Another Canadian has been confirmed dead in Mumbai, which makes two families here grieve along with the staff at a Montreal medical center. There are other families who lost family relations there, and they are grieving too.
The loss of life is often seen with road accidents, murders, and natural causes, but when there is a huge sense of hopelessness attached to deaths by gunmen in a foreign country the questions of “why them? why Canadians when the gunmen were looking for British and American citizens? who would do this?” all seem to ring louder.
The Doctor from Montreal was originally from Great Britain, but lived and worked here to heal, to help, to make other lives just a bit better. The same goes for the Jewish family all killed in the Chabad. When people who chose to make our lives better are killed, it takes more from all of us than just a name or personality, it takes a tiny bit of the goodness and humanity too.
There are hundreds of people who worked in the two hotels, the train station, the Chabad area, and in the restaurant that worked with skill and grace, making lives just that much better too. There are some of the people in the hotels, the Chabad, and the train station that performed well beyond their ordinary roles in life, blocking bullets, taking others out of harm then being shot themselves, and making the situation just a bit more tolerable during the very long waits.
I hope the hotels, the employers of all these marvelous people remember this. Maybe we can send funds to help out families who now have the breadwinners gone, maybe we can just think of them as more than just numbers in a death tally.
The political blame game is about to start in ernest, and with all that grandstanding, maybe we all should make a point of reminding those who want to make political points that those points just may come from deaths. Phooey, I have no tolerance for anyone trying to make political hay from disasterous situations when those points are based on the deaths of people who went well beyond any expectations of humanity and service.
The international terrorist blame game is started, too. Some desperately want to make even the most tenuous connections to groups like Al Quaida, etc. Get a grip! Just because someone is Muslim and is from that area does NOT mean they are even remotely connected with Al Quaida! Yes, the gunmen were cold, calculating, definitely capable of making some gruesome choices, but this means that there is more to this story. This action to me is far more than some petty political statement, far more than just a gruesome joy ride, but there is an underlying reason why these gunmen did this, something that motivated them very strongly, otherwise they would have given over after 12 hours, maybe less. THAT is what international specialists need to find out, the motivation that kept these gunmen going, and as of this hour, still going. It must be something very powerful!
The Pakistani Government is trying to work with the Indian Government, so this time, let them. Work this out without all the petty political crap. Unless there is some kind of communication, some kind of working together to find out WHY this happened, we all lose. We lose lives, we lose trust, we lose international friends, we learn hopeless and a sense of powerlessness.
Governments and people who have a sense of hopelessness, powerlessness, and inferiority often are the very ones who go to war, make far more misery for everyone. This is the time to stop that path and make a bridge, an international bridge!
