Death happens every day.. mass death occurs. But we should be used to it or accept it–however do accept it often.
I am struck by the reaction of the world and media to the missing flight 370. We are facing the possibility that the 239 passengers and crew faced an overwhelmingly horrific death–the way they expired may be viewed different depending on which viewpoint you have as far as what happened to the flight itself. But by this point, it would seem obvious that there’s no life from within that plane.
And we are numb to it.
Numb in the sense that we aren’t talking about the lives aboard.. we aren’t speaking of the beautiful children who faced an awful early departure from this realm.. we aren’t talking about the wives and husbands, moms and dads, employees and employers.. The stories of all 239 people have seemingly vanished as much as their flight itself. Gone for good into the memory hole.. Never to be spoken about again.
A mass death occurred in some way, most likely..But their lives don’t seem to matter. They’re just the back story to the Malaysian mystery.
The people who seem to be suffering the most are the families of the missing.. There was a news conference held in Kuala Lumpur with updates about what we know on the missing plane–as far as the news conference, think of it like this: we don’t know a thing and anything you’ve known is wrong. But during the event, families of the missing became frustrated and emotional, screaming out in tears and anger. They were also angry at the response or lack thereof from governmental bodies. As a result, they were swept away as the media watched, families who are going through agony and misery simply dragged away from the news conference in front of reporters.. Even the BBC reported that a reporter from their agency was pushed away from family members carrying banners critical of the government. The BBC reporter, Jonah Fisher, faced a wall of police as he tried to talk to the wailing wall of people..
My point, if any, is that the story of where the plane is and how it went missing is extremely important. And the flight simulator with its programmed routes, along with the sudden movement of Flight 370 itself, are big issues. But the heart of the story are the lives aboard. If a flight carrying no one vanished they story wouldn’t matter nearly as much. But a flight carrying so many lives, so many stories, and so many souls, makes this matter much more. But at the same time the media is hardly talking about those lives, and really not permitted to speak to the families of the missing.
There seems to be something rotten in Malaysia. Either the government is hiding something or has simply dropped the ball so hard that the time frame to find the plane is now dwindling to the point of no return.
I am struck by how little attention is being paid to the lives aboard this flight. The images of the children of the disappeared was striking when I saw them the other day. But they are not just becoming forgotten.. missing plane parts are more important that body parts.
As the families drift into darkness, rushed away from reporters snapping photos, ask yourself this: Are we just accepting of mass murder and mass death? Are we even phased by it anymore? Is it just a side story on the big story?
War makes news only because of the men who plan war. The victims, often children birthed into a world of heartbreak, are forgotten. Collateral damage. We say. We think.
But what do we really think, deep down?
Are you a bystander in life, just watching mass death from a distance? Did you lose your connection to humanity, thinking what happens “there” will not affect here? What happens to “them” is less important than “us”? Ask yourself that..?
