Assissination

A Indian Dalit’s wife and three children assassinated. A Muslim leader, Benazir Bhutto, assassinated. Both massacres were PPP, practical, possible and profitable for an ideology of hatred, prejudice and retribution. Messages from the East differ radically from the message of the West. An elitist, Western movie critic writes about the American film "Atonement." "Astute performances, evocative settings, searching intelligence and bountiful visual details"..."exchange for the inimitable inner voices and not-quite-expressible complexities. " What a verbal parade! Substitute the recent murders from the Eastern theatre and we experience a different view of "astute performances, (a maddened crowd hacking and bludgeoning three people to death and a shooter and suicide bomber killing and blowing up victims) evocative settings, ( a family homestead and a political rally for democracy) searching intelligence (Jihadist irrationality) and bountiful visual details (blood and death on display in real time and on the printed page and in video clips) in exchange for the inimitable inner voices (of rampaging racists and terrorists) and not-quite-expressible complexities," ( caste thinking and El-Qaida).

It’s still East vs. West. New Years is the time to thank our God of Bethlehem and Jerusalem that in the West we settle cultural conflicts of faith and morals without violence and the sword. Having embraced the message of the Christmas child, we, at our best, can ring in our New Year, 2008, with hope and in peace.