In Germany...

I visited German cemetaries - mostly soldiers from World War II - Nazis, if you will. But they were so young - almost all of them were 15 or 16 years old. They never lived life. They died fighting for a cause that many of them never understood. I cried. I teared up at the American and British cemetaries, but I cried at the German cemetaries. How many people come to pay respects to their graves? Probably not many at all. Many would say they died a shameful death, and I am sure there are those who committed shameful acts. But I can only assume that there were so many (and there were an immense number)who died scared and unsure exactly what they were fighting for. So young. It breaks my heart over and over again.

I looked at videos tonight of children killed by the Israeli airstrikes. It breaks my heart a hundred times over. I want to take their pain away from them. I want to protect them. I want to make the world right for them.

And then I watched a memorial video to Israeli soldiers. It broke my heart too.

Lives unfulfilled. Potential unrealized. Goodness murdered. No matter what side of the "border" they find themselves on, they find themselves wrapped up in pain and anguish and an unescapable destructive cycle. WE find ourselves wrapped up in a destructive cycle.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?
- Mahatma Gandhi

What difference does it make?

Find your love and compassion. Live your love and compassion. Be your love and compassion. Love and compassion are not reserved strictly for those who are "right" in your eyes.