each

cell of our existence

how it is, what it feels like, how you be

when someone experiences pain

and suffering

and inexplicable, thoughtless violence

?

?

?

 

where have we gone

and who have we become?

 

and when will we open our heart eyes and ears

and remember that we die too, but it is more than that

the reason the loss is tragic is not because it effects me

it is because it happened

and that person experienced pain and suffering and absolute hatred and violence

as the last emotions of physical experience on this earth

and the reason they experienced that was

100% avoidable, 100% hatred, 100% inexplicable to the point that nothing you have ever been taught or believe about human existence (and human nature? –if that even exists) could align with these acts of brutality and so what does that mean for all of existence

and why does it exist?

why do we allow this to perpetuate

and, if we aren’t the ones allowing it to happen,

why does whoever or whatever is the ruling, creating force want/allow/know about this?

we need to do something

we can not be silent.

 

thursday, september 17, 2009 12:37am