© Unkown
We are in mourning. Again. Indeed, Paris is in mourning, again.
For the second time in less than a year, we are all de facto Parisians — with Facebook profiles, casinos, and whole buildings draped in the blue, white, and red of the French flag. Solidarity as sympathy, bien sûr — a most poignant message that humanity stands with Paris — and will act decisively to avenge the "carnage" unexpectedly wrought by those whose motives most will never fall victim to, much less comprehend.
Most?
Evidently, despite the accumulated knowledge of the entire planet at our disposal through the computer screen, solidarity has escaped some of us.
And I am weary.
Without question, I mourn for Paris' recent victims and their families — and I would never claim knowledgeable firsthand experience of the same. But I refuse — despite my partial French heritage — to cloak myself in nationalism of any stripe or star, particularly not now.
Because, besides victims in Paris, an incomprehensibly astronomic number of people have been grieving loss of the highest order for some time — in places whose names roll off our tongues as if it's accepted that violence simply happens there — and a majority likely couldn't guess the colors on these victims' flags.
You see, I also mourn for those killed mere hours before Paris crumbled into chaos, in strikingly
similar attacks in
Beirut.
I mourn the hundreds of thousands displaced or killed in
Syria, no matter their pledged allegiance. No matter their professed religion. No matter.
I mourn for the millions killed in ongoing and renewed,
illegal United States' aggression in Iraq — and those facing a torturous demise from exposure to depleted uranium employed in violation of international and humanitarian law — for reasons far closer to 'American' and corporate hegemony than compassionate principle.
Comment: How dare the creators of this award make anyone question the use of deadly force? Sadistic cops, hellbent on abuse, will have nothing stand in the way of their putting the boot to someone's neck.