Reaction to Virginia Tech Shootings

Right now I am reeling from the news of the Virginia shootings and trying to find a safe place to settle and collect my thoughts. It is strange; I have no American compatriots here and never really cared to find them until things started happening at home that I felt the need to discuss. Its not easy when every European I talk to seems to think "serves your bastard country right" and every Malian I speak to has no idea what the hells happening. I rattle along, everything looks good on the outside, but I know that inside the straight backed exterior there is a piece of me mourning for the people of my country, mourning the state of my nation; the one that is so keen on directing the rest of the world that it seems to have troubles facing itself.

I realize that right now I am living in one of the poorest nations of the world; here the people work hard under hot sun for the amount of money Americans spend on Starbucks each day. I see so many physical manifestations of poverty here, yet when I think of the states, of the place I am still proud to call home, I sense poverty of the spirit, that manifests itself in ignorance, preoccupation with pettiness, and occasional explosive displays of violence such as the one that just happened. In one way, this knowledge brings me closer to this new home of mine, helps me appreciate the simplicity of physical human need, and the human warmth that shines through it on a daily basis. In another way I feel paralyzed and suffocated by sorrow and hopelessness at the state of this world.

I have chosen one tiny path, and am trying my hardest to follow it but every day I come across more things I could fight, the constant question of 'why: "Why the discrimination? Why the inequality? Why the poverty? Why do I have the right to food and education and health when this right is denied to so many? Living here brings me face to face with these questions every day and I am trying hard not to lay all the answers on my own back. If I do I will surely drown in them and lose the thread of the tiny path I am trying so desperately to tread gently and consciously.