What the dead might ask of us: A prayer for the living

“No more hurting people. Peace.”                                 -  Martin Richard, 8, killed at the Boston Marathon    bombings

 

 

 

 

The blast sends shock waves

Waves of fear, of anger, of confusion

Waves of caring, of love, of tenderness

Images of the explosions and of the bleeding cut to the heart

Who could do such a thing?

 

The day after the bombings, CNN runs ads for home security systems

“Don’t wait for someone to rob you, call now to make your house safe.”

Why waste the opportunity to make money?

Let’s peddle the illusion that security can be bought

A “security expert” talks about how Al Qaeda used the same kind of bombs

The implication is clear: “terrorists are Muslim.”

 

A young Saudi man, a victim of the bombing

Is “tackled” while running from the blast

“He looked suspicious”

Is “guarded” at his bedside in the hospital

His apartment is searched in a “startling show of force”

His roommate questioned for five hours

 

“Exhausted runners… kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood.

If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil—that’s it.

Selflessly. Compassionately. Unafraid,” says Obama.

True that.  Except…

 

Holding our breath

As afraid of the aftershocks as we are of the initial blast

Wondering what retribution might come

What horrors this bombing might justify

 

Instead, can we breathe?

What might Martin Richard ask of us?

Pray for Boston, for Newtown, for Yemen, for Pakistan

Pray with our feet for healing

 

Maybe the dead are longing

For the living to use our hands

To stop the next blast now

To give our blood for love

To put our bodies on the line

To end this cycle

 

To have faith there is a finish line in the marathon for peace