2017, Another Year, We Aren't Here Long
The lights flash and 2016 becomes 2017. No, we aren't here for long, and some are here for a very short time. As 2016 gasped for breath, lives were shortened by the religion of hate at a celebration of life. Oh Berlin!* So, we enter 2017 with more bloodshed. At least 39 lives shortened by the criminality of hate and done in the name of religion. Oh Istanbul!** And the new political order of American government plans its own hateful assault on the planet, on the poor, on the sick. It comes twisted and tangled with religion; religion concocted by greedy and hateful minds to sanctify their hateful actions. More religion of hate. Oh Washington, DC!
No, we aren't here for long. We go through life meeting people, with some people drifting into our lives, while others disappear. What happened to them? The people we knew as children, how many have we seen since those times? The kids we met throughout our schooling, how many of them have we seen since those days? We feel the passing of time and we witness the loss of those around us; family members, friends and those who entertained us. Fewer and fewer to comfort us or to make us laugh. Can we work together to keep ourselves alive a while longer? Or do we want the religion of hate to keep us divided until we too are no more?
* Just prior to Christmas in 2016, a truck was driven into a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany by a Tunisian man with connections to the ISIS terrorist network. A dozen people were killed and more than three times that number were injured. The truck used in the attack had been hijacked by the Tunisian terrorist who shot and killed the driver.
** In December 2016 a car bombing and a suicide bombing in Istanbul, Turkey killed dozens and injured more than 160. The attack was planned and executed by a Kurdish independence group. Earlier in 2016, there was a ISIS related attack on the Istanbul airport killing some 45 and injuring more than 200.
WORD HISTORY:
We-This common pronoun goes back to Indo European "we/wey," which, indeed, meant "we." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "wiz," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "we," and it has remained as such for all of these centuries. The other Germanic languages have: German "wir," Low German Saxon "wi," Dutch "wij," West Frisian "wy," Danish, Norwegian, Swedish "vi," and Icelandic "við" (essentially equivalent to "vith," and the "ð" is called an "eth," which was once also used in English).
No, we aren't here for long. We go through life meeting people, with some people drifting into our lives, while others disappear. What happened to them? The people we knew as children, how many have we seen since those times? The kids we met throughout our schooling, how many of them have we seen since those days? We feel the passing of time and we witness the loss of those around us; family members, friends and those who entertained us. Fewer and fewer to comfort us or to make us laugh. Can we work together to keep ourselves alive a while longer? Or do we want the religion of hate to keep us divided until we too are no more?
* Just prior to Christmas in 2016, a truck was driven into a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany by a Tunisian man with connections to the ISIS terrorist network. A dozen people were killed and more than three times that number were injured. The truck used in the attack had been hijacked by the Tunisian terrorist who shot and killed the driver.
** In December 2016 a car bombing and a suicide bombing in Istanbul, Turkey killed dozens and injured more than 160. The attack was planned and executed by a Kurdish independence group. Earlier in 2016, there was a ISIS related attack on the Istanbul airport killing some 45 and injuring more than 200.
WORD HISTORY:
We-This common pronoun goes back to Indo European "we/wey," which, indeed, meant "we." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "wiz," with the same meaning. This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "we," and it has remained as such for all of these centuries. The other Germanic languages have: German "wir," Low German Saxon "wi," Dutch "wij," West Frisian "wy," Danish, Norwegian, Swedish "vi," and Icelandic "við" (essentially equivalent to "vith," and the "ð" is called an "eth," which was once also used in English).
Labels: Berlin, English, etymology, existence, Germanic languages, hate, humans, Istanbul, life, religion, terrorism, terrorists, time
posted by Randy at 9:50 AM
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