Who Stands for the Innocent?

"There is only one way in which one can endure man's inhumanity to man and that is to try, in one's own life, to exemplify man's humanity to man."

    - Alan Paton (1903-1988), South African writer

Everytime I read another account like this one it turns my stomach. It's mankind's worst nightmare. Can any of us imagine what might have been the last thoughts of these men, women and children minutes before they were executed and tossed into the ditches that had been dug to hold their bodies? Their lives were about to end at the whim of a tyrant. There was no good Samaritan to stand between them and the bullets that would tear through their bodies. Their executioners had their orders and they carried them out.

The tragic part of the story is that it has been told over and over throughout history, not only in Iraq, but in China, Rwanda, South Africa, Russia, Sudan, Germany and yes, even America. It is the story of men murdering their fellow man because they are somehow different and therefore unacceptable to those who happen to be in power at the moment. It is the story of man's inhumanity to man.

How much longer will we have to witness such heinous behavior by human beings toward other human beings? How much longer before men are able to live peaceably with other men despite their differences? How much longer before atrocities such as these will no longer be tolerated by the nations of the world?

I wish I could say that cruelty such as this would end tomorrow and believe it, but I fear the correct answer is: It will never end.  And that's sad, really sad, to me.