“No more hurting people. Peace.”

8-year-old Boston Marathon bombing victim, Martin Richard, holding the sign he made when his school organized a ‘Peace Walk’ in May 2012.

Hi everyone,

Monday’s frightening and tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon exemplify the kind of mass violence we would wish would never occur. Yet, in some odd way, it also feels like it came ‘too soon’.

Incidences of mass violence are happening way too often, leaving an inadequate amount of time to fully process the last one before there is another one to contend with. We are left with the shock, the outrage, the numbness, the fear, the heartbreak, the resolve to bring change… and then… the next one…

Monday was a prime example of this. How could it be that runners from Newtown seeking to commemorate 26 Sandy Hook shooting victims by running the 26 miles of marathon didn’t even get through the race without being in the midst of yet another national, mass, violent tragedy?

Did you hear about 8-year-old Martin Richard waiting at the finish line for his Dad?

A year ago he participated in a peace walk with his school. He made a sign that said, “No more hurting people. Peace.”

Martin didn’t survive the explosion, but his message did.

This might be the best any of us can aspire to accomplish in this life:

No more hurting people.

Peace.

This Friday, April 19th, Golden West College will be holding its 7th Annual Peace Conference. The theme for this year is Sustainable Peace. Come say ‘hi’ to us at our Living Ubuntu booth.

Then on Sunday, April 21st, Jewish World Watch (JWW) is holding their 5th Annual Orange County Walk to End Genocide.  Hope you can be there too.

Peace,

Barbara English
Executive Director, Living Ubuntu
http://livingubuntu.org
(949) 891-2005

[Ubuntu] n.
Every human being truly becomes a human by means of relationships with other human being.