Why I Was Silent Yesterday
I know there was a lot of talk in the past week about the One Day of Silence in memory of those killed at Virginia Tech. I accept many of the criticisms of the move. These include, but are not limited to two main ones:

• First, we should not be silent in the face of such horror and violence.
• Second, with all the death and destruction from war, famine, genocide, etc. what makes these deaths any different. If we stopped every time there was a tragedy we would never speak.

I am in complete agreement with these thoughts. I have been one who has had difficulty from time to time remaining silent on these issues. They are HUGE and need to addressed. And yes, we Americans are quite self-centered about these issues. There are hundreds dying for just as ridiculous and inhumane reasons as the victims at Virgina Tech. Silence is not an answer.

I didn't remain silent yesterday thinking it was an answer. I didn't do it because the deaths at Virginia Tech were any more or less important than the deaths in Baghdad or Darfur or the streets of some inner city. I did it as a form of a "fast." A "fast" that caused me to take time to think about what was happening and what small ways I either contribute to or help work against such events no matter where they happen.

To stop blogging for a day allowed me to take the extra time I would have used writing yesterdays post to think about what was happening. That I did and this post is the result. I discovered that my being drawn over and over again to the stories coming out of VT was as much a symptom of my human participation in what was happening. Stories like this- filled with human interest and misery among people just like you and me- grab our attention.

Yet the same story is repeated in many different forms day in and day out. It sells ads on TV through ratings and newspapers and magainzed on the nearest news stand. I feel relieved that it didn't happen to me- and gortesquely drawn to the details out of curiosity? or reassurance that this is an aberration? or that I am safe ?

I also learned that too many times we seek answers where there are none because the human mind and the world we live in is often far beyond explantion. It simply is. We probe and study in the hope we will discover that kernel of evil in the killer so that we will feel that we couldn't do what he did.

And most of us can't and won't. Thank God! But I know that I am capable of banal acts of evil everyday. I participate in greater evil when I acquiesce and don't challenge it or act to overcome it.

So the silence yesterday in the end helped me confess my own participation and support of evil and war and violence. It made me just a little more aware that I can do better if I stop once in a while and "fast," taking time to truly be still and listen. od is often in that silence.