PEACE with Penny

Pulse, the Universal Measure of Health – When Will Our World Heal?

Forty-nine lives murdered, fifty-three injured in the Pulse Club Massacre.  Orlando – previously the first thing that came to mind was the fun of our family trips to Disney World.  But now, after June 12, 2016, that’s changed. This horrific loss, the largest terror attack in the United State since September 11, 2001, now will slither to the forefront of our memory.

You can’t help but wonder, why did he do it?  In the release of transcripts of the telephone conversation with the FBI, the gunman “told the negotiator to tell America to stop bombing Syria and Iraq and that’s why he is out here, right now.’”1 He pledged his allegiance to ISIS.2 In theory, shouldn’t the person doing the unthinkable act know best, why?  Not always.  We know there are deeper more insidious reasons than those he stated. What is the real answer?  What creates a human being so tortured with hate and with such a lack of humanity, willing to kill innocents?   It seems the perpetrator believed his life was worth more dead than alive – that it was his moral obligation to kill.  The easy route would be to demonize him.  Yet, he wasn’t acting alone.  According to his own words, he believed in radical Islam. His mind was twisted in revulsion at the thought of the LGBT community enjoying a night out of fun.  Why can’t some people just let them be?

Tears come to my eyes as I read about the innocent victims – their lives being cut short is painful. The torment of their family and friends saddens us at times beyond words.  So many were young, and none deserved to die.  Brenda McCool, a mom of 11 children, was out for the night enjoying dancing with her boy.  Her son survived the shooting.  He saw his mother slain in cold blood before his eyes.  He eulogized her by saying, “Everybody who knew my mom knew she was the mom everybody wanted.”3 Just the kind of mom, we all strive to be.  He’ll never be able to wipe that obscene vision from his memory.  I hope the love that she gave him for all of those years will provide a strong enough foundation to support his healing.

One father, Cesar Flores, whose 26-year-old daughter Mercedez Flores died, told the reporters, “I forgive the boy because I cannot take that hate in my life. My life is more important than hate. … It hurts so much,” Flores said.  In the midst of his anguish, he understood that to not forgive would not hurt anyone but himself.  He said the message he wanted to share was: “We must all come together, we must all be at peace, we must all love each other, because this hatred cannot continue for the rest of our lives.”4 Amen.  This father’s humanity shown like a beacon of light, on his worst day.  He gives us hope.

Pulse is the nightclub where this heinous crime took place.  It’s time to take a close look at the World’s pulse and open our eyes to what is happening. Taking someone’s pulse is a basic indicator of health.  Parts of the world are filled with light and hope.  We see it in the faces of many people and places in our world.  We saw it in the outpouring of love for the victims and their families from across the globe. Yet other parts are filled with the festering wounded of the mind, heart and spirit. Given the recent tragic events, it’s a sad reminder of the depth of despair in too many struggling communities throughout the world.  The wretched conditions of their lives unintentionally, dismissed by our own busy schedules.  But we must care, remember and act in a positive direction.  We are not an uncaring society, but it’s so much easier to ignore situations that don’t directly impact us, until they are shoved in our faces.  The victims had been enjoying the rhythmic, pulsating music of a dance club when their pulses raced, and then stopped forever.

This horror show sounds familiar.  These scenes are repeated over and over again in countries and the bitter taste reminds me of Israel.  If you are familiar with my blog, you know that Israel is a country close to my heart.  The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is frustrating and complex.  As an American, I try to comprehend the multiple dilemmas faced in any discussion of their lives or dare I bring up the possibility of reconciliation and the Peace process.  Our Israeli vacation in July 2014, when we found ourselves in the middle of war, did however give me more compassion and a desire to understand.  We were touring, seeing incredible sights and squeezing in too much time in bomb shelters, as far as I was concerned.  The missiles blasted me out of my complacency.

We pray that our lives don’t degrade to the point of these terror attacks being commonplace, like in Israel. In the six months of this year there have been 10 incidents, 11 killed and 28 wounded.  From September through December 2015, there were over 100 attacks, 77 killed and 260 injured.5 There were assaults from one end of the compact country to the other – most comparable in size to New Jersey.

There have been all types of methods used to kill and maim. Currently there are shootings like in Orlando, stabbings and car rammings that are the most prevalent, but there is also the occasional suicide bomber, fire bomb or missile.  Even those that sound less hazardous like throwing rocks, hit their marks causing drivers to careen out of control and crash, losing their lives.  These are just the current fashions of terrorism – at other times, like on our vacation, thousands of missiles and mortars were more in style.  If not for Iron Dome, so many more Israelis would be dead.  This does not even consider the psychological ramifications of living in constant fear that there can be an attack at any given moment.

Too often scenes play out in Israel like a shocking, impossible to believe, horror movie except this is their reality.  After the recent Tel Aviv bombings, killing 4 and wounding 5 at the Sarona Market on June 8, Palestinians handed out candy in Tulkarem to passing cars and Hamas praised the perpetrators as heroes. Even worse, is the payment of salaries by the Palestinian Authority to the terrorists and their families for acts of terrorism.  The more Jews, killed, the higher the payment.7

But we can’t ignore the pain on the Palestinian side either.  A Palestinian 15 year old was shot by IDF soldiers by mistake.  He was believed to be one of the rock and Molotov cocktail throwing culprits who had hurt several Israelis June 21, 2016.8  I can’t help but think of my own teen and the horror that those parents are going through.  It saddens me that many of the killers are adolescents raised to hate and believe that violence is the answer.  They are told that Allah will reward them for killing Jewish Israelis – what form of child abuse is this?  Yet we have to question, what are the causes that add to the misery of their daily life, such that death is the preferred option?

We pray that these insidious attacks like Orlando, never become frequent parts of our lives.  To the victims and their families, we hold you in our hearts, and hope that you can derive strength from that knowledge in the days ahead. Nothing can take away your pain.  We hope that you can still feel the presence of your loved ones in your hearts and are comforted by them. As is the Jewish expression for those we mourn, May Their Memory Be for a Blessing.  I hope that you find Shalom (Peace) in your soul.

As we learn together, please Join Me On My Journey…_______________________________________________________________________

Footnotes:

1  Ralph Ellis and Michael Pearson, “After Outcry FBI releases full transcripts of Orlando nightclub shooting” CNN, June 21, 2016, updated 6:29 AM ET.

2 Ralph Ellis and Michael Pearson, “After Outcry FBI releases full transcripts of Orlando nightclub shooting” CNN, June 21, 2016, updated 6:29 AM ET.

3 Alex Johnson and Bianca Seward, “Mother of 11 Laid to Rest After Pulse Massacre,” NBC News, June 21, 2016.

4  Faith Karimi and Catherine E. Shoichet. CNN  http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/13/us/orlando-victims-profiles/index.html  “High-school grad, dancer, accountant among Orlando shooting victims,”

5 Wm. Robert Johnston,Chronology of Terrorist Attacks in Israel Part XII:  2014-2016,”

6  Ben Ariel, “Palestinians celebrate Tel Aviv attack,” Arutz Sheva, June 8, 2016, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/213456#.V2nd4Y-cE2w

7  Edwin Black, The Algemeiner, “Palestinian Authority Rewards Terrorists for Number of Jews They Kill,” February 8, 2015.

Judah Ari Gross and Doug Leiber, “Palestinian teen killed by IDF soldiers was uninvolved in fire bombing,”  Times of Israel, June 21, 2016.