The bodies of 4 Americans; mutilated, burnt, drug through the streets in a foreign land, and finally hung from a bridge for public viewing and ridicule. Along this journey the bodies where abused in spectacularly violent fashion, sometimes by children. Some segments of the media chose to show images of this carnage to their subscribers/viewers. Hard to look at, but maybe harder not to peek at, our curiosity tugging at our sleeve. Are we asking ourselves where such anger towards us begins?

In so many parts of the world, carnage such as this has become part of the landscape, no more escapable than the "daily commute" is in this country. To the people in Iraq, the Gaza Strip, Somalia, East Timor, Afghanistan, the Congo, Sudan, (I could go on and on and on), scenes such as this, to varying degrees, are "acceptable" simply because the people are powerless to escape viewing them or living in an area where daily violence is part of the environment. Those of us fortunate enough to live in America are insulated from this for the most part, with only the occasional image of "hell on Earth" slipping under the radar. And because most of this happens so far away from us physically and emotionally, we may react with horror and abhorance initially, but then we recede back into our life of the 40 hour work week and the "six dollar burger". For the most part, we Americans remain unmoved at a deep level, at least at a deep enough level that would call upon us to attempt any real change.

If the media was bold enough to bring the reality squarely into our homes, with graphic images of how it really is, of the magnitude of death and destruction occurring in so many places outside of the USA, would it affect us collectively and to such a level that we would awaken from our slumber of ignorance and actually do something to effect a true and lasting change? Maybe we need to be sickened to the point of action for a change. I don't want to see violence and its devastation on my doorstep everyday, but I also don't want my head to be buried in the sand forever. Perhaps we can honor the dead much better by not allowing our gaze to be deflected elsewhere, by sharing their terrors and departure from this reality with 20/20 vision. Maybe this would rattle our cages in a way they need to be rattled. Not looking doesn't do anything to resolve the central issue of human beings doing despicable things to other human beings. Choosing not to look may make us feel safe and better about our own lives, but "out of sight, out of mind" does nothing to move the human race forward, and ultimately it may bring about the demise of us all.

Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous, I think I know who you may be, and thanks for your musical quotes via the comments section last posting. It's amazing how there seems to be a song or stanza from a song for every emotion or thought encountered by humans. Music to me is passion manifested and served up on a plate to be feasted upon again and again. Food for the soul, music can soothe the savage beast, inspire the down trodden, make one smile as memories flood the mind, and sometimes make one think of something greater and grander than all this, perhaps a glimpse of the divine. What is it about a series of sounds, strung together in a certain way and interwoven with words that by themselves mean little, but coupled with music create mood and magic? Musicians are portals to the infinite for the rest of us I think, more so than an artist who chooses the canvas or a poet who pilots a pen. Music conquers so many senses all at the same time that it can easily overwhelm. Imagine a world without music...impossible for me to conceive of a vision of that place.

"Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together".
-Eugene Ionesco-

"I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth; and truth rewarded me". -Simone de Beauvoir-