I was sitting in Broadway Cafe with Vicki reading the paper. A commentary by Matt Schofield caught me eye. Actually this picture, taken by Karim Kadim of the Associated Press, caught my eye...
The picture was large and detailed in the paper. I was struck by the reality that this two year old child named Ali was just a couple of months older than our granddaughter Alexis. I had just held her in my arms the day before and she was in a pose very similar to the one Ali is in except that she was asleep. Ali died later in the hospital, a casualty of collateral damage caused by a U.S. missile. I read Matt Schofield's commentary...
“'The children of Iraq have lost all sense of humanity,' he said. 'Killing and being killed has become daily routine to them.'
But to children as little as Ali, the world often is limited to immediate surroundings. The walls of their homes, the skirts of their mothers, don’t seem confining as much as comfortable.
So, when he died, he died in the place he must have felt the safest, the place his parents must have known was safe. Instead, it was one of four homes in the area 'destroyed by U.S. missiles.' In the photo, you can sense the panic in the pose of the man, the chalk-covered baby extended above him after he’d been pulled from the rubble. There is a sense that the man believes the boy can still live, if only he runs fast enough, holds him high enough above the deadly ground.
The photo’s caption notes that Ali died later, at a hospital. But in the photo, he’s already striking a death pose. His leg is reminiscent of Marat’s arm in Jacques-Louis David’s painting of death; his face wears the same look of indifference.
In fact, the photo looks like a work of art. It is beautiful, on one level, capturing an intensely human moment. The photo could simply be admired.
Except for the shoes. The tiny sandals on Ali’s feet are a child’s shoes. My sons have worn those same sandals. Those are sandals that should be clomping about the living room, not a piece of collateral damage."
I tried to read this to Vicki and could not. I wept. I hate war. I long for the restoration of all things, for the time when God's Shalom will prevail. Thy Kingdom Come, O Lord, On earth as it is in Heaven.
Read the full story here.
Mike, the words you chose to describe this picture take my breath away.
Lord have mercy on us.
Posted by: Christy Gunter Leppert | May 07, 2008 at 01:13 PM
And one other comment, Mike, I am working on my own post at the moment about the idea that violence can be redemptive. Because it seems to me when we act violently towards a person (or people) we are really saying "you are beyond redemption." This post is a work in progress but keep watching for it.
Posted by: Christy Gunter Leppert | May 07, 2008 at 01:26 PM
Hey Christy,
Thanks for you comments. I will look forward to your post.
Peace,
Mike
Posted by: Mike King | May 07, 2008 at 02:23 PM
Quite moving. It's too easy to simply think of victims as 'victims'--with no name, no face, no family, etc. But when you see pictures like this, you begin to realize how we are all in the same boat. Here is a family experiencing the worse nightmare any of us parents could imagine. The pain is indescribable. The victims have a name, a family, a face. The victims are each of us. May God have mercy. May His kingdom come, and His will be done, here on earth, now, as in heaven. May it come soon.
Posted by: Jeff King | May 08, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Hey Jeff,
I agree... it brings a reality to something we try to put out of sight and out of mind. It is easy to keep this stuff out of sight, out of mind when people don't have faces.
Peace,
Mike
Posted by: Mike King | May 08, 2008 at 03:00 PM
See: http://cgunterleppert.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-review-jesus-for-president-part.html
I look forward to your comments.
Posted by: Christy Gunter Leppert | May 09, 2008 at 05:16 PM