THE MASSACRE OF INNOCENCE or
MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS
H.Chapman – April 5, 2017
Updated: April 26, 2017.
Image source: Various Internet news websites. This one taken from the Deccan Chronicle
The blurb of my website is “Wandering, Wondering! ”
… and I do wonder – was I wrong when I wrote about little Omran (see the article here)?
In that article titled “The Milk of Human Kindness (or, The Milk of Humankind–ness)” I argued that the gory sight of an innocent, bewildered, bemused Omran is the cover page for all the humanitarian volunteers who are hard, living proof that we ARE humans!
What about today's (April 4th/5th, 2017) image (the one shown above)? It is so disturbing that I did moderate it somewhat, and that's very unusual for me. It shows bodies of children strewn on the floor of an emergency medical van. These children died due to (what is suspected to be) some form of nerve gas. The incident is just another bead in the rosary of crimes against children, humanity and God, not necessarily in that order. This particular bead is from Syria, a nation that has suffered a fratricidal civil war. This incident took place around 7 a.m. local time in Khan Shaykhun (or Sheikhoun).
“At least 100 killed, 400 injured in Syrian toxic gas attack.”
Now, the death toll per se is not critical to our reaction - we have come across death tolls that exceed this figure or dive deep below this figure - the reaction is purely due to the image of children dying a terrible death, a horrible death - a death that comes in tortured gasps! It is not just death but a truly terrible death! That this has happened to children is what makes it so ghastly.
Children – that's what we see ourselves as; innocent children – before we lost our innocence to this great, big, wonderful world. I happen to know the most wretched wretch in all creation and even he thinks of himself as an innocent li'l kid – a frisky li'l lamb, a big, blue-eyed li'l lamb. In our Great Liddle Thumb Dictionary, “innocence” = “child” = “innocence”. And that is actually what we are reacting against – the death of our innocence symbolised in the form of sweet, innocent children.
The media is filled with the shrill cacophony of finger-pointing and blame-gaming. And that is right and proper, no denying that. One side blames the other; the other side, sways out of the way and turns the allegations around at the first side, and so on and so forth. And then we are told by experts of various denominations that the incident happened not at all!
Just. Didn't. Happen! Whatever – – –
As I wrote before, the very fact that we are appalled by this image is proof enough that we are still human in spite of all apparent evidences to the contrary. And that is important. Events and incidents like the current one will repeat with metronome-like regularity - truly deplorable, but we must not give up on humanity, your humanity, their humanity, our humanity! The day we are inured to such images will be the day the headline will proclaim:
“Finally – humanity is dead!”
Footnotes
Footnote #1:
3 days later, on April 7th, 2017, the US launched a massive missile strike on Syria's Shayrat Airbase with 59 Tomahawk Cruise missiles. This was in retaliation to the (alleged) nerve gas attack. The US believes that the nerve gas attack was carried out by the Syrian government itself against the rebels occupying Khan Shaykhun and the Idlib region around, and that the nerve gas attack originated from the Shayrat airbase.
Footnote #2:
And another 5 days later, on April 9th, 2017, Palm Sunday, in Egypt, two Coptic churches were targeted by suicide bombers causing a combined death toll of 45.
And so the story continues, and will continue, till kingdom come.
Footnote #3:
And yet another 4 days later, on April 13th, 2017, the US deployed the affectionately-named “Mother of All Bombs” on the (suspected) lair of the IS (Kandahar branch). It's been claimed that the blast killed over 90 militants (Reuters, &c).
Footnote #4:
Incidentally, Omran Daqneesh, the boy mentioned above, was hit by an aerial attack (August 17, 2016) in Aleppo just about 100 km North of Khan Shaykhun.
“And when you shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, fear ye not.”
– Matt 24:6; also, Mk 13:7
– Holy Bible (Douay-Rheims)
… and here it is:
