While Countless Thousands Mourn
Aug 20th, 2008 by Larry
Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!
~ Robert Burns
The Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759- 1796), also known as Rabbie Burns and Scotland’s favorite son, was passionate about freedom and respect for humankind. Burns’ work was a source of inspiration to the pioneers of liberalism and socialism and he was, and still is, regarded as a political activists. He campaigned for Scottish self-government and ironically even conservatives became drawn to him. This conservative was drawn to him by the quote above.
While out photographing tombstones for Find-A-Grave, I saw this quote on a tombstone and it made me stop and think of how true this is. If you search the Internet for this quote you will find references to the Holocaust and Auschwitz. Yes, the Holocaust is probably one of the best examples of the inhumanity of man but my thoughts at the time focused on much smaller events. I thought of the federal agent killed in front of his daughter at a Florida post office over a road rage incident. The nephew killing his uncle in the small town of Tallassee Alabama over an alcohol related argument. You can find such incidents in every news venue on earth everyday.
Humans are the only species on earth that kill for sake of killing. We do it in the name of religious, we do it for a cause, and governments do it to teach lessons as in the case of Russia and Georgia. We kill for sport, for greed, and the thrill of the hunt. We have an insatiable hunger to kill while countless thousands mourn.
We strive to make life better, and in fact, the twentieth century saw unparalleled progress in science, technology, human freedom, and equality; yet during this same time we witnessed many wars, the unspeakable atrocities of the Holocaust, and ethnic cleansing in many parts of the globe. To this day our inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.
Lord hear our prayer! Stop the killing.
Larry
