Thou shall not kill

When I first heard about the latest chemical attack in Syria, I told myself I would not look at the pictures or any footage and so I deliberately turned off the news. I’ve seen similar grim images before and I was left distraught. Because the Syrian story is not going away, I caved and the pictures are just as gruesome as I knew they’d be. Little children who couldn’t be older than five or six, half-dressed and visibly trembling or foaming at the mouth, young men and women gasping for breath, several of whom have since died and many more will. I feel both helpless and angry, first because I can’t do anything about it and angry that those who can do something to stop the atrocities aren’t doing much. Why would anyone do this to another human being? Allow me to preach a little. The 6th Commandment expressly tells us NOT to “commit murder” and yet there are scores of killings every single day around the world. I will never understand what compels people to kill others. How do they feel in the immediate aftermath, knowing they just killed someone? And how do they feel months and years later? I ask this because they are people who kill again and again without any remorse. The Syrian conflict started about 6 years ago and no one knows how long it will last or how many more chemical attacks it will take for the world to do something. All we have are condemnations from the UN Security Council and “International Community” and at this point, I feel like those who’re in position to stop this carnage should just go ahead and do whatever they can to protect innocent civilians. Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t have the answers. I wish there was a way those who have nothing to do with the war could just leave and not just Syria because there’s a lot of killing going on elsewhere as well like South Sudan, Iraq and Yemen where mass killings are on the rise. All these conflicts are “manufactured” by greed for power and resources. It’s not like some invisible force that can’t be overcome. Like I’ve said so many times before, this world is big enough for all of us. The problem is that a handful of selfish people want to have it all. That is why we have people living on less than a dollar a day and others spending millions more on mansions they don’t even live in. People feel entitled to things they had no part creating. Oil, diamonds and other precious minerals pre-existed all of us and yet we kill or get killed trying to get our hands on them. Why can’t we just share these God-given resources? I believe in life after death, Judgment Day and all that but sometimes I wonder if this is it and once you die, that’s the end of your journey, in which case, perpetrators of these horrific crimes will never get their due punishment from God or whichever Higher Power they believe in. Can you imagine the likes of Hitler never facing up to their crimes?

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Thou shall not kill