Old/New World Discourse: Brutality in the city

The intentional use of excessive force is not novel in the Middle East, nor, unfortunately is it unusual in Jerusalem, per say. However the massacre that took place on July 2nd, in the heart of this holy metropolis, was nothing short of the most serious type of offensive that a being could perpetrate against others.

This allegedly spontaneous, independently executed occurrence, though, regrettably not a rarity among the cruelties suffered by our people, either in current times or during the course of our history, was an incalculable tragedy. Whenever a single individual, let alone multiple persons, are compelled to forfeit their lives, we can be confident that we are witnessing a cosmically-sanctioned disaster. On certain levels, catastrophes are not accidents.

We need to pray for the memory of the victims and for the health of the injured. We need to pray for and to enact our own behavioral revisals, too. Immediately.

My children were home when the news reached us. My husband was in another country, shepherding source code, as is his occupation. I was poking at my keyboard, busy with my own work.

I closed my most current window, left my office, and sought to survey the familial landscape. The scenery was grim. The kids, literally, were grief-stricken.  Though they had heard and seen much in their comparatively short time in Jerusalem, sadly including other enemy-precipitated losses of life, this most recent incident literally shocked them.

My children ride buses and walk around in the area were the carnage took place. Moreso, it is getting increasingly difficult for them not to despair when we, The People of Israel, are lead to slaughter by dint of our internal or foreign policies and by other manner of political foolhardiness.

One by one, the little citizens in my life disbanded to the sanctuary of their respective rooms. A sleepover birthday party, a week of camping in the Golan, a forthcoming killer martial arts class, and an impending bagrout, respectively, suddenly seemed immaterial, in contrast.

After scouring reliable news sources, acknowledging my children's feelings, and trying to make some sense out of the absurd, I, too, found myself taciturn. Although I can usually wax expansively on many topics, I had little to offer to my offspring.

What does one say in the face of murder?