JUST IN: New Zealand police say four people are in custody after shootings occurred at two mosques in the city of Christchurch, and there are a "significant" number of fatalities. Live updates: https://t.co/qfZjJQx3MN pic.twitter.com/NonLkwjf1x
— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) March 15, 2019
I do not know what to do other than stand with Muslims in NZ in your dignity, sit with you in your grief, hold you in my thoughts, and fight against bigotry against you, and hope that future bigotry against you can be averted. I have hardly the words nor the capacity for prayers, but I have all the sympathy for your losses and hopes for the healing of your community.
The criminals who wronged you are part of a philosophy that wrongs us all. I know we must stand together as siblings in this world to get by, and that to do harm to any of my siblings diminishes me by denying me seeing the fulfillment of their lives' promises, the knowledge of their joys and sorrows, the reality of their continued existence--because this world includes us all, and their promise could very well intersect with my own life. I know lights have gone out in your community, and offer what light I have--you are not alone, and the horror of the bigotry that damaged your world is a horror I share. The enormity of this act will remain in our memory along with the memories of these blameless victims. We are one in suffering.
And I mean to track with interest the persons involved, even though I will not pass on the reputed video or manifesto. The forensics of the pathologies that cause such suffering are suitable to be studied, but are recklessly shared. I think there is value in understanding how such monsters ae made, but I do not care to facilitate how they are reproduced.
I wish the victims peace and the survivors health and closure. I know this is inadequate, but you are not alone.
1 comment:
I spent yesterday in a welter of spontaneous tears. Tears piss me off, crying makes my mucosa swell and starts asthmatic reactions! So being sad makes me mad, ultimately. Nonetheless, I wept on and off all day. Because yes, this sort of instance hatred and irrational "power from the mouth of a gun" reaction is surely a symptom of societal dysfunction on a new level.
A friend in New Zealand wrote to tell me something the US news is not reporting: when Trump called to ask their Prime Minister how America could help, she told him by "showing love and understanding to all Muslim communities"! That was the brightest spot in my day!
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