News about homegrown and foreign terrorism receives a lot of broadcast media airtime and focused attention online. It has become a pervasive theme in the developing story of our 21st century lives. Still, it is not something with which most us can ever afford to become so comfortable that we take it for granted in the same way that we take doing the laundry or drinking a cup of coffee for granted. Nor should we.
I almost refused to allow myself to believe the reports about the shooting Wednesday at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC. Six women and three men shot dead by one Dylann Storm Roof. I almost succeeded in believing the massacre had not occurred so close to where I grew up in Savannah, Georgia. Then I reminded myself that denial of evident truth is also something we cannot afford to indulge in today’s socially and politically tumultuous climate.
Heeding that reality, I found myself meditating on words from my essay Creative Flexibility and Annihilated Lives (published last year in the fourth edition of Charter for Compassion’s Words and Violence online curriculum resource):
Bridge of Silver Wings 2023 