La Voz de Galicia – March 11, 2022 →
It is impossible not to feel vertigo when one stops to think about all that is happening in the world. It is impossible not to feel rage when one realizes that from here, from my comfortable couch, I can do nothing more than lament and impassively witness the reality of the multiple conflicts that overwhelm humanity. And it is impossible not to think that we create the illusion that the pandemic was to have at least one positive consequence: it would make us better citizens, better people. Yet here we are again, in the same place where we were, watching from our homes the extreme suffering of those who risk their lives to find refuge from death.
Perhaps the worst thing is not not knowing what to do, but feeling that all this is so close to us that we don’t even want to see it. We have already learned to look the other way on purpose (like when we are walking down the street and we know somebody will ask us for a handout) and perhaps that is the most worrisome.
Where will this umpteenth wave of violence take us? Where will this latest conflict take us? And what is the difference between this conflict and those we don’t see, or that we don’t want to see, or that we have learned not to see? There are some in the media that wonder about the possibility of a third world war; there are others that simply look the other way. And then there are those of us who don’t have a clear idea of what all of this means but who fear that we can neither control it nor do anything if all this escalates into a global conflict.
And then I begin to think about what our role in society is, about what we can contribute to ensure that our way in the world leaves more than just misery…That is my question: what can we do?
