WE CAN HOPE

WE CAN HOPE

I am saying a prayer for the people of Iraq today. Tomorrow is their election, and the violence has been escalating for a long time.

Last night on the news, a reporter interviewed an elderly Iraqi man who said that he would vote tomorrow “if the weather is good”. The reporter explained that “good weather” could be taken to mean no bombings, no shooting, and no rocket-propelled grenades in the streets.

I was never in favor of our intervention in Iraq. Now that we’re there, we can hardly turn our backs on the Iraqi people, whose country has been turned upside down in the effort to oust Sadam Hussein. More than anything, I wish we could bring our troops home and in so doing, could stop the bloodshed. That doesn’t seem to be possible.

So for today, I think the only thing we can do as a nation is to hope. We can hope that tomorrow will be relatively peaceful. We can hope that the Iraqi people will not be too intimidated to leave their homes and visit the polls. We can hope that the Iraqi troops have been trained sufficiently to handle whatever situations come along, and that our own troops will provide adequate support wherever they are needed.We can hope that the election itself will be orderly and fair, and that it will in fact reflect the will of the people. We can hope that a fair and peaceful election will help to bring about positive changes for the people of Iraq.

Maybe if people all over the world are hoping the same thing, it will be a very powerful prayer sent up to Allah, God, Buddha, Fate, Jesus, or the Universe. Who knows? We can hope.

© 2005, Robin Munson