Lamentation on H1N1
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Lamentation on H1N1
9,000 people worldwide have died as a result of H1N1.What is doubly tragic is the world’s wicked denial of a disease far more insidious and widespread. AIDS murders 30,000 people every day in cities like Johannesburg and Pretoria. The disease rages across Uganda like a second Middle Passage. The penalty for being born in Somalia is famine, bloodlust and human wastage.
But we don’t really care about that. H1N1 is a national emergency. Great funds must be amassed and great men must develop great drugs at record speeds. The will of the American people has become the mouthpiece of their government. When the target is our own hapless progeny, imagine what resources can be pooled together! Naturally a vaccine has been manufactured, and very soon it will be produced in mass abundance; eventually this malicious virus will liquidate into medical lore.
And still we have done nothing to eradicate AIDS in Africa. The disease is ravishing our nation’s soul and we are worried about pension funds and peak oil. No war is reaping levels of casualties this freighting. No global conflict has reported figures this gruesome. Carnage may be old news in Baghdad, but in Mali it seems as ancient as the soil.
Dear Lord, I pray for every dying member of the human family. I am sorry for the loss of any human love. I pray that I am forgiven for not doing enough to vaccinate the world from these unquenchable microscopic monsters. I mourn for those who have lost their will to fight back. I am sorry for our collective pain. I mourn the children who have faced this cruel destiny. I swallow hard thinking about the mystery of their agony.
Dear Lord, I hand this suffering over to you, for who else can hold such a historic weight? You have witnessed every strain of sin under the sun.
Why should I tremble? This decaying shield, we call the flesh is your invention. Why should I bear witness to this destruction? Why should I lose sleep over a world I cannot control? My mind is unsettled. My heart is restless. My eyes are full of trauma.
Dear Lord, I pray for peace that passes all understanding. Why do I need to be someone who I am not?
Dear Lord, your presence is like a million notes of music, but I listen for your silence.