Grief like a river, accountability as an obligation
[ by Charles Cameron — concerning the two kids dead in border incidents – & you and me, if i may be so bold ]
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First of all, may they rest in peace:
Sources:
CBS, New details about 7-year-old migrant girl’s death in custody WaPo, Guatemalan boy who died in U.S. custody tested positive for influenza
**
My Question:
Is it any of our — your and or my — business?
My (tentative) Answer:
Let me take that in two parts. One is a bit Eastern, Taoist in fact, but we’ll get to that — and the other more Western, and I’ll tackle that one right away.
It seems to me these two needless deaths constitute an obligation: to hold the administration — and such super and subsets thereof as may be relevant, both up to and down to the level of individuals — to account. Such accountability is in my view one of the micro-slices of the price we pay for freedom — the States’ extraordinary experimental freedom.
And then, what probably interests and concerns me more.. Grief like a river.
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Grief, like a river, finds its own level.
Let it.
Media opinion people, and maybe others, fret quite a bit about the degree to which one can grieve for all the world’s troubles, should pick one’s battles, can care deeply only for those we know, family perhaps, or tribe.. the great question of compassion fatigue, or should that be moral fatigue?
Love your neighbor stays in the hood: love your enemy parachutes down enemy lines, oh and weltschmerz is way overextended, perhaps?
Let, therefore, your compassion, your grief, and your charitable outreach find their natural levels — don’t force them to some arbitrary limit or standard, they’re naturally overflowing in season, needing no push.
Or so I suggest, with however much humility comes natural to me, that too being subject to flow..
**
Requiescant in pace, two younglings I never knew..
December 30th, 2018 at 1:31 am
This was profound, Charles. Thank you. And may they not have died for nothing.
December 30th, 2018 at 2:32 am
Thanks, Karlie – that means much to me.