I was alarmed and dismayed when I heard about the three young people killed in North Carolina this past week. Deah Barakat, 23; his wife of a little more than six weeks, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister, Razan, 19 — were shot and killed at a housing complex near the University of North Carolina. Police have charged Craig Hicks, 46, with the three killings, which at first were said to have stemmed from a dispute over parking in the complex. However, there are fears that they were targeted for their religion.
Too many people act out of fear and prejudice and misinformation about people who are different. We need to look past the differences and find the commonalities.
A column from Thomas R. Wells, a lecturer at the University of Groningen, Netherlands made me stop and think, and think some more. The headline reads: Do we overinflate value of a child’s life? The point he was trying to make was that “The greatest significance of a human life, as opposed to that of a merely sentient animal, relates to how they develop as people. People are what children are supposed to become.”
He goes on to compare the death of an adult to that of a child, saying that the loss of an adult is a greater tragedy to society. Maybe so, but to diminish the loss of a child as he seemed to in his column, came across a bit callous. I wonder if he has ever been close to someone who has lost a child.
If you hop over to read the column, I’d be interested in your take on the subject.
And now, let’s have some fun as we ease into the weekend.
FRIDAY’S FUNNIES
I loved this one from Luann by Greg Evans. In the first panel Luann’s father, Frank, is seated at the kitchen table holding a piece of paper. His wife, Nancy, walks in and asks, “What’s that?”
“My list of annual tasks,” Frank says, then reads the list. “Change smoke detector batteries. Clean out dryer exhaust hose. Change furnace filter. Vacuum fridge coils. Lube garage door. Flush water heater.”
Nancy walks up behind him and pats him on the shoulder. “Wow, I’m proud of you for doing those things every year, Hon.”
“Well, to be honest, I kinda forgot. I wrote this list in October.”
“Hey, that was only three months ago.”
“Of 2003.”
And Shoe never fails to amuse me. Cosmo is sitting at the bar with Wiz, who is checking things on his Smartphone. Cosmo says, “YOu sure love your electronic gadgets, don’t you, Wiz?”
“Indeed, Cosmo. I don’t know what I’d do without them… My iPad has me connected to the world wide web, My iPod brigs me my favorite music, and my cellphone lets me communicate with anyone, anywhere, and take fabulous photos.
“And they are all linked up back home with my computer, laptops and even my streaming TV!
“Yessir. It’s one huge 21st century Wiz network.”
Cosmo says, “You know. One good power surge and it could be 1947 for you all over again.”
WRITING WISDOM
This is from Scott Eagan and his blog, Babbles from Scott Eagan. Scott is a literary agent and his recent post was about defining Women’s Fiction. If you’ve wondered what exactly the category is all about, his post gives some answers.
“Women’s fiction is really a genre that is about introspection. It is a story that allows the reader to see inside the mind of the female in general. But it is even a bit more. The journey the character in the book takes creates a vehicle for the reader to also take an introspective journey. It is that sense of understanding the self after watching the characters in the book take their journey. We should leave the novel ‘learning something about our own place in the world.'”
That’s if for now. Have a wonderful weekend.