We have established that last year has been a bad one or so the media tells us, as we hear that modern icons, ranging from David Bowie to Mohammed Ali and Gene Wilder, have joined the firmament for good; and to the very end, 2016 showed no mercy around Christmastime, as well, when we woke up to the news that George Michael had passed away peacefully in his home on an otherwise happy occasion, when children gleefully unwrap their gifts. Two days after Princess Leia stopped her endless fight against the Empire.
These are losses that seem to unify readers in mourning, celebrities who have entertained us in music, sports and movies.
But there are other deaths around us that seem to break us apart, those caused by wars at home and abroad. Deaths that violently force us to take sides, those we watch helplessly from afar, those being rationalized as unavoidable by a callous worldwide view that is inexorably plunging humanity into a dark age.
A dark age, indeed, where homes and families are destroyed by calamities, wars or violent deaths. I have been playing “Sunday Bloody Sunday” in my mind over and over. Is it a last song syndrome? Not quite. Bono’s lyrics have been playing in my mind in the last few weeks, as my eye catches the daily headlines.
“I can’t believe the news today, Oh, I can’t close my eyes and make it go away.”
The opening alone resonates, who would not want to just stop reading the news altogether when reports keep announcing the deaths caused by relentless bombings in the Middle East, announcing deaths of unnamed suspects resisting arrest and innocents being dehumanized when labeled as “collateral damage”.
Bono sings on, about killings that took place years ago in a different setting, in a different continent altogether. It makes me ponder on how little the world has changed notwithstanding the technological advances we experience. Hate and violence remain constant.
“And it’s true we are immune when fact is fiction and TV reality, and today the millions cry we eat and drink while tomorrow they die”.
Nowadays “TV” in the second line can easily be interchanged with “social media,” where people seem to thrive living a double life, a make believe reality that can be manipulated to convey a perfect life, to make others believe all is well. It seems to be the perfect vehicle to control perception and distort the truth. I thoroughly understand why some people I know refuse to join the social-media bandwagon, avoiding unwanted attention.
Half-truths and outright lies here and abroad, and their power, have forcefully come to the fore in 2016. Truth has consistently been collateral damage. Discerning it in the sea of disinformation will be everybody’s challenge this year, although I feel that the thinking man has better tools now to do so. I, therefore, resolve to uphold the truth and treasure lessons from the past.
My sincere wish for 2017 is for it to be a more humane year, more truthful and meaningful; and may all of us be agents of mercy and goodwill around us.