Bringing Tragedy Home

Shortly after the New Year there was a terrorist attack carried out in Paris. I don't know anyone who lives there, and I wasn't familiar with the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. I heard about it on the news.  When I saw the flowers piled up in front of the French Embassy I made the connection, but was confused as to the meaning.
Who was bringing the flowers, and why?

I made the connection quicker this time. After hearing of the new attacks in Paris, I went out to the French Embassy, just around the corner from where I live. Already there were reporters, camera crews, and concerned people gathering. One mother had brought her daughter to hang a message on the fence, another man was being interviewed.

I continued to observe the goings-on outside the Embassy during the day, and into the night. More messages were added in French, showing support and sympathy. Candles were lit in memory of those hurt.  Even small gifts and works of art were left in what was becoming a makeshift shrine. Sometimes there were as many as 6 camera crews filming at one time. And quite a few people were, like me, just there, observing, and wanting to be a part of the communal grieving.

The tragedy on Paris was becoming more real to me.  There was plenty of messages on facebook, but they didn't quite give me the whole picture. Some suggested that there are atrocities that happen continually around the world that we ignore.  I think we just don't see them.

I am living in southern Europe, surrounded by the immigrant crisis. I traveled from Greece to Hungary and Austria without seeing anything that would suggest there was a crisis if it weren't for the news.

Then someone I know decided to see the problem for themselves. This couple traveled to Lesbos, a Greek island, to help in any way they could. Upon arriving back, I couldn't ask enough questions. I wanted to know more than the news had portrayed.  They had been there, made a difference and seen the suffering for themselves.

They saw immigrants arriving by boat on the beach.  In reality, about 3000 are still arriving each day on that island from Turkey. The inflatable boats often don't make it, and the pieces litter the shore. There is transportation for the ones who arrive, and camps run by volunteers. Even so, the suffering of these people is real.  They are lost, homeless, penniless, and hungry. I saw the pictures. This couple made the whole situation real for me, and stirred up sympathy in a way that the media coverage couldn't.

There is a sense that, in the act of reaching out to someone, we feel ourselves to be a part of humanity, and we can feel their suffering. We feel that we need to do something, however symbolic, to make that connection. The flowers and the aired words of sympathy help us to feel part of our world, and that we care enough to want to make a difference.

I will end with a link to a very moving piece played out side the Pairs theater where so many were killed. I was motivated to write this blog, because we all need to bring home the tragedy.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wnHr_OJhGw