What can I do?

I have been reading about the Bang Bang Club, a group of four photojournalists who covered the Apartheid conflicts from the time that Nelson Mandela was released from jail until the elections in South Africa.  I read that two of the photographers won Pulitizers for their photographs.  The photograph that resonated with me was that of a small girl, striken by famine in the Sudan, who is being stalked by a vulture.

Pulitzer prize winning photo by Kevin Carter

Kevin Carter who took the photograph had been documenting the famine in the Sudan as well as covering the bloody conflicts during Apartheid.  The intensity of the work affected him deeply, and he began to use drugs and alcohol to get by.  He was criticized for not helping the child in the photo.  

The death of fellow photographer and friend, Ken Oosterbroek, affected him deeply. Maybe he saw too many horrible things.  But he committed suicide, writing that "he was "depressed . . . without phone . . . money for rent . . . money for child support . . . money for debts . . . money!!! . . . I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain . . . of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners . . . " And then this: "I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."

I can read about the horrors that we inflict on each other and cannot imagine what it must be like to witness these things first hand.  My wife has talked some about her time in Ethiopia which was for the most part happy.  But not long after she left, many of the people she taught were killed.  She doesn't dwell on this painful part.  Yet, I know those memories are palpably painful.

I have been fortunate to not have had violence in my life.  Yet, so many live in fear every day. And the situation appears to be more desperate than ever here and abroad.   I don't know where I am going with this, other than to say that at this moment, I wonder how it was ordained that I am in the life that I have rather than the one of suffering that so many experience.

I ask myself "What can I do?"  Maybe I cannot do much about the world situation, but I can reach out my hand to another who is troubled, listen to them, smile and be a voice if asked.  I know that there is much more to be done. I am searching for that answer today.