Death and Destruction, Hope at Home

I hate war.

This site keeps a running tally of Casualties and Fatalities in Iraq — not just U.S. and other foreigners, also civilians and Iraqi forces.

I don’t have a solution for this mess — we all saw it coming, but protests were useless. And what little I have and do will never heal these wounds.

Now all I can do is cry every time I see a headline about yet another car bomb in a market, or an aid worker taken hostage, or a young soldier (just married, coming home soon) dead.

So, I do what I tell my children to do: stop worrying about the things beyond my control, focus on making life better for the people right here, around me.

This year, I will help in two different elementary schools: the one my children attended, and the one my mother teaches at. I will help my mother in her final year as a teacher, as she tries to give stability and order (and maybe teach reading and writing) to a class of nearly 30 first-graders, many of whom get not only free lunches, but breakfast as well. I will read with first graders, with fourth graders and help in the library at the other school, where few children receive reduced meals, and most enter first grade ready to read — if not reading already. Don’t get me wrong: I love working with the kids, whatever their background, but the difference is palpable: The most capable children in the one school would be flagged for extra attention in the other…

And that, along with the hats and scarves I make for homeless people, the meals I make for my family, the flowers I give (if they are ever truly abundant) to friends and neighbors… and the conversations I hold online and off… will have to be my contribution to world peace.

A drop in the bucket. But maybe, just maybe…

I was done with this article, when I ran across today’s CNN story about a little boy in Iraq who was set on fire. Iraq Boy Short of learning to replace lost hopes, dreams, security and broken bodies…. what can be done?