Like almost everyone, I’m stunned and saddened by Friday’s
terrorist attacks in Paris. The
human carnage is awful, the geopolitical implications are chilling, and the
fear that this is just an opening salvo in a mobile, hydra-headed Isis/Isil/Daesh/Al
Qaeda/Islamic Extremist assault on the West, in the West, is palpable.
That this horror occurred in Paris magnifies the
sadness. For many United States
citizens, Paris is the epitome of sophisticated, romantic culture – not to
mention that France is our country’s oldest ally. An exploded Russian airline in the Sinai, a series of
hideous bombings in Beirut, terrorist assaults in Barcelona, the continuing and
deadly Israeli-Palestinian strife, even the fairly recent semi-successful plots
in London, have not touched us as viscerally. On Facebook, for example, people are superimposing the
Tricoleur on their avatars. No one
I know did this when a Russian plane was shot down earlier this month, resulting
in even more casualties of innocents.
Not a criticism; a triste observation.
To risk sounding like NRAniks who predictably say ‘this is
not the time to discuss gun control’ after some horrific mass shooting . . .
this is probably not the time to rehearse the West’s often dismal colonial and
neo-colonial and current history in the Middle East. Certainly we can learn from history, but historical memory
and ‘facts’ are not static. Historicity
changes as current events change.
They’ve changed now.
Which brings me to the second sadness. It wasn’t that long ago that a serious
threat to our country or to our key allies was addressed by a unified U.S. populace,
including and importantly, elected or wanting-to-be-elected politicians. Evidently, the recent past is no longer
operative.
It’s disgusting that a handful of high-profile United States
politicians are using the Paris tragedy to immediately bash President Obama
(and anyone connected with him).
There are legitimate questions about the current administration’s Middle
East policy, but for heaven’s sake, give the President more than a few hours to
meet with his highest-level advisors, foreign leaders, CIA spymasters, cyber-security
forces . . . and give him the
benefit of the doubt that he is actually doing these things.
Even if we cannot and should not bid adieu to tristesse, let
us act thoughtfully without sentimentality or partisanship.
Consider
carefully that it is not the people who call for peace but those who make peace
who are commended. For there are those who talk but do nothing.
Sorrow for sin is
indeed necessary, but it should not be an endless preoccupation. You must dwell
also on the glad remembrance of God's loving-kindness; otherwise, sadness will
harden the heart and lead it more deeply into despair.
--St. Bernard of Clairvaux
