Istanbul: How much More can we Take?

Last updated on: July 5, 2016 at 1:27 pm by Gerard A. Murphy

Istanbul: How much More can we Take? 2016-07-05T13:27:38-04:00 Gerard A. Murphy

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In a war weary world of daily violence, the latest terrorist atrocity in Istanbul can seem like just another blip on the global scale of death and destruction.

And therein lurks a discomfiting question for me: Are our broken hearts on the brink of compassion fatigue? In other words: Are we so emotionally spent shedding tears and offering prayers for the Paris, Orlando, and Istanbuls of recent times, that we simply can’t take anymore?

Not so much that the daily violence of our world has numbed our sensibility; but that it has left us emotionally spent, with nothing more to give. We are maxed out compassionately speaking, and don’t know where to turn.

And that, to me, is an understandable but alarming place to be in.

Exiting the Bunker

The fundamental question is: If we find ourselves in the bunker of compassion fatigue, how do we get out? Because we need to get out, if the fragmented human consciousness of our times, is to heal and know any chance of wholeness.

A week ago I attended a prayer service and community discussion at the Islamic Center for Peace in Fort Myers, FL. All the main Church leaders and pastors were present, along with the city’s deputy sheriff. Following the prayer service and an overview of Islamic tenets on the promotion of peace and non-violent activism led by Mohamed Al-Darsini, the floor was opened to allow for a broad-based discussion on what we can do to stem the cycle of violence in our city and state.

Ideas were not in short supply. Everything from a march for peace and visiting each others’ faith communities for educational awareness, to starting a radio station exclusively on the topic of peace, were posited.

Laudable ideas, yes. But the lingering question remained: how do we reach those in our communities who are already entrenched in violent ideologies or perhaps on the road to radicalization and all its attendant grief?

We start with our Youth

In order to stymie the march of terrorism in our world, it is incumbent on us to educate our youth in the principles of peace, justice, and non-violence. Not only that, we need to organize inter-faith and inter-cultural activities and experiences for them, so that they will be the disseminaters of a new vision of community harmony in our world. Where all religions, genders, and cultural traditions are equally respected and celebrated.

Pie in the sky? No. In 1989 I participated as a youth counselor in the Ulster Project, a church run reconciliation program for Protestant and Catholic youth from Northern Ireland who come to the U.S. to live with host families and learn about what divides them politically, socially, historically, and culturally back home.

They and their U.S. teenage host counterparts learned a lot about what it meant to be a leader of vision and community reconciliation over the month they spent here. The program has been running since 1975; and since its inception not a single youth who participated in it, has gotten embroiled in politically divisive or para-military ideology of any kind. To date, 6000 young Northern Irish youth have participated in this program.

Bottom Line

No matter how wilted our spirits or enervated our efforts for peace and justice, we must keep on keeping on if we are to override the march of terrorism and hate crimes in our midst.

And we start by educating and inspiring our young people in the cause of world peace. Perhaps Peace Studies should be a core curriculum subject in all schools.

Put your thinking hats on with me and let’s instigate the change we wish to see, and above all be, in our war weary world.

Cover Photo: Wikpedia Commons

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