Last night, as I was surfing, the net, I came across an old video of Bruce Hornsby video of Hornsby singing ‘ just the way it is’. it is a moving protest song about the slowness of the diminishment of racism. In his words, ‘but don’t you believe them’.
There was an interchange of rocket fire this morning between Israel and Hezbollah, with Hezbollah rocket fire coming from Lebanon. Tensions have increased in the Middle East, dramatically, since the October 7 attack by Hamas, which left 1200 Israelis dead and over 200 kidnapped. Nearly 11 months later, 40,000 Palestinians are dead, and Gaza lays in ruins. Starvation is rampant. More over, Iran is threatening to retaliate against Israel after a top Hamas official was assassinated by Israel in Tehran.
I am in my senior years now. Middle East tensions have been around since I was a kid. There were wars in 1967 and 1973. There have been suicide bombings. There have been invasions. There have been threats. There have been ongoing peace talks, since my youth. But here we are and things seem to be getting worse.
Bruce Hornsby sang his hopeful song in 1986. Yet, racial hatred has not gone away. Just look at George Floyd murder and the aftermath, as one small example.
Is it just the way it is? I fear in my lifetime, it will be. I hope I am wrong.