It is hard not to feel that the world has gone mad when the daily news this week is full of sadness and outrage over the senseless killing of almost 300 passengers on Malaysian Airlines flight MH17. Flip channels and you will hear that the Israelis and Palestinians are bombing and shooting each other relentlessly. Hundreds of lives ended, many of them youth and children, and some of them AIDs researchers and activists. Many bright and promising lives all ended because of violence. I feel sad and I feel hopeless when I see people able to inflict such harm on one another, people who seem able to hold such hatred and malice in their hearts. At the same time as all of this violence and chaos is happening I hear the courageous words of the Canadian father of Andrei Anghel, a promising medical student killed on the plane- even if I had the person who pressed the button that launched the missile here in front of me it would not bring Andrei back. I also see images of Israeli youth ready to embrace Palestinian youth and try to find some peace among them. There are people out there who do not leap to anger and revenge in the face of violence. Finding these glimmers of hope in people with a willingness to try to find peace among the hurt, pain and destruction, is important to me this week.
– Lynda Laushway, SWOVA Executive Director
SWOVA – Empowering Youth for a Better Tomorrow
