Un-seeing

I’m joining my fellow bloggers over at Finish the Sentence Friday. For information about joining, hop over to Finding Ninee.

This is a short and not-so-sweet thought, prompted this week by

“I wish I could forget…”

I claim with neither pride nor humility that I’ve never seen a Chucky, Freddie, or chainsaw movie. It’s true. Oh, I may catch an unwelcome glimpse of a trailer, forced on me by advertisers during prime time TV (which, by the way, I believe should be against the law). But never willingly and never the whole movie.

I know they are fake, but I’m alarmed that such graphic and gruesome ideas live in someone’s imagination, someone who then feels compelled to share. The ugliest of the ugly. Good golly, Miss Molly, and ugh.

I feel the same way about watching Spartacus and Schindler’s List, although I know those are more truth than fiction, making it even more horrible.

In short, I cannot endure the stories of man’s inhumanity to man.

I wish I could forget what I know about the crucifixion, the Crusades, and the Holocaust. About the Roman’s Colosseum where humans were pitted against each other for sport, or what is happening to Christians in North Korea, Afghanistan, and Nigeria and to Muslims in China, Myanmar, and India, to name just a few.

I wish I could forget the atrocities and bigotry against people based on their color or faith or who they love.

I wish I could forget about my own mean-girl years, when – even though I was waaaaaay down on the popularity pecking order – there was always someone less cool than me. Someone who could have been my friend, but who I chose to dismiss.

And today, I wish I could forget about what I know about and have seen at the United States/Mexico border. I wish I could un-see the countless children of God in ungodly cages and silver “blankets” flying about like used grocery bags. Or separated families and the callous indifference for the most vulnerable, tiny babies and young mothers wanting only a better life – a safe life.

For those who argue the U.S. is just doing its best to stave off terrorism and a limitless trail of drugs and violence, I say, “I see the same pictures.” I see too many people in dire circumstances, without the barest of essentials, running for their lives, being met with little but harsh intolerance and hopelessness.

My lovelies, I wish that man’s inhumanity to man was simply historic, that, at long last, we have seen the collective error of our ways and recognize the value of all life.

But, tragically, we continue to witness the inhumane treatment of people just like you and me right here, right now. Right in our own beloved country, perpetrated by the rich and powerful against the poor and powerless.

Despite our chest-thumping claims, we have failed miserably to care for the tired and poor, the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” We no longer welcome the homeless or tempest-tost. We slam that “golden door” on those who need us the most.

These failures persistently haunt me, and I fear they will for the rest of my life.

God, have mercy on us all.

Photo by Maarten van den Heuvel on Unsplash