It's just do damn deep...
Posted on 06/18/2002 4:49:50 PM PDT by Timesink
TONIGHT'S SUBJECT: Today's violence happened in Jerusalem. But all over the world, tens of thousands of people are living through the trauma of violence and disruption. How can there not be long-term effects? Will these people be able to rebuild their lives, or are we losing whole generations?
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There was an old expression about the aftermath of nuclear war that dates from the Cold War. "The living would envy the dead." I never thought that could be true. But it is true that tens of thousands, actually hundreds of thousands, of lives have been destroyed. We've all seen the pictures. Rwanda. Kosovo. Somalia. Afghanistan. North Korea.The circumstances may be slightly different, but the pictures all look too similar. People who have lost everything. But there's something worse than just material deprivation. You can see it in their eyes. They have seen too much. Too much death. Too much tragedy. It becomes overpowering.
Now relief agencies can provide some of the basics. Food that will keep them alive. Maybe a tarp for shelter. But what is becoming clear is that the effects, the wounds, go much deeper. Providing a means to merely survive does not heal these people. The mental trauma goes much deeper. We tell ourselves that if they could just go home, things would be okay. If they could just go back and rebuild their lives, we can forget about them. We've all heard about "post-traumatic stress" by now, but it's very real, and the effects are turning out to be much more severe than anyone thought. Those people that we see in those pictures? We may be losing them all.
And it's not just the worst-off of the refugees that are affected. It's all people exposed to massive trauma. The people that witnessed the attacks on 9/11 suffer. Many people who weren't in New York that morning are suffering from the emotional impact. And think of the people in the Middle East. Today a suicide bomb attack on a bus in Jerusalem killed at least 19, wounded at least 50. Do we think that Israelis who live under this threat every day, who have lost a loved one, aren't affected? And as everyone is waiting for the Israeli army to retaliate, do we think that the Palestinians who are waiting for the shooting to start aren't affected?
I'm not sure what the solution is. I'm not certain that there is a solution. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be any chance that we will stop waging war on each other any time soon. But we do have to figure out how to rebuild those countless lives that are being destroyed, or we have to turn our backs and write off all of these people. Many of you wrote in after our series on North Korea to say how difficult it was to watch. But I think the tragedy will come when none of us can bear to watch any more, because then we really will be condemning these thousands to short lives of unremitting trauma. And in that case I think we will all be diminished.
Tonight we will have updates on this latest violence in the Middle East, but the bulk of the program will be devoted to the larger issue that I laid out above. I hope you'll join us.
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Leroy Sievers and the Nightline Staff
Nightline Offices
Washington, D.C.
Coming up tomorrow night: "The Children."
Well..looks like this latest generation in 'Palestine' is lost....kids are hell bent on killing themselves and taking an israeli with them....I don't think anything can stop that generations twisted education. It's up to them if they want to change the newest generation.
Good. The Earth is overpopulated anyway.
Here's the real tragedy. Instead of dropping bombs on them, we're dropping sandwhiches. No wonder they don't respect us.
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