two days late

Without a large scale war, the mainstream media relies on reporting small scale 'disputes' in regions of little relevance to its mainstream audience.

This violence, while rarely justified, approaches meaningless without historical context. Only in retrospect can history weigh the importance of these recorded events. Meanwhile, the mainstream media can only give so much historical context in a headline. It has to play on our ability to feel compassion and sympathy, and to make the best of our own lives while we are healthy and free.

Unfortunately, the amount of innocent lives lost to regional violence is not enough to make historical every event. Unfortunate too is my inability to feel real grief. It's already hard to actually care when someone else's phone is lost or stolen.

This coverage makes an impact. It makes a story. But stories make me jaded.

The Easter bombing in Sri Lanka and the most recent skirmish in Israel/Palestine, while sad, doesn't have any personal impact on me: I have never been to these countries, my ancestors are not from these countries, and I did not know any of the victims. I try to imagine what it is like to feel like my life is in danger in my own neighborhood, but my imagination is lacking.

The very reason they were killed is tragic: worshipping the Lord on the holiest day of the year, caught in the fire of a border dispute. I feel sad that people have no choice but to live as best they can in these dangerous conditions, and when they succeed, and they let their guard down to celebrate--or cross a street--they are unfairly destroyed. I grieve for the evil triumphing over good. Where there is no hope on Earth, there is hope in heaven.

The world pretends to grieve, but it moves on only as quickly as the news cycle stops barraging them with coverage. I'm two days late on this opinion and already the bloodshed in Israel/Palestine--coined "the worst since 2014" by The New York Times--has been replaced by the most recent overrated episode of Game of Thrones in twitter trends.

Last time on the Arab-Israeli Conflict.....

Where I live, there is an overdose everyday. The local news cannot report them all. There might be a retrospective at the end of the year for all of the junkies that died in that year, but their families would feel that their privacy was violated, and wouldn't want their loved one to be publicly remembered by local strangers for dying a junkie.

I celebrate Easter, and I knew junkies. I feel sadness for both victims. To really care for someone's death, I would have to know them, and care for them. To know someone enough to care for them takes time. 

It is always sad when innocent people are killed. I want to be more Christ-like, but I don't feel grief for people I never knew in a place I've never been.

This is the purpose of prayer. I can pray for those whose lives are prematurely extinguished. I don't necessarily need historical context. I don't need to know who is right or wrong, or what is or isn't justified.

The news media's cynical purpose might be to sell stories, but without it, we wouldn't know what war torn regions to pray for. Or which junkies aren't in their basements anymore.