Zimbabwe, continued
Friday, June 27, 2008
This morning’s New York Times (June 26) has a large color photo covering most of the top of the page. I have not been able to post it because it is not linked to any article. It shows a wailing little 11-month-old African boy with his legs encased in plaster casts. His legs were shattered by Robert Mugabe’s young thugs. They wanted to coerce his mother into revealing the whereabouts of her husband, a member of the opposition. She did not know where her husband was in any case. She had to walk for two days to get treatment for her child. Her breast milk has dried up because she herself is so malnourished.
We must not turn away from this misery–there is so little we can do, but we can at least be aware. The editors, to their great credit, wants us to SEE. They are asking us to take our eyes off Brangelina and Britney and even the new hot ticket Michelle Obama for a while, to view the suffering of the world and take action where we can. The Christians of Zimbabwe have been beseeching God to aid their country for years (as noted in past blogs). In God’s name, we can’t do everything, but we can do something. As Thomas Mann wrote somewhere, very little can be very much. There’s World Vision, there’s prayer, there’s reading and being aware. (The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop has a very good column along these lines, regarding the Philippines, this month in Episcopal Life.)
