So publicly queried Rodney King during the L.A. riots.
Nine years later, it seems quite obvious that we still can't. Not in L.A., not in Cincinnati, not in New York City, not in the Middle East, not in Bradford (UK), not in Montréal, not in countless other countries, provinces, cities, schools, workplaces, and homes in the world where hatred is still burning hot.
A few months ago, I saw a report on a "secret garden" project that involved Palestinian children working together with Israeli children. They prepared the small plot of land, they planted the seeds, they watched their garden grow. Unfortunately, the violence started again and the Palestinian children didn't show up anymore.
Two of the children were interviewed about the project and asked if they missed working with the Palestinian children. The answers were bittersweet. Yes, they replied, they missed their friends but they understood that it was due to the feud of hatred between their older generations, a feud that had no meaning to them.
This breeds hope...that our children and future generations will succeed where we and the generations prior to us have failed.
and so ends another nodeshell rescue...