Bombs in Baghdad

Today there are several families that are ruined because of violence in Baghdad. It's news and it should be.

The sad thing is our apathy in this country. We hear it on the news all the time - in fact tragedy sells newspapers and commercials - but our hearts are hard to it. We just whisper a prayer under our breath that it won't ever get too close to home. We know that it will.

Everyone one of us is a terrorist in that we fight for our own freedom and often ignore the cost to others. We tax the environment, we ridicule others behind their backs, we shop and shop with no concern over the future.

There are those believe the summit in Copenhagen is the coming of a new world order. It would be tough to ignore if the doomsday people hadn't been thumping every drum that's come rolling down the hill for the last thousand or so years. Listen to the hype and you will feel at least a twinge of fear.

Maybe we feel better if we ignore the idea of things like FEMA death camps or unusually long-lasting contrails. Surely these things are bogey-man stories the likes of which our grandparents heard as children?

Maybe it makes no difference. Man is corrupt the moment he finds power, and how he finds power in this world is through money. Money and power are at the root of the world's evils. Take 5 minutes to speak to a homeless person and ask them what happened.

Every person who walks this earth is going to die. In 100 years no-one who reads today's news in 2009 will be alive. With that in mind, how can we live differently?

I don't believe it takes a spiritual awakening of any kind to make the most of life. Maybe it wouldn't hurt, I don't know, but what I know is we are all people in a common struggle to understand "why." One man asks "why am I here?" while another asks "why must I watch my children starve to death?"

We can all enact kindness and affect the life of someone else. Maybe this time of year reminds us of that. So while world governments try to save the world (or maybe take it captive), what can I, as one man, do?

Look at the disparity between our good fortune and the ills that have befallen those around us and see about evening things out, perhaps?

The news will tell us today was especially bad. Don't let that sentiment add to the callousness of our hearts.